Chinese and Omani officials discussed the matter last month, the US president was told, amid efforts by Beijing to deepen ties in the Middle East.

In the United States, fireworks and hot dogs mark July 4 – and so does the launching of cars off a cliff. Which country invites its entire population to a royal garden party on its national day? Find out.

Oil-heavy nation aims to capitalise on success as Riyadh-Tehran intermediary, say analysts, and is involved in Yemen peace negotiations and energy deals – some of them green – with Asian partners.

‘Legal proceedings have been launched against a woman who disrespected her headscarf,’ local media reported. The requirement for women to wear the headscarf in public has been enshrined in law since 1979.

Hoda Muthana said she was brainwashed by online traffickers into joining IS in 2014. She says she hopes to return to the US and serve prison time if necessary.

Akeel, one of two Saudi women competing in 2023 race and one of only 31 women among 790 competitors, is vulnerable to accusations she is part of a ‘sportswashing’ campaign.

Hamas authorities in Gaza announced the discovery of dozens of tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.

A woman has been arrested following the explosion in a bustling pedestrian avenue in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, killing six people, wounding several dozen. The PKK has denied any role in the attack.

Actors Juliet Binoche and Marion Cotillard and Swedish politician Abir Al-Sahlani cut their hair to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, arrested for not properly covering her hair.

Iranians took to the streets of the capital to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been detained for violating the country’s conservative dress code.

Mahsa Amini, 22, was visiting Tehran when she was detained by the unit responsible for enforcing the country’s strict dress code.

Sali Hafez said she needed the money to fund her sister’s cancer treatment, but the bank told her she could only have US$200 a month. She said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

It was the second such sentence that has drawn scrutiny of the kingdom this month.

Salma al-Shehab, a PhD candidate in the UK, is accused of aiding dissidents seeking to ‘disrupt public order’ and was arrested when she was back on holiday.

Allison Fluke-Ekren also trained the military battalion – known as the Khatiba Nusaybah – in the use of AK-47s, grenades and suicide belts.

A deal was reached about two decades ago to allow Iran to supply Oman with gas, but the project never materialised.

Roman Abramovich’s two superyachts, which collectively cost in excess of US$1 billion, left port earlier this month as Western nations impounded assets with links to wealthy Russians.

Winner Selina Steinfeld had lived through the mass rounding up and massacre of Jews when she was a child in Romania.

Richard Ratcliffe is denouncing ‘complacency’ of the UK government and its failure to secure the release of his wife.

Revolutionary Guard troops took control of the MV Southys, a vessel suspected of trying to transfer sanctioned Iranian crude oil to Asia, at gunpoint last month.

Rescue teams pulled the bodies of two Asian workers from their home hit by a landslide in the Rusayl industrial area of Muscat province.

Soman Noori gave birth to a baby girl on board the Turkish Airlines flight from Dubai to Birmingham.

Calling it an ‘unlawful and callous attack,’ British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said his country and its allies planned a coordinated response.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Thursday night raid on the Liberian-flagged tanker Mercer Street.

Nora al-Matrooshi will later this year travel to the United States to train at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center.

Iranian support and training ship Kharg sinks in the Gulf Oman, circumstances unclear.

Faten Ali Nahar, a 50-year-old Damascus resident, has nominated herself for the post.

The new charges came just a week after Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had completed a five-year prison sentence on widely refuted spying charges.

Malka Leifer, a former teacher, is accused of sexually abusing several students at a Jewish school in Melbourne.