Kuwait and Bahrain have both confirmed the first cases of coronavirus.
Health ministries of both countries confirmed that the infections - four people, including a Saudi and Bahraini national - were linked to recent travels to Iran, where the death toll from the COVID-19 has risen to 12.
Meanwhile, Iraq has shut its Safwan border crossing with Kuwait, amidst fears over the spread of coronavirus.
GlaxoSmithKline sues Pfizer, BioNTech over COVID vaccine technology
GlaxoSmithKline sued Pfizer and BioNTech in Delaware federal court on Thursday, accusing them of infringing GSK patents related to messenger RNA (mRNA) technology in the companies' blockbuster COVID-19 vaccines.
Israel says it is poised to move on Rafah
Israel's military is poised to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah and assault Hamas hold-outs in the southern Gaza Strip city, a senior Israeli defence official said, despite international warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
China evacuates entire town as record rains, winds lash its south
Relentless rains, hail and winds of near hurricane intensity battered southern China, forcing the evacuation of an entire town of more than 1,700 people in the province of Guangdong, media said on Thursday.
More than 100 pilot whales stranded in Western Australia, experts say
Marine wildlife experts were frantically trying to rescue some 140 pilot whales stranded on Thursday in the shallow waters of an estuary in the southwest of the state of Western Australia.
Grand jury indicts 18 in Arizona fake elector scheme
A grand jury has charged 18 people with allegedly participating in an Arizona fake elector scheme to re-elect then-US President Donald Trump in 2020, the state's attorney general said on Wednesday.
