MIDDLE EAST

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On September 17, 2024, a devastating wave of exploding pagers swept across Lebanon and parts of Syria, resulting in at least eight fatalities and over 2,700 injuries. This unprecedented incident sent shockwaves through the region, raising tensions in an already volatile area.

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Hezbollah fired over 100 rockets early Sunday across northern Israel, with some landing near the city of Haifa, as Israel launched hundreds of strikes on Lebanon. A Hezbollah leader declared an “open-ended battle” was underway as both sides appeared to be spiraling closer toward all-out war.

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Afghanistan officials said on Wednesday that work would begin on a $10 billion gas pipeline traversing South Asia as officials joined dignitaries in neighboring Turkmenistan to celebrate its completion on that side of the border.

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Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon early Sunday in what it called a preemptive strike to avert a large Hezbollah rocket and missile attack. The militant group said it fired hundreds of rockets and drones to avenge the killing of a top commander last month.

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In a stark reminder of their repressive governance, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has issued a new set of vice and virtue laws that significantly curtail women’s freedoms, marking a disturbing escalation in their campaign against women’s rights. These laws, published by the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, and approved by supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, represent the first formal declaration of such rules since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.