Sunday, October 11, 2026
Missile attack on airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital kills 12 people and injures over 300
CAIRO, Egypt
Saudi Arabia on Sunday extended the closure of the country’s main international airport, according to an online flight tracker, a day after a missile attack on the facility killed 12 people from several countries and left more than 300 injured in a major escalation of the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis and the kingdom.
A Saudi-led coalition blamed Saturday afternoon’s attack on the Houthis. It was the latest of several in the past week on King Khalid International Airport in the capital Riyadh and marked the deadliest attack in any Gulf Arab country since the start of the Iran war.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil exporter and the attacks have sent up oil prices and rattled markets.
Following the attack, U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he was weighing whether the United States would join Saudi strikes against the rebels.
Airport operations were suspended Saturday. Authorities later extended the closure until at least 9 p.m. Sunday, according to Flightradar 24.
Also Sunday, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said 91 Yemenis were killed and 168 injured by the Saudi-led coalition in five weeks. It said 60% of those killed were women and children.
The attack struck an airport complex housing terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights, a regional official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.
The Saudi statement said the dead included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a U.S. citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese. It said the injured were being treated at several hospitals.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged in a social media post that an American citizen had been killed in the attack, which he condemned.
The Egyptian man was a flight attendant identified as Azza Ramzy, 28, working for a Saudi airliner Flybas, according to the Egyptian state-run Al-Qahera.
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Friday, October 9, 2026
Former UN human rights chief, wins Nobel Peace Prize
OSLO, Norway
Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navi Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
The South African judge was recognised "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order", the Nobel committee said.
Pillay, 85, has taken part in high-profile work considering allegations of human rights violations during a decades-long career, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza.
Her early work included defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and on Friday she became the country's fifth Peace Prize winner - following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Pillay's work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted", said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes.
"Navi Pillay's commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career," he said.
"At a time of existential challenges - including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time - international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity."
Frydnes said the committee had not been able to notify Pillay that she had won in advance, "so my message to her would be 'if you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up'".
Shortly afterwards, Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg's Palace of Justice by saying "it must be a joke" and thanked those who had gathered to applaud her.
"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she joked. Last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to the US president in January as "recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom".
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