Trump says US will 'beat the f**king sh*t' out of Iran after 'surprise' missile attack on Jordan

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Two ships used for the processing and storage of gas caught fire in the Egyptian port of Damietta on Wednesday, without causing injuries, according to the oil ministry.

"The situation was handled immediately in accordance with emergency and rapid response plans," the ministry said, without identifying the cause of the blaze.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has put Cyprus back at the centre of diplomacy, launching a new push on Wednesday to break the island’s long-running political deadlock.

Guterres, speaking in Nicosia after meetings with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman, said he would do "everything I can to support the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in this very important moment."

He later told a news conference that "I do believe that a solution in Cyprus is absolutely crucial, not only to preserve the interests and the peace of the Cyprus people, but also as a factor of stability in what is becoming a dangerously unstable region."

The visit is Guterres’ first to the island as UN chief and comes as the UN tries to break nearly a decade of political deadlock between NATO allies Greece and Turkey over the eastern Mediterranean island.

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A US-brokered plan for Israel to withdraw gradually from occupied areas of southern Lebanon in exchange for the disarmament of Hezbollah is off to a painfully slow start.

To the US, the "pilot zone program" is the centrepiece of a 26 June framework deal intended to end the war between Israel and Hezbollah, and establish peaceful ties between Israel and Lebanon.

But Hezbollah itself still refuses to give up its weapons. And on the ground, the rollout of the first zone in the south Lebanese village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh last week offered a glimpse of a strained and complex process that will be no easier to repeat elsewhere.

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One of Lebanon's most controversial oligarchs publicly hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. Now, Lebanese authorities are under pressure to determine whether the country's anti-normalisation laws apply equally to one of its wealthiest and most politically connected businessmen.

Lebanon's public prosecutor instructed security forces on Wednesday to investigate a photograph showing banker Antoun Sehnaoui seated alongside Netanyahu and his wife Sara at a memorial dinner for the late US Senator Lindsey Graham, according to local media reports.

The inquiry will determine whether the image is authentic and whether Sehnaoui's meeting with the Israeli leader violated Lebanese laws prohibiting direct or indirect contact with Israeli citizens.

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A drone has hit a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt's Mediterranean port of Damietta, maritime security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday, citing an initial assessment of the incident.

Port services firm Inchcape said in a separate message two gas tankers had caught fire at Damietta.

The drone hit floating storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that then spread to another vessel, Gaslog Salem, three trading sources familiar with the incident said. Two separate security sources said the cause of the blast was a drone strike.

The crew were evacuated and the fire had been brought under control, Ambrey said, adding that no party had claimed responsibility.

A powerful alliance of pro-Iran armed groups warned on Wednesday that a response to the deadly US-Saudi strikes in Iraq was "inevitable".

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has targeted US facilities hundreds of times during the Middle East war, said "our response to the American enemy is inevitable, and may target its tools in Saudi Arabia".

The Iran-aligned Islamic Resistance in Iraq group said in a statement on Wednesday that it is giving the Iraqi government a week to respond to the bombing or that it will respond to the American and Saudi "enemy".

A Norwegian teenager was convicted in a London court on Wednesday of traveling to Britain to carry out a contract killing on behalf of an international crime gang linked to Iran.

Prosecutors said Johannes Kongsnes Natland, 19, agreed to shoot an unknown person for 25,000 euros ($28,000) in March last year. But two days after arriving in the UK, he was arrested at a hotel in Huddersfield in northern England with two guns and ammunition.

A jury at Central London Criminal Court found Natland guilty of conspiracy to murder after deliberating for more than 17 hours.

Natland, who was working part-time at a pizza restaurant at the time of his arrest, was recruited by a Swedish organized crime group known as the Foxtrot Network, which has links to the Iranian government, counterterrorism officers from London’s Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement.

“Although the target of the murder plot has never been identified, (counterterror) London officers uncovered a significant amount of evidence demonstrating that Natland was fully aware he was being asked to kill someone in the UK," the statement said.

Natland was hired by a 17-year-old known as “Generalen.” A court in Norway last year convicted the teenager of attempting to “contribute to murder” and sentenced him to 14 years in custody. A 16-year-old is awaiting trial in Norway for his role in the conspiracy.

The U.K. government last year announced sanctions against Foxtrot Network and its leader “due to their involvement in violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime.” The sanctions include an asset freeze that bars U.K. businesses from handling funds or other economic assets controlled by the organization.

US-Saudi strikes on the Hashed al-Shaabi, an armed Iraqi alliance that includes pro-Iran groups, killed five Iranian advisers, two sources from the alliance told AFP on Wednesday.

Five Ethiopians were executed in Saudi Arabia this week on drug-related charges following a trial that allegedly did not follow due process and lasted a few minutes without a translator, according to Human Rights Watch.

The rights organization said Tuesday at least 79 other Ethiopians remain at imminent risk of execution on similar charges. It cited the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, which said at least 116 people have been executed this year.

Human Rights Watch said the five were charged with possessing hashish, a type of cannabis.

"Saudi authorities are executing marginalized Ethiopian migrants after court hearings that sometimes barely last a few minutes without a lawyer or a translator," said Joey Shea, senior Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. Many Ethiopians migrate to Gulf countries in search of work.

"Dozens of vulnerable migrants remain at risk of imminent execution after trials that were barely trials at all, in a system that treats their lives as disposable," she said.

The Trump administration issued another round of Iran-related sanctions on Wednesday, targeting eight tankers and 10 entities, according to a notice posted on the U.S. Department of Treasury's website.