Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday criticized the United States for imposing new sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities, including media outlets, calling the move a "trite bid" to suppress transparency and truth.

Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi said that the sanctions demonstrate Washington's "fear for the reality to be shown by truth-seeking and leading media."

Jahromi also highlighted Washington's double standards, pointing out that while the U.S. supports media aligned with its policies, it stifles independent voices.

DERNA, Libya (AP) — The prime minister of Libya’s eastern administration said Tuesday that authorities have divided the flood-stricken city of Derna into four sections to create buffers in case of disease outbreaks, a day after thousands of angry protesters demanded the city’s rapid reconstruction.

Last week, two dams collapsed during Mediterranean storm Daniel, sending a wall of water gushing through Derna. Government officials and aid agencies have given death tolls ranging from about 4,000 to 11,000.

TEHRAN, Sept 18 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranian intelligence forces, seized a large batch of contraband American arms and equipment from a vessel, upon its entry into the country’s southern waters, it was reported, yesterday.

The shipment, containing more than 6,000 stun guns, was seized in an operation, off the coast of the southern port city of Bandar-e Khamir in Hormozgan province, the provincial Chief Justice, Mojtaba Qahremani, was quoted as saying.

DOHA, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Five U.S. detainees flew out of Iran on Monday in a swap for five Iranians held in the U.S. in a rare deal between the arch enemies that also unfroze $6 billion of Tehran's funds.

A plane sent by mediator Qatar flew the five U.S. citizens and two of their relatives out of Tehran soon after both sides received confirmation the funds had been transferred to accounts in Doha, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.

At the same time, two of the five Iranians landed in Qatar, a U.S. official said. Three have opted not to return to Iran.

BEIRUT, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Experts called on Lebanese authorities to strengthen industry and agriculture sectors to increase exports and further reduce the trade deficit, which has seen a contraction of nearly 6 percent to 8.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of 2023 compared to a year earlier.

RAMALLAH, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The hegemony policy adopted by the United States has been creating unstable situations in the world, a senior Palestinian official has said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Abbas Zaki, a Palestinian Fatah Central Committee member and commissioner for relations with Arab countries and China, said, "The U.S. has dealt with other countries in the spirit of hegemony and military power."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States will exchange prisoners on Monday after nearly $6 billion in once-frozen Iranian assets reached Qatar, a key element of the planned swap, officials said.

Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

Sept 15 (Reuters) - When a devastating earthquake shook Morocco's High Atlas mountains on Sept. 8, residents of poor areas where it struck turned for help to the state and the man who leads it, King Mohammed VI.

Yet the monarch, with his sweeping power, has kept a low profile, making just three appearances since then. He chaired two emergency response meetings with officials in Rabat and visited a hospital in Marrakech, near the disaster zone, where he gave blood after a nationwide appeal for donors.

Sept 16 (Reuters) - Iranian security forces cracked down on protests in Kurdish areas of the country on Saturday and briefly detained the father of Mahsa Amini, a year after the young woman's death in custody set off some of the worst political unrest in four decades.

State-affiliated media reported arrests of several "counter revolutionaries" and "terrorists" in different Iranian cities and said security forces had foiled plots to create disturbances around illegal demonstrations.

DUBAI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- In the first eight months of 2023, 470 mass shootings occurred across the United States, and more than 25,000 Americans have died from gun violence, Gulf News, an English newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, said in a recent opinion piece.

According to the piece published on Thursday, an average of 22 children aged 17 and under are shot daily, and victims are predominantly fatalities from shootings but also include deaths by suicide.