Middle East & North Africa

06 August 2023; AA: A man from the US state of Missouri was sentenced to 16 years in prison after he confessed to setting fire to an Islamic Center, according to the Justice Department.

John Proffitt tried to set fire to the Cape Girardeau Islamic Center on the first day of Ramadan in 2020, according to the statement Wednesday. The fire resulted in substantial harm to the front entrance and second floor of the facility.

05 August 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia called on its citizens to quickly leave Lebanese territory and to avoid approaching areas where there have been armed clashes, the Saudi embassy in Lebanon said in a statement posted late on Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter, Reuters reports.

The kingdom did not specify which areas in Lebanon that it was advising its citizens to avoid.

The embassy stressed "the importance of adhering to the Saudi travel ban to Lebanon," the statement added.

05 August 2023; MEMO: A 19-year-old Palestinian was killed in a raid by Jewish settlers on the village of Burqa, Palestinian state news agency WAFA reported Friday.

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced that Qusai Jamal Maatan was shot dead by settlers who stormed the village, which is located east of Ramallah, Anadolu reports.

He was killed during a clash between the settlers and Palestinian villagers.

JEDDAH, Aug 5 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), launched yesterday, a direct route connecting the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh and Red Sea port city of Jeddah, to Beijing.

The new route to China reflects Saudia’s role in connecting the two countries in various aspects, including trade and business, tourism and culture, Saudia said in a statement.

RAMALLAH, Aug 5 (NNN-WAFA) – Two more Palestinians were killed yesterday, during clashes with Israeli settlers and soldiers, in two separate incidents in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Qusai Ma’tan, 19, died after he was shot by Israeli settlers, during clashes in the village of Burqa, north-west of Nablus, while two other Palestinians were moderately injured, the ministry said.

Palestinian eyewitnesses said, clashes broke out in Burqa between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli settlers, who stormed the village.

DUBAI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Senior officials from some 40 countries including the United States, China and India began talks in Saudi Arabia on Saturday that Kyiv and its allies hope will lead to agreement on key principles for a peaceful end to Russia's war in Ukraine.

The two-day meeting is part of a diplomatic push by Ukraine to build support beyond its core Western backers by reaching out to Global South countries that have been reluctant to take sides in a conflict that has hit the global economy.

DUBAI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Iran has equipped its Revolutionary Guards' navy with drones and 1,000-km (600-mile) range missiles, Iranian news agencies reported on Saturday, as the U.S. offers to put guards on commercial ships going through the Gulf's Strait of Hormuz.

Referring to the possible presence of U.S. guards, Iranian armed forces spokesperson Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi said the region's countries were "capable of ensuring Persian Gulf security" themselves.

CAIRO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - A Suez Canal tugboat has sunk after colliding with a Hong Kong-flagged LPG tanker in the strategically important waterway, the canal authority said on Saturday, without saying if shipping traffic had been disrupted.

The tanker, Chinagas Legend, is waiting in Port Said until the completion of procedures related to the accident, canal authority head Osama Rabie said in a statement.

Two canal sources said Chinagas Legend was unharmed by the collision, was functioning normally and had anchored at Port Said.

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia called on its citizens to quickly leave Lebanese territory and to avoid approaching areas where there have been armed clashes, the Saudi embassy in Lebanon said in a statement posted late on Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The kingdom did not specify which areas in Lebanon that it was advising its citizens to avoid.

The embassy stressed "the importance of adhering to the Saudi travel ban to Lebanon," the statement added.

CAIRO, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will travel to Chad on Sunday for a meeting of Sudan's neighboring countries to seek peaceful solutions to the Sudanese crisis, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The meeting in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, is the first one of the ministerial mechanism formed at the summit of Sudan's neighboring countries held on July 13 in Egypt's capital Cairo, according to a ministry statement.