Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Mar 7 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israel’s former prime minister, Yair Lapid, and former defence minister, Benny Gantz, yesterday urged Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt his judicial overhaul plan, which sparked massive protests, and open a dialogue.

“In order to have honest and effective dialogue that will lead to preserving democracy and national unity, Netanyahu must announce a complete, comprehensive, and actual halt to the legislative process,” Lapid and Gantz, leaders of two centrist opposition parties, said.

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq March 7 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, making an unannounced trip to Iraq on Tuesday nearly 20 years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, said Washington was committed to keeping its military presence in the country

The 2003 invasion led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians and created instability that eventually paved the way for the rise of Islamic State militants after the U.S. withdrew its forces in 2011.

6 Mar 2023; MEMO: More than two million people have participated in a popular donation campaign in Saudi Arabia that has collected over 474 million riyals ($126.4 million) for the victims of the last month's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria, Anadolu News Agency reports.

BAGHDAD, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Five people were killed and four wounded in a bomb attack on Monday in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a local security source said.

Major Alaa al-Saadi from the Diyala police told Xinhua that a roadside bomb planted by unidentified armed men detonated in the evening near a civilian car outside the town of Maqdadiyah, 100 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the area and launched an investigation into the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's Competition Board has announced its decision to fine American business magnate and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, over his takeover of the prominent social media platform without prior permission.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israel's far-right occupation government approved a bill yesterday which, if it becomes law, will enable Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep a large donation that he received from his now-deceased cousin to finance his legal expenses. Despite an objection by the attorney general and watchdogs condemning the move as "political corruption", the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill that will allow public officials to accept donations to cover legal or medical bills.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates has been taking more cargoes of Russian crude oil, according to ship tracking data and trading sources, in another example of how Western sanctions on Russia have adjusted traditional energy trade flows, Reuters reports.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that he has intelligence suggesting that some of the protesters opposed to the government's judicial overhaul are planning to assassinate him, the prime minister or his wife, Israeli media reported.

"Most of them are good people, but among them are those planning the next political murder, who say 'you have to kill Ben-Gvir, Sara Netanyahu, to murder Benjamin Netanyahu,'" the Time of Israel quoted Ben-Gvir as saying.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader said Monday that if a series of suspected poisonings at girls’ schools is proven to be deliberate the culprits should be sentenced to death for committing an “unforgivable crime.”

It was the first time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, has spoken publicly about the suspected poisonings, which began late last year and have sickened hundreds of children.

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iran's supreme leader yesterday said that the poisoning of schoolgirls is an "unforgivable" crime that should be punished by death if deliberate, amid public anger over a wave of suspected attacks in schools, Reuters reported citing state TV.