Middle East & North Africa

12 Jan 2023; MEMO: Amnesty International slammed Morocco, on Wednesday, for imprisoning migrants trying to cross into the Spanish exclave of Melilla, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights said, on Tuesday, that a Moroccan appellate court sentenced 13 migrants to three years in prison for storming the border fence of the Spanish-controlled city of Melilla in June 2022.

11 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia plans to use domestically-sourced uranium to build up its nuclear power industry, Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

He added that recent exploration had shown a diverse portfolio of uranium in the Gulf Arab State, the world's top oil exporter.

11 Jan 2023; MEMO: Egypt's pound weakened by more than 13 per cent to a new low below 32 to the US dollar on Wednesday as the Central Bank moved to a more flexible exchange rate under the terms of an International Monetary Fund financial support package, Reuters reports.

12 Jan 2023; MEMO: Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qasem, has denounced some Arab countries for meeting with Israeli officials in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to prepare for another Negev Forum in Morocco, describing their participation as "insistence on the sin of their normalisation with the Occupation State", The Palestinian Information Centre reports.

ANKARA, January 11. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that he supports the idea of organizing humanitarian corridors to evacuate wounded people from combat zones in Ukraine and other regions.

"[Turkey’s Chief Ombudsman] Seref [Malkoc] came up with an initiative to organize humanitarian corridors for evacuation of wounded people and we [Turkey] support this initiative," Erdogan said, speaking at the international conference ‘The Future of Human Rights in the 21st Century.’

TEHRAN, Jan 11 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian Intelligence Ministry, announced yesterday that, its forces destroyed six groups affiliated with Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.

The ministry said, the groups “intended to assassinate a military official and make sabotage attempts in some metropolitan cities across the country.”

The ministry added, it had identified 23 members of the network, 13 of whom were arrested inside Iran, with their equipment seized.

SANAA, Jan 11 (NNN-ONA) – An Omani delegation arrived in the Houthi militia-held capital, Sanaa, yesterday, to mediate the renewal of a UN-proposed truce between the Houthi militia and the Yemeni government.

The delegation was scheduled to hold meetings with top Houthi leaders, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

Oman, which borders both Yemen and Saudi Arabia, has been actively engaged in brokering a truce between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government, that is supported by Saudi Arabia.

This was the second visit by the Omani delegation in less than a month.

ADEN, Jan 11 (NNN-SABA) – Seven internally displaced children died from harsh winter weather, in their displacement tents, in Yemen’s north-eastern province of Marib, a government official said yesterday.

Yemen’s executive unit for the management of internal displacement camps in Marib, said that, “during the past two months, the severe waves of winter cold killed seven children in Marib’s displacement camp.”

He pointed out that, hundreds of Yemeni children currently live in worn-out tents and suffer greatly, due to the lack of winter clothing.

ADDIS ABABA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Africa should not be an arena for competition between world powers, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Wednesday, opening a new headquarters for a pan-African health body at the start of five-country Africa tour.

Qin visited facilities of the African Union in Addis Ababa, including the new headquarters of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. China financed the complex's construction, as it previously did for the headquarters of the AU itself, also based in the Ethiopian capital.

ANKARA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye recorded a current account deficit of 3.67 billion U.S. dollars in November last year, according to the data released by the Turkish central bank on Wednesday.

Türkiye's 12-month rolling deficit, ending in November last year, amounted to about 45 billion dollars, the highest level since August 2018, the data showed.

The country posts a deficit for the 13th month in a row, primarily as a result of rising energy prices.