Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Sunday unveiled an upgraded version of the Bavar-373 (Belief-373) surface-to-air missile system with a range of more than 300 km, official news agency IRNA reported.

The unveiling ceremony was attended by Iranian Defense Minister Mohammadreza Ashtiani, during which the system was successfully tested by launching a long-range Sayyad B4 (Hunter B4) missile.

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces shelled tent settlements housing families displaced by the country’s conflict in the rebel-held northwest early Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens, opposition war monitors and first responders said.

The shelling was the latest violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 that ended a Russian-backed government offensive on Idlib province. Idlib is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Earth’s warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization warned Sunday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations.

“The latest State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “We must answer the planet’s distress signal with action -- ambitious, credible climate action.”

06 Nov 2022; MEMO: Archaeologists in the UAE have unearthed what they consider to be the remains of an ancient Christian monastery on the Al-Sinniyah Island belonging to the emirate of Umm Al-Quwain.

On Thursday, the Umm Al-Quwain Tourism and Archaeology Department announced the find which included a church, refectory, cisterns and individual cells for monks.

05 Nov 2022; MEMO: Tunisia's Independent High Authority for Elections (ISIE) announced the acceptance of 1,058 candidacy applications for the legislative elections scheduled to be held on 17 December.

"We accepted 1,058 candidacy applications for the legislative elections out of 1,427," shared Head of ISIE Farouk Bouasker in a press conference on Thursday.

05 Nov 2022; MEMO: Likud Head Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to include Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in his cabinet to avoid international isolation, Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported on Friday.

06 Nov 2022; MEMO: Sweden has reaffirmed its decision to distance itself from Kurdish militant groups in its bid to join NATO, as it attempts to secure Turkiye's approval to join the military alliance.

Earlier this year, Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the potential threat it would pose to them. While that bid was approved by 28 of the alliance's 30 member states, Turkiye and Hungary refused to approve it.

05 Nov 2022; MEMO: Thousands of Jordanians on Friday attended a massive march organised by the Islamic movement in Amman to show support for Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank, Quds Press reported.

The march marked the 105th anniversary of the British Balfour Declaration, which promised to establish a Jewish state on the land of Palestine.

Marchers condemned the Balfour Declaration and deplored Arab and international indifference towards the Palestinian cause, Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

05 Nov 2022; MEMO: Twenty-one days of Israel's siege has damaged the economy of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus and resulted in major commercial losses for traders, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday.

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Pope Francis wrapped up the first-ever papal trip to Bahrain on Sunday by encouraging priests and nuns to keep ministering to the Gulf kingdom’s tiny Catholic flock. He specifically mentioned its prisoners, saying “the way in which these ‘least ones’ are treated is a measure of the dignity and the hope of a society.”