Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said "destruction, occupation and massacre" have been the consequences of the presence of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the (West Asia) region, the Iranian presidency's website reported on Friday.

Raisi made the remarks in a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The death toll from a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon that sank in Syrian waters has risen to at least 73, state TV quoted Syria’s health minister as saying on Friday.

Syrian authorities said some family members of the victims have started crossing into Syria from neighboring Lebanon to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

A few thousand people attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin’s partial military mobilization.

Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.

Lucknow, Sep 23 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government has banned cattle trade with four neighbouring states and also imposed a "lockdown" on the intrastate movement of animals from 28 districts to prevent the spread of lumpy skin disease, Animal Husbandry Minister Dharampal Singh said Friday.

He said the lumpy skin disease has spread to animals in 14 states of the country and it is "fatal to animals like coronavirus" is to human.

23 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Israeli Supreme Court approved on Thursday the appeal filed by the defence committee for Palestinian citizen of Israel, Sheikh Yousef Al-Baz, 64, from the city of Lod and ordered to place him under restrictive conditions.

The Supreme Court returned Al-Baz's case file to the Israeli District Court in Lod to determine the conditions for his release by electronic registration.

On 10 August, the Lod District Court extended Sheikh Al-Baz's detention until the completion of judicial procedures against him.

22 Sep 2022; MEMO: Turkiye has sold and delivered drones to the United Arab Emirates, eight months after Ankara and Abu Dhabi reconciled and restored relations, Reuters has reported.

Anonymous Turkish sources have confirmed that the Baykar Company delivered twenty of its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the UAE earlier this month. There is the potential to sell even more.

22 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's mission to the International Space Station next year aboard a SpaceX capsule will include a woman who would become the world's first female Arab astronaut, according to Axiom Space, the US company arranging the mission for the Kingdom, Reuters reports.

Neither Axiom nor the Saudi government provided the name for the female astronaut, who will be accompanied by another Saudi and two Americans as part of Axiom's second private mission to the space station, slated for early 2023.

23 Sep 2022; MEMO: Israel's official Army Radio yesterday said there was a "noticeable" increase in Iranian cyber attacks targeting Israel's infrastructure.

The radio station quoted military officials as saying that the attacks had increased by "70 per cent."

The Israeli occupation witnessed several cyber attacks in recent months on their airports, civilian and military resources, for which they hold Tehran accountable for.

22 Sep 2022; MEMO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will convene a top tier economy-focused meeting on Friday at which Russian payment system, MIR, and possible Western sanctions will be discussed, two sources with information on the matter told Reuters.

The meeting with government officials and others will also address agreements with Russia, recent heavy volatility on the Istanbul stock exchange and the general economic situation, the sources said, requesting anonymity, Reuters reports.