Middle East & North Africa

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi yesterday discussed military cooperation with India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, statements from both men's offices said.

Al-Sisi lauded the deep ties binding Egypt and India, asserting Cairo's keenness to promote military and defence cooperation with New Delhi.

During the meeting, Al-Sisi praised the historical ties between Cairo and New Delhi. Al-Sisi also stressed that Egypt is keen on activating its partnership with India.

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities yesterday extended the administrative detention of female Palestinian journalist, Bushra Al-Taweel, for the third time in a row, for a period of three months.

Twenty-nine-year-old Al-Taweel, a resident of the city of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, was arrested on 21 March at the Zatara military checkpoint, south of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki said yesterday that several Arab states want Syria to be returned to the regional body.

In a statement, Zaki said: "Syria's attendance was not at all an Algerian condition, but Algeria wishes that Syria would be able to attend the next Arab League meeting in order to regain lost unity among Arab League member states."

He also said: "The return of Syria to the Arab League is not only an Algerian wish, but it was the wish of several other Arab states."

20 Sep 2022; MEMO: Delegations from Fatah and Hamas have headed to Algeria to discuss ways to end the division and achieve Palestinian unity.

Fatah said in a statement yesterday that its delegation left for Algeria at the invitation of the North African state's leadership within the framework of joint coordination on challenges facing the Palestinian cause and strengthening national unity within the framework of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Wafa reported.

ANKARA, September 19. /TASS/: Private bank Denizbank suspended withdrawal of the Turkish lira from bank cards of the Russian payment system Mir, according to TASS correspondent.

ATMs report a transaction confirmation error and return payment cards.

It was reported earlier that ATMs of the Turkish bank Is bankasi suspended withdrawal of the Turkish lira from bank cards of the Russian payment system Mir.

BAGHDAD, Sept 19 (NNN-NINA) – Seven Daesh militants and a member of government-backed paramilitary Hashd Shaabi forces were killed yesterday, in a clash in Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, the media office of Hashd Shaabi forces said, in a statement.

Hashd Shaabi fighters clashed with the Daesh militants, hiding in a tunnel, in the al-Hatra desert, south-west of Mosul, capital of Nineveh Province, according to the statement.

DUBAI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Iranian police said on Monday the death of a young woman in custody was an "unfortunate incident", a semi-official news agency reported, and denied accusations of mistreatment that fuelled a third day of protests against the authorities.

Mahsa Amini, 22, fell into a coma and died following her arrest in Tehran last week by the morality police, sparking demonstrations in Tehran and the Kurdistan province from which she came. 

AMMAN, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Jordan has resumed crude oil imports from Iraq after the Iraqi side fixed the logistical problems that suspended the supply for weeks, said Jordan's Energy Ministry on Monday.

Trucks have started loading the crude oil from the oil fields in Kirkuk governorate in northern Iraq, Jordan's Minister of Energy Saleh Kharabsheh said in a statement.

The ministry said that Jordan imported about 2.525 million barrels of oil from Iraq between September 2021 and July 2022.

SANAA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- A total of 17 Houthi militants were killed when attempting to infiltrate into a military camp in the government-controlled province of Marib in central Yemen, a military source on the frontline told Xinhua on Monday.

The operation happened late on Sunday night in Madghal district in the northwestern part of the province.

"Two groups of Houthi militants tried to infiltrate into the camp from two directions despite the truce," the source said on condition of anonymity.

BEIRUT (AP) — Protesters scuffled with Lebanese security forces Monday outside the Justice Ministry in Beirut, demanding the release of two people arrested last week during a bank heist.

The clash came as a delegation from the International Monetary Fund held meetings in Beirut with officials over the country’s economic meltdown and the limited steps taken by the government to pull Lebanon out of the worst economic crisis in its modern history. The crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement.