Middle East & North Africa

BAGHDAD, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The number of people facing acute food insecurity worldwide has more than doubled to 345 million since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict and climate change, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday.

Before the coronavirus crisis, 135 million suffered from acute hunger worldwide, said Corinne Fleischer, the WFP's regional director, told Reuters. The numbers have climbed since and are expected to soar further because of climate change and conflict.

TEHRAN, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian oil minister said on Wednesday that the country has finalized talks with Russia on gas purchase and swap, according to the Oil Ministry's news service Shana.

The contract will soon be signed in Moscow, Javad Owji said following a meeting with Igor Levitin, the visiting Russian president's senior aide.

Iran currently has a contract with Russia for the development of seven oil and gas fields, Owji added.

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. military said early Wednesday it carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria that targeted areas used by militias backed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

Opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activist collective Deir Ezzor 24 said the airstrikes targeted the Ayash Camp run by the Fatimiyoun group made up of Shiite fighters from Afghanistan. The war monitor reported that at least six Syrian and foreign militants were killed in the airstrikes, while Deir Ezzor 24 reported 10 deaths.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s prime minister urged President Joe Biden and Western powers to call off an emerging nuclear deal with Iran, saying that negotiators are letting Tehran manipulate the talks and that an agreement would reward Israel’s enemies.

Yair Lapid called the emerging agreement a “bad deal” and suggested that Biden has failed to honor red lines he had previously promised to set.

23 August 2022; MEMO: The Pakistani army is to provide security at the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year after the country's federal cabinet approved a draft agreement which will be signed between Doha and Islamabad.

24 August 2022; MEMO: Egypt has seen a 14 per cent increase in the divorce rate compared to a slight 0.5 per cent increase in marriage rates, according to the official statistics agency, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

24 August 2022; MEMO: The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has condemned a "flagrant" raid by Israeli occupation soldiers of its church in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The unannounced and unwarranted raid on the premises of St Andrew's Anglican/Episcopal Church was conducted by Israeli soldiers in the early hours of Thursday at around 3am local time.

24 August 2022; MEMO: The National Palestinian Prisoners' Movement announced yesterday that prisoners in Israeli jails will embark on an open-ended hunger strike, starting 1 September, a statement said.

"We get in touch with you despite the continuous jailer's attempt to break our will and unity, as well as in light of the continuous arbitrary measures taken against us," the prisoners said in their statement.

24 August 2022; MEMO: A former minister of information in Jordan has criticised Palestinians for flying abroad from Israel's Ramon Airport, Quds Press has reported. Samih Maayteh made his comment following the first such flight with passengers from the occupied West Bank heading to Cyprus.

24 August 2022; MEMO: An Egyptian physician who worked for Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health has been sentenced by a Saudi terror court to 20 years in prison, according to the Freedom Initiative.

Dr Sabry Mus'ad Ibrahim Shalaby was convicted after a colleague and fellow detainee said he had voted for the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and was sympathetic towards the Muslim Brotherhood.