Business

19 Nov 2020; MEMO: Iraq and Saudi Arabia have reopened the Arar border crossing for trade exchanges on Wednesday, which has been closed for 30 years.

"The Arar border crossing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been officially reopened for trade movement between the two neighbouring countries," confirmed the Iraqi Border Crossing Authority in a statement, of which Anadolu Agency obtained a copy.

19 Nov 2020; MEMO: Three US senators said on Wednesday they would introduce legislation seeking to halt the Trump administration's effort to sell more than $23 billion of drones and other weapons systems to the United Arab Emirates, setting up a showdown with the president just weeks before he is due to leave office.

Singapore, Nov 18 (PTI) Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said the country needs more talent in technology and hoped that a newly-announced work pass will help it attract "highly accomplished" individuals in the field, a media report said on Wednesday.

Lee, who delivered his keynote speech to the Singapore Tech Forum 2020 on Tuesday night via a Facebook livestream, stressed that talent is key as Singapore develops its technology ecosystem.

Lucknow, Nov 18 (PTI) Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the BJP of ruining the agricultural economy with its policies.

Akhilesh in a statement here said farmers are in a crisis due to the government's attitude rather than the nature's wrath.

(AP) --- Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers.

Conditions inside the nation’s hospitals are deteriorating by the day as the coronavirus rages across the U.S. at an unrelenting pace and the confirmed death toll surpasses 250,000.

18 Nov 2020; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority will resume civil and security cooperation with Israel suspended in May over a now-frozen Israeli plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian minister said on Tuesday.

Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on Twitter that "the relationship with Israel will return to how it was" after President Mahmoud Abbas received confirmation that Israel remained committed to past agreements with the Palestinians.

18 Nov 2020; MEMO: Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the government will impose tighter measures to respond to surging numbers of coronavirus patients and impose partial lockdowns at weekends across the country.

"A lockdown restriction will be imposed outside the hours of 1000-2000 over the weekends in a way that will not disrupt supply and production chains," Erdogan said.

18 Nov 2020; MEMO: Bahrain's first official government delegation to Israel set off on Wednesday on the first Gulf Air commercial flight to Tel Aviv, as the two countries look to broaden cooperation after establishing formal ties in September in a US-brokered accord.

Gulf Air flight GF972 – a reference to Israel's telephone country code – took off from Manama airport in the morning bound for Tel Aviv, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.

18 Nov 2020; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran would fully implement its 2015 nuclear deal if US President-elect Joe Biden lifts sanctions on Tehran, which Zarif said could be done swiftly through "three executive orders".

New York, Nov 18 (AP-PTI) Looking for toilet paper? Good luck. A surge of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. is sending people back to stores to stockpile again, leaving shelves bare and forcing retailers to put limits on purchases.

Walmart said Tuesday it's having trouble keeping up with demand for cleaning supplies in some stores. Supermarket chains Kroger and Publix are limiting how much toilet paper and paper towels shoppers can buy after demand spiked recently. And Amazon is sold out of most disinfectant wipes and paper towels.