Middle East & North Africa

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Iranian authorities have announced their intention to impose the use of protective masks in public places across the capital, Tehran, starting Saturday, local media reported yesterday.

The move comes following a rise in the number of new coronavirus cases, as well as the shortage of beds and medical supplies in the city’s hospitals.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israel has in recent days issued 63 military orders to close areas and land planted with Palestinian olive trees, covering an area of 3,000 dunams (3 square kilometres) across the occupied West Bank ahead of the olive harvest season.

The military orders bore the signature of the commander of the occupation army in the West Bank, were dated 17 September 2020, and entitled “Closing down an area – preventing entry and stay.”

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Two classified documents have revealed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) played a key role in urging Yemen to formally normalise relations with Israel 16 years ago.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: The United Nations (UN) has revealed that some of the 15 oppositionists executed by the Egyptian authorities on charges of terrorism, violence and incitement to murder were tortured and did not receive fair trials.

This came in a statement on Wednesday by Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Liz Throssell to Anadolu Agency.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Twitter account of Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, was suspended on Wednesday.

Al Masirah on its Telegram channel on Wednesday night said: “Twitter took steps to suspend the accounts of al-Masirah without giving reasons”.

Twitter could not immediately be reached for comment, but the @MasirahTV Twitter page now says “Account suspended” for violating the rules of the social media platform, with no posts visible.

ADEN, Oct 7 (NNN-SABA) – At least 12 members of the Houthi group were killed Tuesday, as pro-government Yemeni forces repulsed a rebel attack, in the country’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

According to the military source, who asked to remain anonymous, “the Houthi militia launched a large-scale armed attack against government military locations, in Tuhyata district.”

“The soldiers valiantly engaged in intense armed confrontations with the Houthis and aborted their assault,” the source said.

BEIRUT, Oct 7 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon’s state security, arrested, on Tuesday, six Egyptian nationals, for attempting to smuggle, through the airport, hundreds of boxes of medicines from Lebanon to Egypt.

The arrested people said, they bought the medicines from different pharmacies in Lebanon. They were released after submitting their residency documents to relevant judicial bodies in Lebanon.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Tunisian Prime Minister, Hichem Mechichi, announced the dismissal of Culture Minister, Walid Al-Zaidi, due to his refusal to implement the instructions for measures to confront coronavirus.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz yesterday signed four orders to seize money transfers going to families of Palestinian prisoners and martyrs, Anadolu reported.

“The orders targeted funds transferred by both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israeli jails,” for alleged “terror attacks”, Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post reported, according to Anadolu.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: The coastline of the abandoned town of Maras in the Turkish Cypriot city of Gazimagusa will reopen on Thursday, the prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) announced Tuesday, reports Anadolu Agency.

The coastline of Maras will be open for public use as of Thursday morning, Ersin Tatar said in a joint news conference with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the capital Ankara.