Middle East & North Africa

BAGHDAD, Sept 29 (NNN-NINA) – Three children and two women were killed on Monday, when two rockets landed on their house, near the Baghdad International Airport, the Iraqi military said.

Two other children were also wounded in the Katyusha rocket attack, that struck and destroyed the family’s house in Albu-Amir area, in the southwest of the Iraqi capital, in the afternoon, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The rockets were fired by “criminal gangs and outlawed groups” from the nearby al-Jihad neighbourhood, the statement added.

KUWAIT, Sept 30 (NNN-KUNA) – Kuwaiti Crown Prince, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, yesterday, was named the new Emir, after the death of the late Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The government prays for the success of the new ruler, in his efforts to ensure the security and growth of the country, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister, Anas Al-Saleh, said in a statement.

Sheikh Nawaf was born on June 25, 1937. He had served as the minister of interior from 1978 to 1988, when he was appointed as minister of defence.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Chief Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Hossein Salami said the United States’ establishment of Daesh has given Tehran the opportunity to increase its influence in the region.

Speaking to parliament, Salami said the option of war against Iran was not on the table, pointing out that the reconciliation offers with Washington are merely a political ploy to weaken Tehran’s will.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Palestinian government and India’s representative to Palestine, Sunil Kumar, yesterday signed protocols worth $36.1 million to build developmental projects in the fields of education, health and media.

Palestinian Minister of Education, Marwan Awartani, and Kumar signed the first agreement to build two schools in the governorates of Jenin and Tubas at a value of $2.1 million.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: Former UN diplomat and former Algerian Foreign Minister, Lakhdar Brahimi, hailed the global support for the Palestinian cause, Al-Watan Voice reported yesterday.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: The Sudanese army said its troops repelled an attack by the Sudan Liberation Army – Abdul Wahid Mohamed Al-Nur (SLA-AW) in South Darfur which did not sign the peace agreement concluded in August between Khartoum and a majority of the rebel groups in the area.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: Armenia has been transporting hundreds of militants from the Kurdish terror group the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and what Turkey believes is the group’s Syrian branch, the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG), in its renewed fight against Azerbaijan over the Armenia-occupied region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Turkish security sources claim.

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: China’s practices and policies toward Uyghurs and Muslims in Xinjiang has always been part of Ankara’s agenda, Turkey’s ruling party spokesman Omer Celik said yesterday.

According to Anadolu, Celik said Turkey has been closely monitoring human rights and freedom of belief and that China’s anti-extremism regulation adopted in 2017 contains negative and arbitrary practices against Uyghurs.

JERUSALEM (AP) — For the last four months, Ahmed al-Kurdi, his wife and three children have been stranded in Jordan, where they traveled from their home in the Gaza Strip for life-saving medical treatment for his 2-year-old daughter.

At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has led to border closures and travel restrictions, they find themselves stuck, not because of quarantine measures, but because of a dispute between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

29 Sep 2020; MEMO: The cigarette market in Kuwait has significantly increased over the past few years with more than 6.6 billion consumed annually, London based Global Data consulting firm said.

The company said the tobacco market in Kuwait grew 298.3 per cent in 2017 compared to the early 1990s.

In 2017, the average annual consumption of cigarettes in Kuwait was 2,315, with an average of six cigarettes per day.