Middle East & North Africa

07 Aug 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity yesterday announced its intention to import 200 megawatts of electricity from Turkey to address the severe power shortage it is facing, Anadolu reported.

A ministry spokesman, Ahmed Al-Abadi, told the news agency that after obtaining the approval of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the ministry began negotiations with Turkey to import 200 megawatts of electricity through the Mosul Dam Station, in the north of the country.

07 Aug 2020; MEMO: A 24-year-old Palestinian woman is in a critical condition after being shot by Israeli soldiers early this morning in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed in a statement.

According to Wafa news agency, local residents said Israeli forces stormed the Al-Jabariyat neighbourhood in Jenin city, where they interrogated and threatened to re-arrest a former prisoner after breaking into his house.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The death toll from the Beirut port explosion has risen to 154, state news agency NNA cited Lebanon’s health minister as saying on Friday.

Minister Hamad Hasan said one in five of the some 5,000 people injured in Tuesday’s blast had required hospitalisation, and 120 were in critical condition, NNA reported.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq said on Friday it would cut its oil production by another 400,000 barrels per day in both August and September to compensate for its overproduction in the past three months.

Iraq oil minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a joint statement with his Saudi counterpart Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman that Iraq’s output cut was in addition to the 850,000 bpd it had committed to cut in August and September under an OPEC+ supply pact.

The total cut to Iraq’s production in August and September will amount to 1.25 million bpd for each month.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) is appealing for $15 million to cover emergency health needs in Lebanon following the Beirut port explosion that hit amid an economic crisis and rising coronavirus cases.

The blast, which killed more than 150 and injured more than 5,000, also destroyed 17 containers holding WHO medical supplies including personal protective equipment, the agency’s regional office for the Middle East said in a statement late on Thursday.

BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 16 employees at Port of Beirut have been detained over deadly explosions that rocked the port on Tuesday, Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Fadi Akiki announced on Thursday evening.

Akiki said that more than 18 people have been questioned so far, including port and customs officials as well as people in charge of maintenance at the hangar where explosive materials have been stored for years, the National News Agency reported.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said on Thursday that it carried out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to the launch of balloons carrying incendiary devices from the Palestinian enclave.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that a fighter jet and an aircraft struck an infrastructure in northern Gaza Strip used for "underground activities" by Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian movement that runs Gaza.

CAIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian and Greek foreign ministers signed here on Thursday an agreement on the demarcation of the maritime borders between the two countries and setting up an exclusive economic zone between them in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deal allows both Egypt and Greece to maximize the use of available resources in the exclusive economic zone between them, particularly the potential oil and gas reserves, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in a joint press conference with his visiting Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias.

BEIRUT, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Port of Tripoli said Thursday that it is ready to temporarily replace the Port of Beirut which was devastated by two powerful explosions on Tuesday.

Ahmed Tamer, director of the Tripoli port, told Xinhua that the port has completed all its preparations to receive the aid ships sent to Lebanon and the vessels that transport products and goods.

"The port has witnessed during the past years the expansion work by Chinese companies, and it has received the largest ships from China, carrying a big number of containers," he said.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — It began as a lighthearted conversation between two Jewish comedians, riffing on a podcast about the idiosyncrasies of their shared heritage. But after talk turned to Israel, it didn’t take long for Marc Maron and Seth Rogen to spark an uproar.

Their comments about Israel — especially Rogen saying the country “doesn’t make sense” — infuriated many Israel supporters and highlighted the country’s tenuous relationship with young, progressive Jewish critics in the diaspora.