Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn is helping everyone who stood by him, he said in an interview broadcast on Saturday, though he declined to comment on cases of people accused of helping him flee to Lebanon from Japan.

Ghosn, the ex-chairman of an automaking alliance of Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp was arrested in Japan in late 2018 on charges of underreporting his salary and using company funds for personal purpose - charges he denies.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain’s highest court upheld death sentences against two activists for bombing a convoy and killing a police officer, after convictions that human rights groups say were based on confessions extracted through torture.

Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa lost their final appeal on Monday against death sentences that were initially handed down by a criminal court in December 2014.

TEHRAN, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian army aviation will be soon equipped with missiles with ranges of 20 km and 100 km, Iranian Army Aviation Chief Yousof Ghorbani announced Sunday.

The Iranian army aviation has gained salient achievements in defense and security sections, including precision-guided missiles, Ghorbani was quoted as saying by Tehran Times daily.

The Iranian army aviation offers aerial emergency services to 18 out of 31 Iranian provinces, Ghorbani noted. 

ISTANBUL, July 13 (Xinhua) -- At least 75 suspects were detained for selling drugs in a massive anti-narcotics operation in Turkey's largest city Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu agency reported Monday.

The Istanbul Police Department Anti-Narcotics Department launched a simultaneous operation to capture the suspects in 62 locations across the city, Anadolu said.

Various guns and several types of drugs were seized in the raids backed by at least 400 police officers, it added.

RIYADH, July 13 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led Arab coalition involved in a war in Yemen said it intercepted on Monday four missiles and seven drones launched by the Houthi rebels toward the kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Turki Al Maliki, spokesman of the coalition, said in a statement that the the dawn attacks by Houthis targeted civilians and civilian areas.

13 July 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein yesterday called on his German counterpart Heiko Maas to support Baghdad’s removal from the European list of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorism financing.

In a statement, the Iraqi Foreign ministry said Hussein received a telephone call from his German counterpart, during which they discussed bilateral and regional affairs.

13 July 2020; MEMO: Iranian local media yesterday said a senior commander of the country’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in Syria.

“IRGC leader Ibrahim Asami has been killed in Syria,” IRGC’s Brigadier, Rustom Ali Rafea, was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Rafea pointed out that Asami was killed “a few days ago”, adding that he was buried in the Iranian western province of Alborz.

13 July 2020; MEMO: Iraqi security forces yesterday prevented hundreds of protesters from entering the Green Zone in Baghdad to demonstrate against deductions in their salaries, Anadolu reported.

Most of the protesters are members of the Islamic Dawa Party, led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki.

A police official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Anadolu that the security services protecting the Green Zone were ordered by the government to prevent the protesters’ entry.

The UAE’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said yesterday that the National Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) repelled more than 100,000 cyber-attacks against the Federal Government’s entities in June.

TRA said in its monthly report on cybersecurity developments in the UAE’s Federal Government for the month of June 2020 that 73 per cent of the cyber-attacks were malware, 15 per cent were vulnerabilities and 12 per cent phishing attacks.

The cyber security teams have also handled more than 407 cyber incidents.

13 July 2020; MEMO: Sudan’s Transitional Government has announced plans to abolish punishment for apostasy and the ban on non-Muslims drinking alcohol in the country, Sudan Tribune has reported. The changes to the law will also make Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) a crime, explained Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari.