Middle East & North Africa

ADEN (Reuters) - Southern separatists in Yemen seized a consignment of billions of riyals intended for the central bank in Aden on Saturday, in a further attempt to wrench control from the Saudi-backed government since declaring self rule in the south in April.

Forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which declared self rule in Aden in April, commandeered the convoy bearing the cash as it left the port, the central bank said in a statement on Saturday, warning of “dangerous consequences”.

RAMALLAH, June 14 (NNN-WAFA) – A Chinese medical team on Saturday visited the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the epicentre of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories.

The team met with Kamel Hmeid, governor of Bethlehem, at the governorate headquarters, where they were briefed on the overall management of the crisis and how the highly touristic district dealt with the outbreak of the pandemic.

Hmeid explained that the Bethlehem district managed to move promptly right after the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered.

BAGHDAD, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were killed and six others wounded on Sunday in an attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial police source said.

The attack took place in the early hours of the day when IS militants attacked a village near the town of Khanaqin, some 165 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Mohammed al-Shimmary told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attack sparked fierce clash between the attackers and local policemen, backed by armed villagers, al-Shimmary said.

ALGIERS, June 14 (NNN-APS) – Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, advocated the draft constitution, allowing the armed forces to participate in missions outside the country.

“It would be possible, according to the proposed amendments to the constitution, that our armed forces to act abroad, as part of peacekeeping missions of the United Nations,” Tebboune said, in a press briefing.

President Tebboune stressed, “the participation of Algerian armed forces in missions outside the country’s border is not aimed at raiding any country but rather to maintain peace.”

ISTANBUL, June 14 (NNN-ANADOLU) – The foreign and defence ministers of Turkey and Russia will hold a summit in Istanbul today, to analyse the current situation of the civil war in Libya, where the two countries are supporting opposing sides.

The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, and the head of Defence, Sergei Shoigou, will meet their Turkish counterparts, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Hulusi Akar.

ADDIS ABABA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- As COVID-19 caseload surpassed 225,105 on Saturday across the African continent, 43 African countries are now under full border closure due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

The death toll from the pandemic has reached 6,040, while some 102,846 people have recovered, according to the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

The Africa CDC said that the northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths.

BEIRUT, June 13 (Xinhua) -- Clashes between the Lebanese army and protesters in Lebanese Tripoli's demonstrations on Saturday led to the injury of 20 people including four army members.

A security source told Xinhua that clashes erupted when a group of protesters in the northern city of Tripoli intercepted big trucks carrying food items in an attempt to prevent them from going to Syria.

13 June 2020; MEMO: Parts of opposition-held Syria have adopted Turkish Lira as the local currency with the value of the Syrian pound continuing to plummet ahead of new US sanctions on the country.

13 June 2020; MEMO: Iran called on Friday for South Korea to release billions of dollars in funds frozen because of US sanctions, Reuters reports.

“South Korea’s ban on Iran’s use of its central bank resources to buy basic goods, medicine and humanitarian items is in no way acceptable, and we expect the South Korean government to lift this restriction as soon as possible,” President Hassan Rouhani said, in remarks carried by state news agency IRNA.

RAMALLAH, June 13 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian officials, on Friday, criticised the decision by U.S. President, Donald Trump, to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its judges.

“It is an absurd, aggressive and arrogant decision,” Mahmoud al-Habbash, the supreme judge of Palestine, said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Hamas movement, ruler of the Gaza Strip, said, “the decision reflects the logic of bullying that governs the behaviour of this administration and its hostility to all international laws and norms.”