Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya Yacoub El Hillo on Friday called for an investigation into the killing of 30 migrants in western Libya.

"I am shocked by the horrific reports about Wednesday's shooting at a smuggling warehouse in Mezda killing 30 migrants and injuring 11 others," El Hillo said in a statement.

The attack, which occured at the town of Mezda, some 180 km southwest of the capital Tripoli, was reportedly a revenge by the family of a Libyan smuggler who has been murdered by migrants.

TUNIS, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Kais Saied decided Friday to extend the state of emergency, imposed throughout the country since November 2015, for six month.

"President Saied decided to extend the state of emergency in the entire territory of the republic for a period of six months, starting from May 30, 2020," said a presidency statement without giving further details.

The state of emergency in Tunisia was first declared on Nov. 24, 2015, following a bloody bomb attack on a bus of the presidential guards, killing 12 agents.

29 May 2020; MEMO: Israeli forces today prevented the call for dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied city of Hebron, denying Muslim worshippers access to the site, according to the Wafa news agency.

The Palestinian Authority condemned occupation forces for deliberately infringing on religious freedoms by applying such restrictions.

ANKARA, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and Russian troops conducted their 13th joint patrol along a key highway in northwestern Idlib province of Syria, the Turkish defense ministry said on Thursday.

"Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the 13th TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M-4 Highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements," the ministry tweeted.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — A new report by the rights group Amnesty International accuses Ethiopia’s security forces of extrajudicial killings and mass detentions even as the country’s reformist prime minister was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP) — Over the past two months, as air travel ground to a halt, Mishel Zrian has crisscrossed the Atlantic and the United States dozens of times, sleeping in empty airports and unable to return home to see his family in Israel, all in a race against time to deliver life-saving transplants.

PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP) — Over the past two months, as air travel ground to a halt, Mishel Zrian has crisscrossed the Atlantic and the United States dozens of times, sleeping in empty airports and unable to return home to see his family in Israel, all in a race against time to deliver life-saving transplants.

ANKARA, May 29 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish government resumed high-speed train services between four provinces as part of its normalization plan after the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“We are taking another important step in the normalization process. The high-speed train will run 16 times a day, between Ankara and Istanbul, Ankara and Eskisehir, Ankara and Konya, and Konya and Istanbul,” Turkey’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu told reporters at a ceremony for the resumption of the service.

ANKARA, May 29 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish and Russian troops conducted their 13th joint patrol along a key highway in northwestern Idlib province of Syria, the Turkish defense ministry said.

“Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the 13th TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M-4 Highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements,” the ministry tweeted.

28 May 2020; MEMO: Egypt’s state-run media has launched an incitement campaign against doctors after the medical union warned the country’s health system was about to collapse.

On Monday, Egypt’s Medical Syndicate said that 19 doctors had died of coronavirus in the country whilst 350 had been infected.

It lamented the lack of PPE and the failure to provide isolation units for sick medics and said that the Health Ministry was falling short of its duty to protect doctors.