Middle East & North Africa

5 May 2020; MEMO: Iraq’s poverty rate is expected to rise to more than 20 per cent as a result of the halt in trading following the outbreak of the coronavirus, the country’s planning minister warned yesterday.

Nuri Al-Dulaimi told reporters in Baghdad that poverty in Iraq had amounted to 20 per cent, citing a survey carried out by his ministry in 2018.

“National poverty rate is expected to rise after a number of private sector workers had lost their jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak,” he said.

BEIRUT, May 5 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanon received, on Monday, donation from Iran, for the fight against COVID-19.

“Iran’s help is much appreciated, while the country is struggling at the same time to fight against the virus,” Lebanese Health Minister, Hamad Hassan said, during a ceremony at the airport, to receive the donation.

The donation include 15 ventilators, 5,000 PCR tests and Personal Protective Equipment.

TEHRAN, May 5 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, said Monday, that, a recent U.S. move, to cut funding to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hampers global fight against COVID-19.

“At a time when the virus has turned into a threat against global security and public health … the impair of WHO’s role, amounts to weakening joint global fight against the virus,” Rouhani said, addressing a virtual meeting of the leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Contact Group.

DAMASCUS, May 5 (NNN-SANA) – The U.S. forces, on Monday, moved a number of Daesh prisoners from Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, to Iraq.

Six vehicles of the U.S. forces entered Syria from Iraq, earlier on Monday, and headed for the city of Shaddadi in Hasakah countryside, where they took the Daesh prisoners and went back to Iraq, said the report.

On Apr 27, the U.S. forces took Daesh prisoners from Shaddadi to Iraq, and “recycling” those militants to use them in other battlegrounds.

RAMALLAH, May 5 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, on Monday, warned Israel against implementing its plans of annexing Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

Abbas’s warning was made in an online speech he addressed, before the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, that was held online, on Monday evening.

“If the occupation (Israel) implements its plans to annex Palestinian lands, we will disengage from all our commitments and agreements,” Abbas told the members of NAM.

TASS, May 5: Syrian air defense systems have repelled a missile attack of Israel in the northern province of Aleppo, SANA news agency reported on Monday.

According to the agency, the strikes were aimed at military storage facilities near the town of al-Safira situated to the north-east of Aleppo (360 km away from Damascus).

CAIRO (AP) — One of Libya’s top anti-corruption officials was abducted by a militia tied to the interior ministry in the capital, the audit bureau said Monday, the latest twist in a long-running contest over the country’s vast wealth.

The abduction of Reda Gergab, the audit bureau’s administrative director, brought deep tensions in the Tripoli-based administration to the surface at a time of worsening economic crisis. The audit bureau is an independent body appointed by the Libyan parliament in Tripoli and is a rare check on the misappropriation of funds in the oil-rich country.

BEIRUT (AP) — It’s not just a lifestyle, it’s a livelihood. That was the motto used by some of Lebanon’s best-known nightclubs to raise money for thousands of bartenders, waiters and support staff who have been without a job since the country imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown in mid-March.

The club owners pulled together a three-day fundraising marathon: 150 DJs from around the world spun their records in five different virtual rooms over the weekend in a non-stop electronic music festival. By Sunday night, they had raised the equivalent of $36,000.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s Expo 2020 world’s fair will be postponed to Oct. 1, 2021, over the new coronavirus pandemic, a Paris-based body behind the events said Monday.

The announcement by the Bureau International des Expositions came just hours after police in Kuwait dispersed what they described as a riot by stranded Egyptians unable to return home amid the coronavirus pandemic. The riot was the first reported sign of unrest from the region’s vast population of foreign workers who have lost their jobs over the crisis.

4 May 2020; MEMO: Tunisia is the Arab world’s best-performing country in terms of freedom of the press, the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed yesterday.

According to the report, released on World Press Freedom Day yesterday, Lebanon ranked 102nd, Iraq (162th), Algeria (146th), Egypt (166th), and Saudi Arabia (170th) globally. Meanwhile, Syria came in at 174th out of 180 countries for the second consecutive year.