Middle East & North Africa

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Iran announced on Saturday that it would cover 90% of the health care expenses of each of its citizens diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, Anadolu reports.

Speaking at the country’s coronavirus prevention center in the capital Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani said the government had fortified the country’s health care system over the past six years, IRNA news agency reported.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabian Airlines will begin exceptional commercial flights this week to bring British nationals and their families back to the United Kingdom, and similar flights are being arranged for US citizens to return home, both countries said, Reuters reports.

Flights to London Heathrow will begin on Sunday from Riyadh and later in the week from Jeddah and Dammam, according to a British Embassy e-mail sent late on Friday. A second Riyadh flight is also expected.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan replaced Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan in an overnight decree on Saturday, as the country battles a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak that has so far killed 92 people in just over two weeks, Reuters reports.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Egyptian banks have been instructed to apply temporary limits on daily withdrawals and deposits in a move seemingly designed to control inflation and hoarding as concern grows over the spread of the coronavirus, reported Reuters.

29 Mar 2020; MEMO: Ehsan Hadadi, Iran’s first Olympic track and field medallist, has tested positive for coronavirus, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Hadadi, the Asian discus champion who became a national hero when he won silver at the 2012 Olympics in London, has an athletics base in the US but was at home in Tehran when he contracted the virus.

29 March 2020; AFP: Armoured vehicles in the streets, hundreds arrested, smartphone surveillance -- sweeping measures to fight the coronavirus have raised concerns in the Middle East over the erosion of already threatened human rights.

As the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, more than three billion people are now living under lockdown and, in some cases, strict surveillance.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Airways will have to seek government support eventually, Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker told Reuters on Sunday, warning that the Middle East carrier could soon run out of the cash needed to continue flying.

Several states have stepped in to help airlines hammered by the coronavirus pandemic that has virtually halted international travel, with the United States offering $58 billion in aid.

Qatar Airways is one of few airlines continuing to maintain scheduled commercial passenger services and over the next two weeks expects to operate 1,800 flights.

ANKARA, Mar 29 (NNN-ANADOLU) – In the past 24 hours in Turkey, 16 more people lost their lives, due to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 108, Turkish Health Minister, Fahrettin Koca, said, on Saturday Night.

The total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 7,402 in Turkey, the minister tweeted.

A total of 7,641 tests were performed on Saturday, and 1,704 were diagnosed, he added.

Turkey reported the first COVID-19 case in the country on Mar 11.

ADEN, Yemen, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-backed Yemeni government's two ministers on Saturday submitted resignations to the Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Yemeni Minister of Transportation Saleh Jubwani and Minister of Civil Services Nabil Faqih submitted their resignations to protest against the performance of the country's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, said official statements released by their offices.

On Thursday, the Yemeni prime minster issued a decision to suspend Jubwani from his work over serious violations.

RIYADH, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Civil Defense announced on Sunday that two civilians in Riyadh sustained minor injuries by the falling of debris of an intercepted missile shot by Yemen's Houthis.

The Civil Defence Spokesperson Mohammed Al-Hammadi said in a statement on the Saudi Press Agency that the civilians were slightly injured due to the falling of the intercepted missile's debris as it exploded in mid-air over residential districts.