18 Mar 2020; MEMO: Yemeni security services in Socotra have seized an Emirati humanitarian ship carrying weapons and armoured vehicles, local sources said.
According to the sources, the “aid” ship belonged to the Khalifa Foundation for Humanitarian Affairs which is run by the UAE delegate in Socotra, Brigadier Khalfan Al-Mazroui.
18 Mar 2020; MEMO: Palestinian prisoners have today rejected their meals in protest against the Israeli Prison Service’s plans to stop supplying 140 products, including cleaning products, from the canteen and halt medical visits for detainees.
18 Mar 2020; MEMO: Egyptian authorities yesterday shut down the local office of the Guardian newspaper after the British agency released a report which said that the number of coronavirus cases in the country were higher than official figures indicated.
18 March 2020; AFP: From empty hotels to shuttered beauty salons, oil-dependent Saudi Arabia is bracing for a coronavirus-led economic slump on top of possible austerity measures as crude prices go into free fall.
Huge losses are expected after the Arab world's biggest economy shut down cinemas, malls and restaurants, halted flights, suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage and locked down eastern Qatif region -- home to around 500,000 -- in a bid to contain the deadly virus.
18 Mar 2020; MEMO: A Houthi court in the Yemeni capital Sanaa yesterday passed the death sentence on 19 senior army officers loyal to the UN-recognised government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Details were made public by the defendants’ lawyer.
18 Mar 2020; MEMO: The Iraqi army yesterday said two rockets had hit a military base that hosts US-led coalition troops near the country’s capital Baghdad.
“Two rockets hit the Besmaya base 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, where the US-led coalition and NATO have forces stationed,” the army’s media office was quoted by Anadolu Agency as saying.
18 Mar 2020; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday held a video conference call with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, local media reported.
The summit discussed the developments in Syria, especially in Idlib, Turkish-European relations, Libyan developments, the refugee crisis as well as cooperation efforts to confront the coronavirus pandemic.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s biggest bank, Hapoalim, (POLI.TA) said on Wednesday it expects to pay $870 million to settle a U.S. tax evasion investigation.
The bank said in a regulatory filing it will increase its provision for the tax probe in the fourth quarter to $259 million, in addition to $611 million it had already set aside.
For several years, U.S. authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the New York Department of Financial Services, have been investigating accusations that the Israeli bank helped U.S. clients evade taxes.
CAIRO/GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that Middle East states needed urgently to offer more information about coronavirus cases to help bolster the fight against the disease across the region.
Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said the regional approach to fighting the coronavirus had so far been “uneven” and that much more should be done.
BAGHDAD, Mar 18 (NNN-NINA) – Three Katyusha rockets fired, on Tuesday, at the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry official said.
The incident took place in the night, when unknown militants fired the rockets at the zone, which houses some of the main Iraqi government offices and the U.S. embassy, the official said.
Sirens were heard in the zone, as the rockets landed inside the zone, but there were no immediate reports about casualties, the official said.
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