Middle East & North Africa

DAMASCUS, March 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 4,440 Turkish military vehicles and 9,450 Turkish soldiers have been sent to Syria's northwestern province of Idlib since February, a war monitor reported on Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 60 vehicles and tanks entered areas in Idlib on Monday alone.

The Britain-based watchdog group said the Turkish military gears and soldiers are deployed in Turkish observation points in Idlib, as part of the de-escalation zones' deal established with Russia two years ago.

ADEN, Yemen, March 16 (Xinhua) -- An explosion caused by a roadside bomb killed two children in Yemen's southern province of Dhalea on Monday, a security official told Xinhua.

"An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded and targeted a motorcycle carrying two 13-year-old children near the district of Qataba," a local security official said on condition of anonymity.

The IED explosion destroyed the motorcycle and instantly left the children killed at the scene, the source said.

TRIPOLI, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Libya's daily oil production has dropped from more than 1.2 million barrels to less than 100,000 barrels, due to the closure of oil ports and fields by tribal leaders in eastern Libya in protest against the UN-backed government, said the state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) Monday.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Authorities in Iraq’s southern city of Karbala have declared a three-day curfew as part of effort to stem the spread of coronavirus, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The move aims to disinfect all areas in the province and maintain the safety or our people,” Kabala governor Nasif al-Khatabi told a press conference on Sunday.

Meanwhile, local authorities in the southern Saladin province imposed a lockdown as part of measures against the disease.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Lebanon yesterday declared a state of emergency and ordered a two-week lockdown over coronavirus fears.

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab and Minister of Information Manal Abdel Samad Najd announced the new measures after meetings of the Supreme Defence Council and the Cabinet yesterday afternoon.

Diab ordered the closure of air, land and sea borders from Wednesday 18 March until 29 March, but excluded UNIFIL, diplomatic missions and cargo aircraft.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Russia and Turkey yesterday were forced to cut short their first joint military patrol along the M4 highway linking Syria’s east and west near the north-western province of Idlib due to “rebel provocations”.

The joint patrol was recently reported to have started yesterday morning, in coordination between the two armies.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: The central banks of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, the two largest Arab economies, on Saturday announced stimulus plans worth a combined $40 billion to ease the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in their respective countries, Reuters reports.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: Enclosed prayer places at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque have been shut in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus, the authority responsible for overseeing the city’s Islamic and Christian holy sites announced on Sunday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Islamic Waqf Department decided to close the enclosed prayer places as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, the director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, said in a statement.

16 Mar 2020; MEMO: A group of 112 African migrants was rescued from a sinking dinghy and landed in Malta early on Sunday, supervised by troops in special protective clothing against possible coronavirus infection, authorities said, Reuters reports.

The dinghy was spotted in Malta’s search and rescue region north of Libya on Saturday. Those on board included several women and children. The armed forces said the nationalities of those aboard was not immediately known.

AMMAN, Mar 16 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan’s central bank, on Sunday, decided to lower the compulsory reserves that banks hold, in order to make more liquidity available on the markets.

The remarks were made by the central bank governor, Ziad Fariz, who said that the reserve cuts will be from seven to five percent.

The measures will enable the banks to lower the interest rates on facilities provided to institutions and individuals, he said.