Middle East & North Africa

DOHA, Mar 16 (NNN-QNA) – A total of 64 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in Qatar on Sunday, the Qatari health ministry said.

“The new confirmed cases thus raise the total number of infections to 401 all over the country,” the ministry was quoted as saying.

The infected cases are being quarantined, receiving full medical care and in a very good health.

THE Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, announced earlier on Sunday, additional measures to control the COVID-19 outbreak.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Some 4.8 million children have been born in Syria since the conflict began nine years ago. An additional one million have been born as refugees in neighbouring countries. They continue to face the devastating consequences of a brutal war, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said,

ADEN, Yemen, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The joint pro-government Yemeni forces declared on Sunday that six Houthi rebels were killed in armed confrontations in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.

The Houthis launched an armed attack against positions of national army forces in Hodeidah's district of Tuhyata, according to a brief press statement released by the joint pro-government forces.

The pro-government forces engaged in intense armed confrontations with the Houthi attackers and managed to repel their assault, the statement said.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The official leading Iran’s response to the new coronavirus acknowledged Sunday that the pandemic could overwhelm health facilities in his country, which is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East while under heavy U.S. sanctions.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz will be given the first opportunity to form a new government after an inconclusive national election this month, the country’s president said Sunday, raising questions about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future.

The decision by President Reuven Rivlin was announced by his office after he consulted with leaders of all of the parties elected to parliament. He will formally designate Gantz with the task on Monday and give him a month to cobble together a governing coalition.

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: The Palestinian Authority suspended prayers in mosques and churches in the occupied West Bank on Saturday to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, and Gaza’s Hamas rulers said all the enclave’s border crossings would be shut for travel, Reuters report

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: President Hassan Rouhani said Iran’s fight against the coronavirus was being “severely hampered” by US sanctions, as state television reported that the death toll from the illness rose on Saturday to 611, up nearly 100 from a day earlier.

State media said Rouhani wrote to a number of world leaders, without naming them.

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: Three American troops and several Iraqi forces were wounded on Saturday in the second major rocket attack in the past week on an Iraqi base north of Baghdad, US and Iraqi officials said, raising the stakes in an escalating cycle of attacks and reprisals, Reuters reports.

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias’ remarks on social media are “concrete evidence of the inconsistent, double-standard, illegal and inhumane policies” pursued by this country, said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman on Sunday, referring to the asylum seekers along the Turkey-Greece border, Anadolu Agency reports.

15 Mar 2020; MEMO: Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior aide of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Iranian news agencies reported on Thursday.