Middle East & North Africa

DAMASCUS, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Syria’s brutal conflict enters its 10th year Sunday with President Bashar al-Assad’s government consolidating its hold over a war-wracked country with a decimated economy where foreign powers flex their muscle.

When Syrians took to the streets on March 15, 2011, they could scarcely have imagined their anti-government protests would turn into a complex war entangling rebels, jihadists and outside forces.

RABAT, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Tourists from a number of European countries were unable to leave after flights were suspended to many European countries and also to China and Algeria.

CAIRO, March 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The Egyptian government has approved the request of the county’s space agency to contract with a Chinese institution for using its satellite launching stations.

The Egyptian Space Agency was approved to sign a contact with the China Great Wall Industry Corporation to use its stations to launch Egyptian satellites, Egypt’s official news agency MENA, has said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria will postpone parliamentary elections to May 20 from April 13 as a precautionary step against the spread of coronavirus, a statement from the president’s office said on Saturday.

Syria has said it has no confirmed cases but is taking preventative steps such as shutting schools and public venues as it monitors for the virus.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel plans to use anti-terrorism tracking technology and a partial shutdown of its economy to minimise the risk of coronavirus transmission, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

Cyber tech monitoring would be deployed to locate people who have been in contact with those carrying the virus, subject to cabinet approval, Netanyahu told a news conference in Jerusalem.

TEHRAN, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday that President Hassan Rouhani has urged world countries not to follow U.S. anti-Iran sanctions.

In letters to his counterparts, Rouhani has informed how efforts to fight COVID-19 pandemic in Iran have been hampered by U.S. sanctions, Zarif tweeted.

Rouhani has urged the world states to cease observing the U.S. anti-Iran sanction, Zarif said.

Earlier, Zarif asked the UN chief to pressure Washington to lift sanctions against Tehran.

TEHRAN, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned the Swiss ambassador, whose country represents the U.S. interests in Iran, over the U.S. president's allegations against the Islamic Republic after a recent attack on a military base used by the coalition forces in Iraq.

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A total of four Hashd Shaabi members were killed on Saturday in two attacks by Islamic State (IS) militants in the Iraqi province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said.

In one of the attacks, the extremist IS militants attacked an outpost manned by Saraya al-Salam militia, affiliated with Hashd Shaabi, in Zour al-Tharthar area in the south of the city of Samarra, some 120 km north of the capital Baghdad, Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua.

SANAA, March 14 (Xinhua) -- A farmer was killed by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike that hit a farm in Yemen's northeastern province of al-Jawf on Saturday, the Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported.

The alleged airstrike targeted the farm in al-Hazm city, the capital of al-Jawf province, the report said, without providing more details.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition, which intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 to support the internationally-recognized Yemeni government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The central bank of the United Arab Emirates, home to the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai, on Sunday announced a $27 billion stimulus package to deal with the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The money will go toward supporting the country’s banks, and regulatory limits on loans will be eased.