Middle East & North Africa

11 Mar 2020; MEMO: Military forces affiliate with Libyan Commander Khalifa Haftar carried out two separate strikes on two different schools in Tripoli, Arabi21 reported yesterday.

The two schools are located in the vicinity of Abu Salim municipality.

Since 4 April 2019, Tripoli has been under continuous attack through the use of artillery bombings and airstrikes by Haftar’s military forces.

11 Mar 2020; MEMO: The first meeting between MKs belonging to the Joint List and the Blue and White bloc due to take place yesterday has been postponed until today, Arab48 reported.

Reporting Arab MK Mansour Abbas, the news site said that the meeting was delayed as there was insufficient time for discussions.

JERUSALEM, Mar 11 (NNN-MA’AN) – A total of 20 Israelis tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday (yesterday), bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 70, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health.

Among the 20 new cases are 16, who recently returned from Europe, one returnee from the United States, and three who had close contact with previous confirmed cases.

It is worth noting that a 9-year-old boy from the coastal city of Tel Aviv, who returned from Madrid on Mar 2, was confirmed to be infected, the first child case in Israel.

NICOSIA, March 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cyprus said it was closing schools in the capital, banning mass gatherings and locking down two major hospitals to combat novel coronavirus, after three people on the Mediterranean island tested positive for the illness.

The Republic of Cyprus had on Monday reported its first two cases of the disease, including the chief heart surgeon at its biggest hospital.

And on Tuesday, the Turkish-controlled north of the island announced the first case there, a 65-year-old German woman.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco has been directed by the Ministry of Energy to raise its oil production capacity to 13 million barrels per day (bpd) from 12 million bpd now, the company’s Chief Executive Amin Nasser said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The company is exerting its maximum efforts to implement this directive as soon as possible,” Nasser added.

RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked state agencies to submit proposals for cuts of at least 20% to their budgets in a fresh austerity drive to cope with a sharp drop in oil prices, four sources familiar with the matter said.

They said the request was made more than a week ago due to concerns about the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on crude markets and ahead of the collapse of an oil output deal between OPEC and its allies on Friday.

BEIRUT, March 10 (Xinhua) -- The Uruguayan ambassador to Lebanon said on Tuesday that Lebanon is only a few steps away from signing a free trade agreement with Mercosur countries, a local media outlet reported.

"Lebanon has a great opportunity to export its agro-products to Mercosur countries since its weather is different from that in these countries," Luis Ricardo Nario Fagundez said during his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, according to Elnashra, an online independent newspaper.

DAMASCUS, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem on Tuesday underlined the need for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to avoid politicization of its humanitarian work, state news agency SANA reported.

Al-Moallem made the remarks during his meeting with the visiting chief of ICRC Peter Maurer in the capital Damascus, where they highlighted the need to maintain constant coordination and communication to overcome challenges and obstacles regarding the humanitarian work in the country.

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Yazan, a 1-year-old Libyan boy, was born with congenital heart disease. With just one chamber, the organ pumped so little blood that when Yazan cried, his skin turned black. Without surgery, he would not survive.

But Yazan’s country, Libya, has only one heart surgeon who can’t possibly perform surgeries on 1,200 or so infants born every year with heart defects. Of those, typically some 150 are in dire need of surgery and die in their first year, said William Novick, an American pediatric cardiac surgeon.

10 Mar 2020; MEMO: Two soldiers of the US army were killed, Monday, while participating in a mission with Iraqi forces targeting members of the terrorist organization Daesh.

The US Central Command said, in a statement posted on its website, that “two members of the US military have been killed by enemy forces while advising and accompanying Iraqi security forces.”

The statement added that the operation was aimed at “eliminating ISIS’s (Daesh) stronghold in a mountainous region, in north-central Iraq.”