Middle East & North Africa

DUBAI, Mar 9 (NNN-WAM) – Organisers of the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, confirmed that, this season’s race will take place without spectators, in order to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“In consultation with our international partners and the Kingdom’s national health Taskforce, Bahrain made the decision to hold this year’s Bahrain Grand Prix as a participants-only event,” a statement said.

CAIRO, Mar 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – A team of Chinese experts arrived in Iraq to help fight the spread of COVID-19. As the epidemic continued raging in the Middle East, Egypt reported the first death from the disease on Sunday.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s information minister Faisal Salih said on Monday that “terror attempts” and the dismantling of the old regime were matters that would be dealt with decisively, in the first official remarks after an attempted assassination of the prime minister.

“The prime minister’s convoy was targeted in a terrorist attack as he was heading to work,” Salih said.

“Terrorist attempts and dismantling the old regime will be dealt with decisively,” he added.

Salih said investigations are ongoing to determine who was behind the attack.

JERUSALEM, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday submitted a request to delay his corruption trial scheduled on March 17.

Amit Hadad, one of Netanyahu's lawyers, submitted the request to the State Attorney's Office, citing technical reasons for the proposed delay.

According to the defense team, certain evidentiary material has not been delivered to them yet. Hadad asked the opening court session to be delayed for 45 days.

TRIPOLI, March 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) on Sunday said the rival east-based army attacked a residential area in Tripoli, killing and injuring a number of civilians.

"A woman and a man were killed and four others wounded as an initial death toll of Grad missile attacks carried out by the militia of the war criminal (Khalifa) Haftar (commander of the east-based army) on Suk al-Juma area," the GNA said in a statement.

The east-based army has not commented about the attacks so far.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s prime minister survived an assassination attempt Monday after an explosion went off near his convoy in the capital of Khartoum, Sudan’s state media said.

Abdalla Hamdok’s office and his family confirmed he was safe following the explosion. Sudanese state TV said Hamdok, a longtime economist, was heading to the Cabinet’s offices when the attack took place, and that he was taken to a “safe place.”

ANKARA, March 8. /TASS/: Ankara could take unilateral action in the Syrian region of Idlib unless the agreements with Russia are implemented, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul on Sunday.

"We retain the right to clear that site in our own way in case the promise given to us about the location of Operation Spring Shield [in Idlib] is not kept. We reached an agreement [with Russia] to resolve the Idlib crisis without any further bloodshed. If not, we will be going on along the path we have set for ourselves," Erdogan said aired by NTV channel.

08 Mar 2020; MEMO: A three-year pact between OPEC and Russia ended in acrimony on Friday after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus and OPEC responded by removing all limits on its own production, Reuters reports.

08 Mar 2020; MEMO: The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran rose to 194 on Sunday, the country’s Health Ministry has announced.

Authorities said 49 people died in the last 24 hours, while 743 new cases were found, pushing up the total number of confirmed cases to 6,566, spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told a news conference in the capital Tehran.

At least 22,177 people are currently under medical care, while the number of discharged patients stands at 55,404, he said.

ABU DHABI, Mar 8 (NNN-WAM) – The Executive Committee of the Abu Dhabi Exports Office, ADEX, approved the allocation of AED550 million ($150 million), to support the strategic expansion of the nation’s export businesses and continued diversification of the UAE economy.

The announcement came during a meeting the committee held, where they discussed a number of requests to finance exports, as well as, reviewed the strategies developed, to promote services provided by ADEX locally and globally for the coming period.