Middle East & North Africa

12 Feb 2020; MEMO: It has been reported that Iran and other foreign intelligence agencies may already have access to personal information of top Israeli intelligence officials, after revelations of a “disastrous” Likud Party cyber error resulting in a huge data breach of up to six million Israelis’ voters’ private information.

ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey’s military would strike Russian-backed Syrian forces by air or ground anywhere in Syria if another Turkish soldier was hurt as the Assad government tried to regain control of Idlib province.

Erdogan said Turkey is determined to push Syrian government forces beyond Turkish observation posts in Idlib by the end this month, and he urged allied Syrian rebels not to give government forces an excuse to attack.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon will ask the International Monetary Fund for technical assistance to draw up a stabilization plan in the face of a financial and economic crisis, including how to restructure its public debt, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday.

“There has been contact with the IMF but Lebanon will send an official request in the coming hours to have a team dedicated to dealing with technical assistance,” the source said.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Fuel shortages have left motorists in Sudan skipping work to queue for petrol and forced the transitional government to introduce a rationing system as it tries to manage acute economic pressures.

Some people have been spending entire days in queues that stretch for several km (miles) since the fuel crisis began late last week. Coming on top of bread shortages it has piled more pressure on a government struggling to deliver improvements after the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir last April.

DAMASCUS, Feb 12 (NNN-SANA) – Turkish forces shot down a Syrian helicopter, in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, killing three pilots on board, a war monitor reported.

The Turkish forces targeted the helicopter, over al-Nayrab, in the northeastern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The downing of the helicopter comes, as the Syrian rebels attacked al-Nayrab, before the Syrian army launched a counter-offensive and retook much of the town.

TRIPOLI, Feb 12 (NNN-Xinhua) — The Libyan Coast Guard on Monday rescued 81 migrants off the country’s western coast, the International Organization for Migration in Libya (IOM Libya) said Tuesday.

“Last night, 81 migrants, among them 18 women and 4 children were returned to Tripoli by the Libyan Coast Guard,” the IOM Libya tweeted.

“IOM staff were at the disembarkation point to provide medical screenings and emergency assistance,” the IOM Libya added.

CAIRO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt is ready to host a special African summit to discuss setting up an African force to fight terrorism on the continent.

The Egyptian president made the remarks during a televised speech on Sunday during the opening ceremony of the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa.

During a closed session, African leaders proposed to convene a special African summit to discuss a counter-terrorism African force, al-Sisi said.

ALGIERS, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad on Tuesday said one of the most important challenges of the government is to get Algeria out of a "critical" political and economic stage into a new era in which people's confidence in the country's institutions will be restored.

Djerad made the remarks during the presentation of his government's Plan of Action before the members of the People's National Assembly (lower house of the parliament) in a plenary session.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s transitional authorities have agreed to hand over ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court to face trial on charges of war crimes and genocide, a top Sudanese official said Tuesday, in a deal with rebels to surrender all those wanted in connection with the Darfur conflict.

ANKARA, February 11. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced Tuesday that he will unveil new measures on Syria on February 12 after Turkish forces came under fire in Syria’s Idlib Province, he said in a speech delivered in Ankara.

"The regime [of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] was seriously hit in Idlib but it is not enough. They will pay a heavy price for attacking our military personnel. Tomorrow, I will reveal the steps we are taking," the Turkish leader stressed.