Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian protester was shot dead in the West Bank on Friday as Palestinian and U.S. leaders blamed each other for violence that erupted after President Donald Trump unveiled a Middle East Peace plan that Palestinians rejected as one sided.

Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces have repeatedly clashed since the peace proposals were unveiled by Trump, with Israel’s prime minister at his side.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States are a “criminal act” against the country, Iranian’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday, according to state TV.

“These sanctions are criminal act ... but we can turn it to an opportunity by distancing Iran’s economy from being dependent on oil exports,” said Khamenei.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran is not posing any threat to other countries, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday, according to State TV, adding that Tehran was determined to guarantee its own security.

“Iran poses no threat to any other country ... Our only aim is to make sure our security is guaranteed,” Khamenei told a group of commanders and staff of Iran’s Air Force.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran has a very strong Air Force despite limitations imposed on the country by the United States since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a gathering of Air Force commanders and staff on Saturday.

“Since the revolution their aim was to stop us from having a strong air force ... but look at us now. We even build planes. We have transformed their pressure to opportunity,” said Khamenei according to state news agency IRNA.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb.7 (Xinhua) -- A funding shortfall is hampering efforts to transform Africa's agricultural sector, an African Union (AU) official said on Friday.

A funding shortfall is hampering seven key commitments including ending hunger by 2025 pledge outlined under the Maputo and Malabo declarations, Josefa Sacko, AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, said at the sidelines of the 33rd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey on Friday sent more troops and tanks to bolster its military presence in northwestern Syria, where President Bashar Assad’s forces have been advancing in a devastating, Russian-backed offensive that has sparked a massive wave of people fleeing in wet and blustery winter weather.

(Reuters) - Investigators on Thursday said pilots failed to monitor engine settings ahead of the crash of an Emirates jet at Dubai airport more than three years ago, in which all 300 passengers and crew safely evacuated but a firefighter died.

The plane caught fire after skidding along the airport runway on its fuselage while trying to abort a landing.

Pilots on the flight from India in August 2016 did not notice that the Boeing 777-300’s engine thrust settings remained too low and also missed out part of a cockpit procedure, investigators said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric on Friday berated security forces for failing to protect protesters killed in clashes with rival groups this week in the southern city of Najaf, and urged politicians to pick a government trusted by the people.

The violence in the holy city of Najaf, where Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is based, killed eight anti-government demonstrators after followers of populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed their sit-in protest.

Shahr-e Kord, Feb 6, IRNA - Iranian Minster of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani announced on Thursday that the country has stood at the tenth place in the world in terms of producing copper and steel.

In producing those two products, Iran could set a record as it overtook France and Italy, Rahmani said in a meeting held in this central western Iranian city of Shahr-e Kord with Friday prayer leader.

07 Feb 2020; MEMO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has pardoned 541 prisoners, many of whom are opponents to the current regime who were arrested and detained for political reasons.

The Egyptian Ministry of Interior’s Prisons Authority said in a statement on Tuesday that Sisi issued a presidential decree ordering the release of the prisoners with probationary measures.

Under Egyptian law, the president may pardon prisoners who have served at least half of their sentence.