Middle East & North Africa

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: The Qatari National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) and Ministry of Education and Higher Education yesterday launched the guide on human rights on the sidelines of the Doha International Book Fair.

The guide, which will be incorporated into the educational curricula from primary school during the next academic year, covers the right to identity, the right to play, the right to education, the right to health, the right to equality and others.

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: Israel began pumping natural gas to Egypt for the first time today under a $15 billion, 15-year deal to liquefy and re-export the gas to Europe, Reuters reported.

Tel Aviv and Cairo’s energy ministries issued a rare joint statement announcing the implementation of the estimated $19.5 billion deal to pump gas from two offshore gas fields.

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: Israeli occupation authorities rearrested Palestinian Ismail Afanan as he was being released, Al-Quds newspaper reported yesterday.

The prisoner was taken out of Al Naqab Prison after completing an 18-year term but was rearrested and sent to Al Maskopia Detention Centre in Jerusalem.

Occupation authorities also issued summons to his brothers who were waiting for him at the prison gates.

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: Amnesty International has urged Israeli authorities to prevent notorious tech company NSO Group from exporting spyware products to human rights abusers, ahead of a court case starting tomorrow.

A judge at Tel Aviv District Court will tomorrow begin hearing arguments as to why the Israeli government should restrict the activities of NSO Group.

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: The President of the Yemeni Southern Transitional Council (STC), Aidarus Al-Zoubaidi, yesterday received a number of STC prisoners who had been released under the peace deal signed in Saudi Arabia, the Anadolu Agency reported.

Earlier on Saturday, the Yemeni government handed over 29 prisoners affiliated with the opposition STC to the commander of the Arab coalition forces in the city of Shabwah, Anadolu quoted a local source as saying.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia proposes to hold its national vote on Aug. 16, the electoral board said on Wednesday, the first poll under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who has eased political restrictions and taken steps to open the economy since taking office in 2018.

Ethiopia’s 100 million people are seeing unprecedented political change, but Abiy’s reforms have also uncorked ethnic rivalries that have spilled into violence.

15 Jan 2019; MEMO: Turkey’s ban on online encyclopedia Wikipedia is set to be lifted after the official publication on Wednesday of a Constitutional Court ruling that the more than two-year block was a violation of freedom of expression, reports Reuters.

The detailed version of the ruling published in the Official Gazette opens the way for an end to the ban, put in place in April 2017 due to entries that accused Turkey of having links to terrorist organisations.

ANKARA, Jan 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Turkey will not refrain from “teaching a lesson” to Khalifa Haftar if his eastern Libyan forces continue attacks against the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, President Tayyip Erdogan said.

Turkey and Russia failed to convince Haftar on Monday to sign a binding truce to halt his nine-month campaign to try to conquer the Libyan capital from forces aligned with the internationally recognized government.

KHAMIR, Yemen (Reuters) - Widow Samirah Nasser and her eight children tried to return to their Yemeni village but were forced by relentless air strikes to return to the relative safety of a refugee camp.

Shivering through yet another camp winter, she is one of 3.6 million Yemenis - around 12% of the population - displaced during a nearly five-year war that has spawned what the United Nations says is the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis.

NICOSIA, Jan 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Cyprus intercepted a vessel carrying 101 Syrians off its coast on Tuesday, police said, one of the largest arrivals of refugees from the neighbouring country in recent months.

The Syrians were loaded at sea onto a coastguard vessel and from there led to a harbour in the south-east of the island.

“There were minors among those on the boat, which appears to have set off from Turkey,” a police spokeswoman added.