Middle East & North Africa

02 Jan 2019; MEMO: Dozens of Jordanians on Tuesday participated in a protests against China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslim in China’s Xinjiang province.

The demonstration was organised by the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, in front of the Chinese embassy in the capital Amman.

The Front’s Secretary-General Murad Al-Adaileh and lawmaker Saud Abu Mahfouz of the Reform Bloc participated in the protest.

02 Jan 2019; MEMO: Jordan’s National Electricity Company (NEPCO) announced yesterday that it has started receiving natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan offshore natural gas field in implementation of the agreement signed between the two sides in 2016.

NEPCO said in a statement that the experimental pumping will continue for three months under the technical and contractual terms between the two sides. It gave no further details.

2 January 2020; AFP: Saudi Arabia's hosting of the Dakar Rally this month is just the latest international sporting event to take place in the kingdom as part of a multi-billion-dollar push to boost its battered global image.

In recent months the ultra-conservative kingdom -- under fire over human rights abuses -- has accelerated investment in sports, mirroring a longstanding strategy adopted by regional powers, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that up to 250,000 migrants were fleeing from the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib towards Turkey, adding that Ankara was trying to prevent them from crossing its border.

Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees, the largest refugee population in the world. It fears a new wave from Idlib, where up to 3 million Syrians live in the last rebel-held swathe of territory, after Russian and Syrian government forces last month intensified their bombardment of targets in the region.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained seven people including four pilots on Thursday in an investigation of how ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn touched down in Istanbul as he fled Japan en route to Lebanon, according to broadcaster NTV.

Turkey’s interior ministry has launched a probe into the transit of Ghosn, who has become Japan’s most famous fugitive after revealing on Tuesday he fled to Beirut to escape what he called a “rigged” justice system.

DUBAI (Reuters) - A top Iranian commander said on Thursday that Iran was not moving toward a war but was not afraid of any conflict, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported after U.S. President Donald Trump said Tehran was behind anti-U.S. protests in Iraq.

Trump accused Iran of orchestrating demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Iraq on Tuesday and said Tehran would be held responsible. Iran has rejected the accusation.

DAMASCUS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The rebel groups have launched a counter-offensive on areas recently recaptured by the Syrian army in the southern countryside of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, a war monitor reported on Thursday.

The counter-offensive has flared on Thursday morning with rebels heavily shelling positions of the Syrian army in the areas of al-Tah and Jarjanaz in the southern countryside of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

BEIRUT, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday condemned the U.S. bombing in Iraq and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the National News Agency reported.

The ministry hoped for calm and security to be restored as soon as possible in Iraq by respecting the country's sovereignty and adhering to the principles of diplomatic relations between countries.

On Sunday, the U.S. military launched deadly airstrikes on five locations in Iraq and Syria controlled by Kata'ib Hezbollah paramilitary group in Iraq.

TUNIS, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli said on Wednesday that he had offered the lineup of his new government to President Kais Saied.

"The names of the government ministers will be announced to the public on Thursday," Jemli said during a press conference in the capital city of Tunis.

The government will be submitted to parliament for a vote of confidence. It has to obtain a majority of 109 out of a total of 217 possible votes.

MUSCAT, Oman, Jan 2 (NNN-ONA) – Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, issued on Wednesday, a royal decree that approves the country’s general budget for the fiscal year 2020.

According to a statement by the Omani Ministry of Finance, the revenue of the general budget for 2020 was estimated at about 10.7 billion Omani riyals (about 27.8 billion US dollars).

The public spending was estimated at 13.2 billion Omani riyals.

The statement added that, the budget revenue increased by six percent from the estimated revenue for 2019.