Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Dec 28 (NNN-SANA) – Heavy rain, floods and fire, on Friday, destroyed Syrian tents in several areas in Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.

Floods destroyed tents of Syrian refugees in Akkar, north of Lebanon, prompting the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC), to move the refugees to other tents, temporarily, while providing them with blankets.

The LRC also asked for help of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to save refugees from three other tents affected by heavy rainfall in the north of Lebanon.

RAMALLAH, Palestine, Dec 28 (NNN-WAFA) – During the period between Dec 10 and 23, Israeli occupation authorities demolished, or forced Palestinian people to demolish, 29 structures in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, displacing 45 people and affecting over 100 others, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said.

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Reiterating remarkable achievements in China-Ethiopia relations in the year 2019, including the cooperation on successful launch of Ethiopia's first ever remote sensing satellite, dubbed ETRSS-1, this month, the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia Tan Jian said the coming 2020 year would be historic, whereby the two countries elevate the ties to a higher level, with realization of more achievements in different projects.

MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- In Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, joy and hopes reappear on the faces of the shop owners of the city's oldest market, after two years when Iraq declared full liberation from the extremist Islamic State (IS) group.

In the old city of Mosul, still in ruins and scarred by the intensive clashes between IS militants and Iraqi security forces, many shops in the ancient al-Attareen market started to open their doors.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran-supported groups on Friday blasted Iraq’s president for not naming their preferred prime minister candidate, saying his decision was at the behest of the United States, and warned him to not name anyone who could be “an agent of the Americans.”

In refusing to appoint Fatah-backed candidate Asaad al-Eidani on Thursday, President Barham Salih said he was responding to broad opposition by anti-government protesters who have flooded the streets for nearly three months to demand the overthrow of Iraq’s entire political class.

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian opposition leader called Friday on the international community to help millions of civilians in the country’s last rebel-held stronghold amid a crushing government offensive, calling it a “disaster area.”

After weeks of intense bombardment, Syrian government forces launched a ground offensive on the southern and eastern parts of Idlib province in the northwest last week. It has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

27 Dec 2019; MEMO: Syria is considering the possibility of filing an international lawsuit against the United States (US) over stealing local oil, the Syrian presidency’s political and media adviser announced yesterday.

Speaking to Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen, Buthaina Shaaban accused the US of “plundering Syrian oil”, condemning the move.

27 Dec 2019; MEMO: The Iraqi President Barham Saleh submitted his resignation to parliament yesterday following weeks of anti-establishment protests that left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.

Media reports said Saleh explained in his resignation letter that he prefers to resign rather than appoint a candidate to form a government who is rejected by the protesters.

27 Dec 2019; MEMO: The Israeli army yesterday admitted that a faulty assessment of the risk to civilians led to the killing of eight members of the same family in Gaza Strip.

Beirut, Dec 27 (AFP/PTI) More than 235,000 people have fled the Idlib region over the past two weeks, the UN said Friday, amid heightened regime and Russian attacks on Syria's last major opposition bastion.

The mass displacement between 12 and 25 December has left the violence-plagued Maaret al-Numan region in southern Idlib "almost empty", according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.

AFP correspondents in the area have seen people fleeing in droves in recent days.