Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Dec 25 (NNN-NNA) – Newly appointed Lebanese Prime Minister, Hassan Diab, said, he will form a government, capable of dealing with economic, financial and social woes in Lebanon, local media said.

“When we form a government that gains the confidence vote of Parliament, we will turn to the implementation of projects that are in the interest of the Lebanese people, on the economic, financial and social levels,” Diab was quoted as saying.

BAGHDAD, Dec 25 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi parliament approved a new election law, as part of the efforts to meet the demands of the anti-government protesters.

After the vote on the law, the Parliament Speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, announced that the new election law was approved.

According to the new law, each of the country’s 18 provinces will have several electoral districts, with one lawmaker to be elected per 100,000 people.

SANAA, Dec 25 (NNN-SABA) – At least 17 people were killed on Tuesday, in a Saudi-led coalition artillery attack on a popular border market in Yemen’s northern province of Saada, medics and local residents said.

“Twelve Ethiopian migrants were among those killed in the cross-border shelling at Al-Raqu market,” two medics and a local resident at the scene said.

The attack also injured over 15 others, the sources said.

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition, which has been engaging in the Yemeni conflict since 2015.

ANKARA, Dec 25 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Turkey is discussing with Russia, reaching a new truce in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, Turkish Presidential Spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said.

The negotiation aims to put an end to the increased violence in the region, Kalin said, during a televised news conference. “These attacks must come to an end immediately, under a new cease-fire,” he said.

“We are now waiting for Russia to begin efforts in the coming 24 hours, for an end to the attacks in Idlib,” he added.

MUSCAT, Dec 25 (NNN-ONA) – Oman’s minister of foreign affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi, and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, held talks in Muscat to discuss economic cooperation.

According to an official Omani foreign ministry statement, the talks reviewed bilateral relations and means to push them forward, as well as, regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Zarif arrived with an official delegation in Oman on Monday evening.

JERUSALEM, Dec 25 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israel Competition Authority, announced that, it had fined Coca-Cola Israel, 39 million new shekels (about 11 million U.S. dollars) for its abusing of monopoly position.

The authority mentioned six infringing actions by the company, which manufactures and markets U.S. beverage giant Coca-Cola’s products in Israel, and is headquartered in the central city of Bnei Brak.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Tuesday it would keep pushing for accountability “regardless of how high it goes” over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, after what it called a “sham trial” of 11 people.

Khashoggi disappeared after going to the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018, to obtain documents for his planned wedding. His body was reportedly dismembered and removed from the building, and his remains have not been found.

DUBAI/PARIS (Reuters) - Emirates Airline President Tim Clark will retire at the end of June 2020, the company said in an internal memo to staff on Tuesday.

Clark, who was part of the airline’s founding team in 1985, will stay on as an advisor, the memo reviewed by Reuters said.

A company spokeswoman confirmed in an email that Clark is retiring.

SILIVRI, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish court ruled on Tuesday that businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala should be kept in jail despite a call for his release by the European Court of Human Rights, as a trial over his involvement in 2013 protests continued.

Kavala has been in custody for more than two years, charged with attempting to overthrow the government by organizing and funding protests against then-Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan which started in Istanbul’s Gezi Park and spread nationwide.

by Ramzy Baroud

What is Gaza to us but an Israeli missile, a rudimentary rocket, a demolished home, an injured child being whisked away by his peers under a hail of bullets? On a daily basis, Gaza is conveyed to us as a bloody image or a dramatic video, none of which can truly capture the everyday reality of the Strip – its formidable steadfastness, the everyday acts of resistance, and the type of suffering that can never be really understood through a customary glance at a social media post.