Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Oct 5 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Health Minister, Jamil Jabak, said, the number of cancer patients in Lebanon has increased by threefold in the past 15 years due to pollution, local media reported.

“We hope that officials work hard on reducing the risks of getting exposed to cancer, by dealing properly with pollution,” Jabak was quoted as saying.

Jabak said that, his ministry decided to support the Children’s Cancer Centre directly, by allocating more money for this purpose in the 2019 state budget.

TRIPOLI, Oct 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 165 illegal migrants have been voluntarily deported from Libya to Nigeria.

“Our team assisted 165 stranded Nigerian migrants in Libya, mostly women and children, to return to their homeland by a charter flight departing from Sebha airport (southern Libya),” the IOM said in a statement.

The voluntary return program is carried out by the IOM to arrange the return of illegal migrants stranded in Libya to their countries of origin.

TRIPOLI, Oct 5 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) on Friday warned against the east-based rebel army’s attempts to divide the country’s national oil company.

“The UNSMIL is alarmed by indications that parallel, unrecognized authorities in Libya are threatening the operation and management of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and its subsidiary Brega,” the UNSMIL said in a statement.

RABAT, Oct 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A member of Morocco’s governing coalition said it would join the opposition ahead of a reshuffle requested by King Mohammed VI, citing disagreements with its partners in government.

Senior Progress and Socialism Party (PPS) members, announcing the decision following a majority vote of the party’s central committee, decried a “democratic deficit” in Morocco and cited “backtracking” from a new 2011 constitution under which the king was to devolve more powers to parliament.

GAZA, Palestine, Oct 5 (NNN-WAFA) – At least one Palestinian was killed and 11 injured on Friday, by Israeli soldiers’ gunfire, during clashes with dozens of Palestinian demonstrators in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the health ministry in Gaza, told reporters that, Allaa Hamdan, 28, was killed, east of Jabalia, in northern Gaza Strip.

He added that, 11 others were injured, including five by live ammunition, during the clashes that broke out on Friday afternoon.

DUBAI, Oct 5 (NNN-WAM) – Hazza Al Mansoori, the first Emirati astronaut, along with astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksey Ovchinin, returned to Earth safely, after completing his eight-day scientific mission aboard the International Space Station, ISS. The hatch closing of the Soyuz MS-12 took place at 08:20 UAE time.

The spacecraft un-docked from the ISS, on Oct 3, at 11:37 UAE time, and landed in the southeast of Dzhezkazgan in Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan at 14:59.

ANKARA, Oct 5 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Airbus is expected to invest around $2.5 billion in Turkey in 2020, and that figure will jump over $5 billion by 2030, Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Cahit Turhan, said.

Turkey and Airbus have maintained a strong and successful collaboration in civilian and military aviation for some 30 years, Turhan added.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Security forces opened fire directly at hundreds of anti-government demonstrators Friday in central Baghdad, killing at least 17 protesters and injuring dozens, hours after Iraq’s top Shiite cleric warned both sides to end four days of violence “before it’s too late.”

The latest deaths raised the number of people killed in clashes during ongoing protests to 59 and marked a sharp escalation in the use of force against unarmed protesters.

Tehran, Oct 3, IRNA – Head of the Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Thursday that the force has arrested a group of terrorist intending to assassinate Major-General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of IRGC Quds Force.

The Hebrew-Arab services had planned to assassinate General Soleimani, which failed with the assassination group being arrested by the IRGC intelligence service, said Hossein Taeb.

4 Oct 2019; MEMO: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi called on lawmakers on Thursday to support him to reshuffle cabinet posts and urged calm after three days of deadly civil unrest rocked the country, Reuters reports.

Abdul Mahdi said there was no ‘magic solution’ to Iraq’s chronic governance problems and graft but pledged to try to pass a law granting poor families a basic income.