Middle East & North Africa

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia has announced a new tourist visa scheme, as part of efforts to open up the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom to foreign visitors and diversify its oil-reliant economy.

The kingdom says allowing more foreign visitors is “a key milestone.” It is seeking to increase international and domestic visits to 100 million a year by 2030, by which time it aims to have tourism contributing up to 10% of gross domestic product compared to the current 3%.

BEIRUT, Sept 28 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese Health Minister Jamil Jabak, accused the United States of preventing the international community from supporting Lebanon in the medical sector, local media reported.

“The Americans are fighting medical programmes offered by donor countries to Lebanon,” Jabak was quoted as saying, by Elnashra, an online newspaper.

Jabak added that the U.S. embassy did not issue him a visa to the United States, to participate in the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

HMEYMIM /Syria/, September 27. /TASS/: Air defense and electronic warfare systems deployed at Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria have shot down or disabled over 100 drones during terrorists’ attempted attacks on the military facility over the past two years, Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The British-flagged Stena Impero tanker sailed out of Iranian waters on Friday, the owner said, after it was detained in July during a row with Britain that has stoked tensions in the Gulf.

The Stena Impero left Iran’s Bandar Abbas port on Friday morning bound for Dubai, where the crew would be repatriated, Sweden’s Stena Bulk said, after being detained for 10 weeks.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party faces more defections after losing 840,000 members in the last year, former loyalists say, compounding its difficulties after two founding members broke ranks aiming to set up rival parties.

Erdogan, modern Turkey’s longest serving leader, has already faced a series of setbacks this year including an economic recession which has eroded AK Party support and defeat for his candidates in mayoral elections in Ankara and Istanbul.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police mounted a huge show of force in central Cairo and closed off entrances to Tahrir Square on Friday after calls for protests against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following opposition accusations of corruption, which he denies.

Protests broke out on Sept. 20 in Cairo and other cities following online calls for demonstrations against alleged graft by Sisi and the powerful military.

TRIPOLI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Forces of Libya's UN-backed government on Thursday launched 14 airstrikes on the rival eastern-based army in southern Tripoli.

"The air force carried out 14 airstrikes on position of Haftar's militias (army) in southern Tripoli, destroying ammunition stores and military vehicles," the spokesman of the UN-backed government's forces Mohamed Gununo said in a statement.

The statement said that the airstrikes also destroyed operation chambers and fortifications of the eastern-based army.

27 Sep 2019; MEMO: Israeli authorities yesterday demolished all the homes and tents in the Palestinian Bedouin village of Al-Araqeeb in the Negev desert for the 162th time, displacing its residents.

According to local sources, Israeli police forces and employees from the Bedouin development authority, which is responsible for such demolitions, stormed the village and forcibly removed the residents from their homes before razing their homes.

KHARTOUM, Sept 27 (NNN-AFRICANEWS) — Sudan’s transitional government ordered the immediate closure of the nation’s borders with Libya and Central African Republic, citing security and economic “dangers”.

A statement on Thursday by the Sovereign Transitional Council said vehicles had been illegally crossing the borders with the two nations, which have both been mired in violence.

The council did not give further details about what the “dangers” were.

RIYADH, Sept 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Saudi Arabia threw open its doors to foreign tourists, launching a new visa regime for 49 countries and appealing to foreign companies to invest in a sector it hopes will contribute 10 per cent of gross domestic product by 2030.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, relatively closed off for decades, has in recent years relaxed strict social codes, like segregating men and women in public places and requiring women to wear all-covering black robes, or abayas.