Middle East & North Africa

ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's internationally-recognized government on Thursday held a crisis meeting in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh to follow up the escalating situation in the country's southern part.

A government official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity saying that "all the government's members attended a crisis meeting chaired by Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik and discussed ways to confront the armed rebellion in the southern port city of Aden."

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. officials have confirmed that Israel was responsible for the bombing of an Iranian weapons depot in Iraq last month, an attack that would mark a significant escalation in Israel’s years-long campaign against Iranian military entrenchment across the region.

The confirmation comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strongly hinting that his country is behind recent airstrikes in Iraq.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: An Israeli conscientious objector has been released by the military after spending 82 days in solitary confinement, reported +972 Magazine.

Roman Levin was freed by the Israeli army last week, having been first jailed in February, “when he declared his refusal to continue his service after spending a year and a half as a driver in the army.”

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: The family of the Egyptian-Palestinian politician Ramy Shaath who has previously worked as a political and strategic advisor to Yasser Arafat has released a statement on his arrest by Egyptian authorities last month in which they call for his prompt release.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israel’s Supreme Court has frozen the appointment of Ophir Cohen, a loyalist to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as the director general of the Justice Ministry.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: The Israeli occupation’s court in Ofer Prison has ordered Palestinian children to pay fines worth $100,000 since the start of this year, Palestinian Prisoners’ Centre for Studies reported yesterday.

The centre said in a statement that most of the Palestinian children detained by Israel are fined in addition to spending time in prisons.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: Iran unveiled its own locally-developed missile defence system today, and claimed that it beats the renowned Russian S-300 and US Patriot systems. The long-range surface-to-air missile system, Bavar-373, was unveiled in a ceremony in Tehran commemorating Iran’s National Defence Industry Day and attended by President Hassan Rouhani.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: Sudan’s new prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, was sworn in on Wednesday as leader of a transitional government, and he vowed to make achieving peace and solving the country’s economic crisis a priority, Reuters reports.

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait, Aug 22 (NNN-KUNA) – Kuwait expressed its support for preserving the unity and sovereignty of Yemen, over the latest developments in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden.

Kuwait is looking forward to efforts exerted by Saudi Arabia, to host talks in Jeddah, between the Yemeni government and representatives of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mansour Al-Otaibi, said.

KHARTOUM, Aug 21 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The outgoing head of the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC), Abdel Fattah Burhan, was sworn in on Wednesday as the chief of the freshly formed Sovereign Council (SC), Sputnik news agency reported.

Burhan, who will be heading the SC during a transitional period of 21 months, was sworn in in front of the head of the country’s Supreme Court. Meanwhile, other members of the SC will take oath later on Wednesday.

The TMC is expected to announced its dissolution in coming hours.