Middle East & North Africa

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Gulf Arab countries have remained mostly silent as India’s government moved to strip the Indian-administered sector of Kashmir of its limited autonomy, imposing a sweeping military curfew in the disputed Muslim-majority region and cutting off residents from all communication and the internet.

This muted response is underpinned by more than $100 billion in annual trade with India that makes it one of the Arabian Peninsula’s most prized economic partners.

14 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has recommended banning two candidates from the ultra-right-wing Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party from contesting the country’s September election.

14 August 2019; DW: Turkey and the United States have agreed on the creation of a buffer zone in northern Syria. Details of the agreement remain sketchy, however, and Syrian Kurds fear Ankara will try to expel them from the region.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye said Tuesday that the "extreme and unilateral measures" of the United States have undermined the peace process with Israel.

Ishtaye told 37 American congressmen at his office in Ramallah that "the U.S. administration's measures have annulled all the final-status issues."

13 Aug 2019; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump to give the go-ahead for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank before the country’s upcoming general election.

TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization announced Tuesday that Britain is expected to release the confiscated Iranian oil tanker soon, state TV reported.

The authorities of the two sides have exchanged documents to pave the way for the release of the Iranian vessel, Jalil Eslami, the organization's deputy head, was quoted as saying.

London had shown willingness to resolve the dispute, Eslami said.

"We hope the problem will be resolved in the near future and the ship can continue sailing with the flag of Iran," he added.

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Members of the al-Ali family were walking home from shopping when several shells slammed into the busy street on the western edges of the Syrian city of Aleppo. The blast tore through them, killing 2-year-old Salam and one of her cousins, and incinerated a car nearby with a woman and her infant daughter inside.

It was one of multiple attacks by rebels firing from Aleppo’s outskirts that killed more than a dozen civilians last month.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Interior Ministry reinstated more than 13,000 police personnel after being fired following the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants took control of Iraq's northern city of Mosul in 2014.

by Rania El Gamal, Saeed Azhar

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco is planning a blockbuster investment in Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), the Indian firm announced on Monday, as the energy giant diversifies its business, where weaker oil prices pared its first-half profit by 12%.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the United States on Monday of turning the Gulf region into a “matchbox ready to ignite”, according to Al Jazeera television.

Oil tanker traffic passing through the Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz has become the focus of a U.S.-Iranian standoff since Washington pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions to strangle Tehran’s oil exports.