Middle East & North Africa

TRIPOLI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Nearly half a million internally displaced people (IDPs) who have returned to their homes in Libya are in need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday.

"Currently in Libya, there are over 445,000 returnees that are in need of humanitarian assistance," UNHCR said.

Many Libyan families are living in areas surrounded by unexploded remnants of war near their destroyed homes, UNHCR added.

Gaza City, Mar 25; PTI/GANASHAKTI: A Hamas official denied Israel's accusation that it was behind Monday's rocket strike north of Tel Aviv which wounded seven Israelis and led Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to vow a strong response.

"No one from the resistance movements, including Hamas, has an interest in firing rockets from the Gaza Strip towards the enemy," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, evoking the possibility that it may have been caused by "bad weather".

ANKARA; 25 Mar 2019; AA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday applauded the humane stance of the people of New Zealand following last week's twin mosque attacks in Christchurch city.

“The people of New Zealand gave a lesson of humanity to those who did not get their share of humanity,” Erdogan told a live broadcast in Istanbul.

25 Mar 2019; AFP: Uber is set to buy its Middle Eastern rival Careem for $3.1 billion, financial news agency Bloomberg reported Sunday.

The deal, expected to be announced Tuesday, will see Uber pay $1.4 billion in cash and the rest in notes convertible to Uber shares, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

ANKARA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey will take the issue of U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights to the United Nations.

U.S. President Donald Trump's statement on Golan Heights is a "gift" to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of parliamentary elections set for April, Erdogan said in an interview with local broadcaster TGRT Haber.

CAIRO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- The resumption of Syria's suspended membership in the Arab League (AL) is not on the agenda of the Arab summit scheduled for the end of March in Tunisia, the pan-Arab body said Sunday.

"Until now, the topic of Syria's return to the AL is not on the agenda and it was not officially proposed by any party," said Mahmoud Afifi, AL spokesman, in a statement.

"But the Syrian crisis is on the agenda," he added.

RABAT, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people marched on Sunday in the Moroccan capital Rabat to defend free education and show solidarity with protesting teachers.

Organized by the Moroccan Coalition for the Defense of Public Education, the march criticizes the government's "scheme to terminate all public services."

The march, joined by several leaders of leftist opposition parties, denounced a bill under discussion in parliament which calls for the gradual introduction of registration fees in public institutions of higher education and then in high schools.

ANKARA, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's banking and capital markets watchdogs said late Saturday they had launched investigations into JP Morgan and other banks over "misleading and manipulative actions" after the lira plunged sharply Friday.

In a written statement, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) said it received complaints that a report JP Morgan published on Friday hurt the reputation of Turkish banks and led to volatility in financial markets.

23 Mar 2019; AFP: Kurdish-led forces pronounced the death of the Islamic State group's nearly five-year-old "caliphate" Saturday after flushing out diehard jihadists from their very last bastion in eastern Syria.

Fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces raised their yellow flag in Baghouz, the remote riverside village where diehard jihadists of a variety of nationalities made a desperate, dramatic last stand.

22 Mar 2019; DW: A United Nations report found Israel's shooting of demonstrators could amount to crimes against humanity. The Human Rights Council adopted a resolution on Israeli accountability, but the European vote was divided.

The United Nations will step up the presence of monitors in Gaza after its human rights body said Israel's shootings of Palestinians could be deemed crimes against humanity.