Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Lebanese General Labor Union head Bechara Asmar called Tuesday for a nationwide strike on Friday to accelerate government formation, local media reported.

"We call for a nationwide strike this coming Friday for the public and private sectors in a bid to push officials to form a government and save the Lebanese people," Asmar was quoted by the National News Agency as saying.

MOGADISHU, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Somali government on Tuesday accused the United Nations special envoy of "violating protocols" and "deliberately interfering" in the internal affairs of the Horn of Africa country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation declared Nicholas Haysom, special representative of the UN secretary-general for Somalia, a "persona non-grata," saying the UN envoy is not welcome in the nation.

The ministry said in a statement that the 66-year-old is unwanted and cannot operate in the country.

01 Jan 2019; DW: The Syrian Observatory on Human Rights has said 20,000 people were killed this year in Syria's civil war. It's a record low in a conflict that has already claimed half a million lives — and that could flare up again.

01 Jan 2019; DW: The countries announced in 2017 that they would withdraw from the UN Educational, Science and Cultural Organization, accusing it of bias against Israel. That went into effect at the stroke of midnight.

Tehran, Dec 31, IRNA – The US President Donald Trump's secret trip to Iraq is tantamount to breaching the country's sovereignty and insulting the Iraqi people, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Moscow, Dec 30, IRNA - The head of the Russian-Arab States Friendship Association and senior Russian diplomat believes that the Syrian Kurds' U-turn to the Syrian government and the control of the Syrian army over Manbij is sign of the US ruined plan in this country.

31 Dec 2018; DW: Fresh peace talks have taken place between representatives of the Afghan Taliban and Iranian officials. The Tehran meeting happened amid reports that the US plans to pull nearly 7,000 US troops from Afghanistan.

Iran's foreign ministry said on Monday that lengthy negotiations were held between a Taliban delegation and Iran's deputy foreign minister.

31 Dec 2018; DW: Almost 30,000 Jews immigrated to Israel over the past year, the country's immigration agency says. Around a third of them came from Russia.

Immigration by Jews to Israel rose by 5 percent over the past year, with 29,600 people moving to the country in 2018, according to figures released on Sunday by the state immigration organization "Jewish Agency for Israel."

ZHUKOVSKY, December 30. /TASS/. A special flight from Baghdad that evacuated Russian children whose parents joined terrorist organizations in the Middle East has landed at the Ramenskoye airdrome outside Moscow, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.

Head of Russia’s North Caucasian region of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram account earlier that the plane was carrying 30 children who had been kept at Iraqi prisons with their mothers. According to Kadyrov, 24 of them are from Dagestan, 3 from Chechnya, and the rest from Moscow and Penza.

TUNIS, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- A total of 45 irregular migrants of African nationalities were rescued from a sinking boat off the island of Kerkennah in the province of Sfax in southeast Tunisia, Tunisian Interior Ministry said on Sunday evening.

The illegal boat came from the Libyan town of Zouara with 45 irregular migrants on board, including six women, two of whom were pregnant.

This is the second attempt of irregular migration intercepted by Tunisian maritime security forces during the last 24 hours.