Middle East & North Africa

Washington, Apr 6 (PTI) The IMF chief on Thursday said that the world economy is expected to grow at less than 3 per cent this year, with China and India expected to account for half of global growth in 2023.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva warned that a sharp slowdown in the world economy last year following the raging pandemic and Russia's military invasion of Ukraine would continue this year.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: Hussain Besou was just four when he started asking his father to teach him chess, hovering around the board as he played in the evenings in the Middle East until he said yes, Reuters reports.

After mastering the basic moves, Besou quickly surprised everyone with his talent.

"He started correcting us and telling us what we should have done to win," said his 43 year-old father, Mustafa.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel will not survive the next 25 years.

"We have said that they will not see the next 25 years, but it seems that they are in a hurry and want to leave quickly," Khamenei said on Tuesday during a reception of senior state officials, commenting on the internal crisis in Israel over the judicial overhaul proposal.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: The Jerusalem Religious Endowment (Awqaf) Council insisted on Wednesday that Al-Aqsa Mosque is open 24 hours a day, every day, for Muslim worshippers. The council is under the authority of the Jordanian government. It called for Muslims to visit and perform prayers in Al-Aqsa as much as possible.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: The Government of the Republic of South Africa has "noted with concern" the Israeli occupation forces' assault on Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem. In a media statement issued by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, the government in Pretoria said that it "condemns these violent acts by the Israeli government against the worshippers and calls for calm and the withdrawal of the forces from Al-Aqsa Mosque."

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: A senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement in the diaspora has described events at Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem as an "existential battle with the Zionist enemy and its racist government," Quds Press has reported. Abdel Jabbar Saeed added that it is also a "battle of wills and sacred rights."

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: Syria and Tunisia are planning to restore diplomatic ties and reopen their respective embassies and appoint envoys, the Syrian state news agency, SANA, reported yesterday. The announcement follows a telephone conversation between the top diplomats of both countries.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: Finland said yesterday that it plans to purchase Israel's David's Sling missile defence system in a deal wotk $344 million.

The announcement came a day after Finland joined the NATO military alliance and is an effort to boost its defence capabilities.

"The David's Sling system will extend the operational range of Finland's ground-based air defense capabilities significantly," it said in a statement.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: A prominent advocate of the controversial and inaccurate definition of anti-Semitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has acknowledged that one of its purposes is to target and silence human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) and others documenting Israel's human rights abuses.

06 Apr 2023; MEMO: An Omani IT professional has developed an indigenous social media platform modelled on Twitter, called Sufred.