Middle East & North Africa

AMMAN, Oct 25 (NNN-PETRA) – The Mediterranean Conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), kicked off yesterday, in Jordan.

The two-day event, convening representatives of OSCE’s 57 member states and its 10 Mediterranean and Asian partners, seeks to discuss common security opportunities and challenges in the Euro-Mediterranean region, according to a statement by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry.

25 October 2022; MEMO: The Syrian regime yesterday cancelled a scheduled meeting with Lebanese officials to discuss the delineation of their sea boundaries.

According to Reuters, this came in a letter sent by the Syrian government to the Lebanese Foreign Ministry yesterday, saying "the time was not right" for such a visit.

25 October 2022; MEMO: Days after accusing the opposition of forming "electronic bots" to spread chaos and destabilise the country, the Tunisian Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies has had its Twitter account closed for violating publishing laws. Several politicians and activists have responded to the measure, Al-Quds Al-Arabi has reported.

25 October 2022; MEMO: American bankers are said to have defied the White House to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, which opens today. The Chief Executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon; Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman; and David Solomon, the head of Goldman Sachs, are among a host of western executives scheduled to speak at the annual event dubbed "Davos in the Desert".

25 October 2022; MEMO: Sweden's centre-right government will fulfil all requirements under a deal with Turkiye to join NATO and will concentrate external relations to its immediate neighbourhood, while dropping the previous administration's "feminist foreign policy", the country's Foreign Minister said Monday, AP reports.

25 October 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces killed six Palestinians this morning across the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, including Wadih Al Houh, a leader of the Lions' Den group.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, five Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire. One of those killed was unarmed, it added.

25 October 2022; MEMO: Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani that his country has been subjected to an unprecedented smear campaign since the announcement that it would be hosting the 2022 World Cup. This is the first time the World Cup is being organised in an Arab country and in the Middle East.

The emir's statement was made during the opening of the 51st ordinary session of the elected Shura Council.

DOHA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Qatar has faced unprecedented criticism since winning the bid to host the 2022 World Cup, some of which amounted to slander, its ruler, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said on Tuesday.

"We initially dealt with the matter in good faith," Sheikh Tamim said in a televised policy speech, adding that some of the early criticism was constructive.

CAIRO, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were killed on Monday in a road accident in Egypt's northern Beheira Governorate, the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower said in a statement.

The ministry said the eight people were killed when a truck collided with a tricycle on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road, adding that two others were critically injured in the accident.

The victims, all day laborers, were on their way to a farm in the Wadi al-Natroun area in Beheira Governorate to work, the statement said.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Where to sleep? It’s among the biggest questions facing fans traveling to tiny Qatar for the World Cup amid a feverish rush for rooms in Doha. Some will sleep on cruise ships. Others will camp in the desert. Others will fly in from Dubai and elsewhere.

But in the run-up to the world’s biggest sporting event in the world’s smallest host country, the struggle for housing is hardly limited to tourists. Qatar’s real estate frenzy has sent rents skyrocketing and priced long-term residents out of their own homes, leaving many in the lurch.