Middle East & North Africa

6 October 2022; MEMO: Iranian State television aired a video, on Thursday, in which two French citizens detained for "spying" in Iran in May appeared to confess to acting on behalf of a French security service, amid weeks of unrest that Tehran has linked to foreign foes, Reuters reports.

France's Foreign Ministry accused Iran of the practices of the "worst dictatorial regimes" over the video confessions and categorically denied that the two were members of the French intelligence services.

7 October 2022; MEMO: Kuwait's cabinet ministers submitted their resignations yesterday only hours after Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf Al Sabah announced his cabinet.

Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper said the ministers resigned following parliamentary discontent with the reappointing of ministers from the previous government of Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, namely Sheikh Ahmed Al-Nasser, Muhammad Rana Al-Faris and Abdul Rahman Al-Mutairi.

CAIRO, Oct 6 (NNN-MENA) – Arab League Secretary-General, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit, voiced deep concern over the recent remarks by British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, about planning to move the country’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the pan-Arab body said.

In a statement, the Arab League (AL) rejected “any unilateral move that violates international laws and the historic and legal status of Jerusalem,” noting, Aboul-Gheit has extended his concern via a televised address to the British Conservative Party Conference on Tuesday.

RAMALLAH, Oct 6 (NNN-WAFA) – Another Palestinian was killed yesterday, during clashes with Israeli soldiers, in the village of Deir al-Hatab, north of the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Nasser Zaghal, 21, was killed after he was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that, another four were injured, including two in moderate conditions and two journalists from the Palestinian state-run television, who sustained hand wounds from live ammunition.

TEHRAN, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The transit and trade of oil and gas with Russia will make Iran a regional energy hub, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Thursday.

Owji made the remarks on the sidelines of the ongoing Caspian Economic Forum held in the Russian capital of Moscow, according to the official IRNA news agency.

He said that as two gas exporting countries, Iran and Russia have a lot of cooperation in the field of energy swaps.

Washington, Oct 5 (AP) The nation's gross national debt has surpassed USD31 trillion, according to a US Treasury report released Tuesday that logs America's daily finances.

Edging closer to the statutory ceiling of roughly USD31.4 trillion, an artificial cap Congress placed on the US government's ability to borrow, the debt numbers hit an already tenuous economy facing high inflation, rising interest rates and a strong US dollar.

5 October 2022; MEMO: Iran will establish a joint Maritime Security Centre with Oman and Pakistan, Chief Commander of the Iranian Army's Navy, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani, said in a statement.

Expressing pride in the progress made by his country's naval industry, Irani said that three Iranian-made destroyers were carrying out security missions in the Indian Ocean, as he spoke at the World Navigation Day ceremony on Monday.

5 October 2022; MEMO: Prominent Egyptian archaeologists have renewed a call for the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum to Egypt, 200 years after the deciphering of the slab unlocked the secrets of hieroglyphic script and marked the birth of Egyptology.

The archaeologists' online campaign has gathered 2,500 signatures, so far, and aims to "tell Egyptians what has been taken from them", said Monica Hanna, acting Dean of the College of Archaeology in the Egyptian city of Aswan.

5 October 2022; MEMO: The Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad is continuing to seize farmland from families who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict, media sources have reported.

According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency and various other outlets, local sources in the north-western Syrian province of Idlib reported that Assad regime authorities are continuing to seize and expropriate land belonging to those who fled their homes during the ongoing 11-year conflict.

6 October 2022; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces opened fire against Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Wafa has reported.

At the time that the Israeli occupation navy opened fire, the fishermen were just three nautical miles off the coast. They were forced to return to Gaza's small fishing port.