Middle East & North Africa

13 August 2022; MEMO: During Friday Khotba, an imam close to Shia religious cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr warned of the continuous attempts to divide power in Iraq, news agencies reported.

For the second Friday, Al-Sadr supporters have been camping inside the Green Zone, the compound for government offices and foreign embassies, protesting the premiership nomination by the rival alliance of Iran-backed parties – the Coordination Framework.

12 August 2022; MEMO: A disoriented brown bear cub, believed to have been intoxicated after eating an excessive amount of "mad honey", was rescued in northwestern Turkey's Duzce province yesterday, Reuters reported.

Footage showed the bear wobbling and whining as she sat belly-up in the back of a pick-up truck, after people rescued the visibly-debilitated animal from the forest.

Mad honey, or "deli bal" in Turkish, is a type of rhododendron honey that can have hallucinogenic effects.

The United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet yesterday expressed "alarm" at the large number of Palestinians – particularly children – who have been killed and injured by Israeli occupation forces so far this year, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported.

JERUSALEM, Aug 12 (NNN-PNA) – Two people were killed and six others injured, after a bus in Jerusalem, went out of control and crashed into a station, last night.

The two killed in the accident were a 30-year-old woman and a three-year-old girl, and one of the injured was in a serious condition, according to the Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service.

Policemen, firefighters and medical staff were sent to the site of the accident, local media reported.

AMMAN, Aug 12 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), yesterday, signed deals with two telecom operators, to introduce 5G services in the kingdom, according to a TRC statement.

While calling the telecommunications industry a significant contributor to Jordan’s economic growth, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Ahmad Hanandeh, said at the signing ceremony that, incentives were provided for the operators to facilitate the introduction of the 5G services.

ISTANBUL, Aug 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two more ships left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Friday, including one laden with the first Ukrainian wheat to be exported under a UN-brokered deal, Turkiye’s defense ministry said.

A total 14 ships have now departed from Ukraine over the past two weeks, following the deal with Russia to allow a resumption of grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, after they were stalled for five months due to the war.

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has completed the third phase of filling the reservoir for its huge dam on the Blue Nile river, the government said on Friday, a process that continues to irk the country's downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.

Addis Ababa says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4 billion hydropower project, is crucial to powering its economic development, but Egypt and Sudan consider it a serious threat to their vital water supplies.

ADEN, Yemen, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Tension between units of the Yemeni government forces flared up on Friday as the newly-formed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) insisted on removing rebellious security officers from their positions in the oil-rich province of Shabwa, an official told Xinhua.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — With 100 days to go until the World Cup starts in Qatar, Human Rights Watch on Friday again urged FIFA and the host nation to improve compensation for migrant workers and their families.

The rights group called for a “comprehensive remedy program for workers who suffered serious harms, including deaths, injuries, and wage theft” while working on World Cup-related projects like stadiums, transport and hotels.

KAFR MALIK, West Bank (AP) — European representatives on Friday visited a small schoolhouse serving an impoverished Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank that is under threat of demolition by Israel.

The EU funds such construction in order to help Palestinians maintain their presence in the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control, known as Area C, where the military routinely demolishes homes and other structures built without hard-to-obtain permits.