Middle East & North Africa

17 Aug 2021; MEMO: Turkey will begin to administer a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for those who received two doses of China's Sinovac inoculation in order to meet European standards which do not recognise the drug.

The fourth dose will be made available for those who have already received two doses of the Sinovac and one dose of the Pzifer/BioNTech jabs, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

17 Aug 2021; MEMO: Israeli Defence Ministry yesterday confiscated a large number of chocolate bars which were destined for the besieged Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported.

The chocolate bars, the Israeli occupation claimed, were meant to serve as an alternative currency to fund Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.

CAIRO, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Tuesday voiced full support for any steps that promote security and stability in Somalia.

In a statement, Aboul-Gheit hailed the positive results that have been recently accomplished for achieving national consensus as very important for running the delayed legislative elections.

He stressed that the AL supports all efforts for continuing the process until holding the presidential elections scheduled in October, and helping the Somali people to meet their aspirations for economic reform.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Rescue workers in Turkey kept up the search Tuesday for 34 people still missing after severe floods ravaged parts of the country’s Black Sea coast, with excavators clearing the sludge and building wreckage that was left behind.

At least 77 people were killed after torrential rains battered Turkey’s northwestern Black Sea provinces on Aug. 11, causing floods that demolished homes and bridges, swept away cars and blocked access to numerous roads.

RAMALLAH, Aug 16 (NNN-Xinhua) — A senior Palestinian official unveiled that 70 percent of the active COVID-19 cases in the Palestinian territories are of the Delta variant.

Palestine might have already entered the fourth wave of the disease, as more infections and hospitalizations are being logged every day, Wesam Sbaihat, the official in charge of COVID-19 affairs in the Palestinian Health Ministry, told state radio Voice of Palestine.

TRIPOLI, Aug 16 (NNN-Xinhua) — The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said 120 illegal migrants were rescued and returned to Libya.

“Earlier today, some 120 persons were rescued/intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guards in two disembarkation operations,” UNHCR tweeted.

“The individuals were returned to the Tripoli Naval Base where UNHCR and its medical partner IRC provided urgent humanitarian assistance,” it said.

BEIRUT, Aug 16 (Reuters) - President Michel Aoun said he hoped a new Lebanese government would be formed within the next couple days, as efforts to agree one were spurred on by a fuel crisis that has brought much of the country to a standstill and sparked warnings of anarchy.

The steadily worsening fuel crisis has marked a crunch point in Lebanon's two-year-long financial meltdown, with shortages of imported fuel forcing hospitals, bakeries and businesses to scale back or shut down in the last week or so.

JERUSALEM, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel on Monday that was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, the military said, in the first such attack since an 11-day war in May.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the launching, which Israel's Kan Radio said could be a response by militants in the Hamas Islamist-run enclave to the killing earlier in the day of four Palestinians during a clash with Israeli troops who carried out a raid in the occupied West Bank. 

16 Aug 2021; MEMO: Polish citizens in Israel are facing such hatred that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Sunday that he had decided to "safely bring back home the children of Poland's ambassador to Israel," Haaretz has reported.

15 Aug 2021; MEMO: The United States is seeking to build confidence between Palestine and Israel, a Palestinian official said on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency.

"The US administration is seeking to build confidence between the Palestinian and Israeli sides," Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)'s Executive Committee, told official Voice of Palestine Radio.