Middle East & North Africa

(Reuters) --- President Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated an imposing new mosque in Istanbul on Friday, fulfilling a decades-old goal and stamping a religious identity on the landmark Taksim Square in the heart of Turkey's largest city.

The Taksim mosque and its 30-metre high dome loom symbolically over a monument to the foundation of the Turkish republic by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, whose staunchly secular legacy has been eroded by nearly two decades of Erdogan's rule.

(Reuters) --- The United Nations refugee agency voiced deep concern on Friday at reports of soldiers taking hundreds of people away from displacement camps in the Tigray region of Ethiopia earlier this week, saying such sites should be a safe haven.

Three aid workers and a doctor told Reuters this week that Eritrean and Ethiopian soldiers forcibly detained more than 500 young men and women from four camps for displaced people in the town of Shire in the northern region on Monday night. 

28 May 2021; MEMO: The Israeli Magistrate's Court in Nazareth yesterday indicted Sheikh Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy chairman of the Islamic Movement in Israel and a member of the Arab Follow-Up Committee, and extended his detention until Sunday.

The public prosecution filed charges against Sheikh Al-Khatib accusing him of "incitement to terrorism, violence, and identifying with a terrorist organisation" in reference to the Islamic Movement which was outlawed by Israel in 2015.

28 May 2021; MEMO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that "an agreement has been reached to lift the main sanctions on our country, but there are still other penalties that must be lifted to fully implement the nuclear deal."

"The sanctions could have been lifted, but it should have been done unanimously, and we are the ones who requested the full lifting of the sanctions, and in the form of steps," added Rouhani.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The head of Hamas movement in Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, has described the ceasefire agreement recently concluded with Israel as "fragile" and having not addressed the root causes of the problem.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The Saudi Arabian academic and opposition figure Saeed Bin Nasser Al-Ghamdi has revealed that the authorities in Riyadh have recently arrested another thirteen activists because of their "human rights activities and communication with activists abroad." He did not reveal the names of those detained.

28 May 2021; MEMO: Russia evacuated 64 of its citizens, 31 of whom were children, from the occupied Gaza Strip during the recent Israeli aggression on the enclave.

In an official statement, the ministry said that the Russian citizens were evacuated "voluntarily on an official plane."

"There are still more than 400 Russians in Gaza," the statement read.

28 May 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is said to have offered to help rebuild the Gaza Strip provided Hamas does not intervene in the reconstruction efforts, Israel's Kan channel reported yesterday.

27 May 2021; MEMO: Activists have called on National Geographic to drop Israeli actress Gal Gadot from hosting future programmes following its recent documentary series called Impact. The series "follows the powerful stories of six women who are making an extraordinary impact on their communities around the world."

RABAT, May 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Around 300 inmates at Al Arjat 1 prison in Sale, a city about 15 kilometers from Rabat, were given a COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday as part of authorities’ attempts to curb the spread of the virus in Morocco.

According to the General Delegation for Prison Administration (DGAPR) and the Health Ministry, at least 12,000 of the 85,000 prisoners in the North African country have been vaccinated since the national campaign began in January.

All the staff working for DGAPR have received their jab.