Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, Apr 23 (NNN-XINHUA) – Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA), and Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, signed an agreement on Wednesday, to manufacture Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, Health Minister, Hala Zayed and Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Liao Liqiang, who later held talks together and lauded the two countries’ cooperation in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Qatar's Chief of Staff Ghanem Bin Shaheen Al Ghanem yesterday met with the president of Defense Industries of the Turkish Republic in the Qatari capital of Doha to discuss mutual cooperation.

The Qatari Defence Ministry said that the meeting discussed issues of common interest between the two countries, as well as prospects for cooperation between the armed forces and the institution, and ways to enhance them.

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Tunisian hospitals have run out of intensive care beds amid a surge in coronavirus cases, a member of the independent scientific committee that advises the government said yesterday.

Amenallah Messadi told Reuters the health system had been pushed to the point of collapse by a rise in cases driven by the more infectious coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Sudanese authorities yesterday referred dozens of intelligence officers to retirement. A high-ranking official source told local media that the government had fired a total of 131 intelligence officers, "three of whom were lieutenant generals, 25 brigaders, 40 brigadier-generals, and 63 colonels."

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Khalil Al-Hayya yesterday warned against postponing the Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for 22 May, saying it would push the Palestinian people into the unknown.

Al-Hayya, who heads the movement's list in the elections, said the postponement "will generate great frustration among the masses and youth", warning that "the postponement will complicate the situation and perpetuate division".

23 Apr 2021; MEMO: Egypt and Sudan have signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint company for agricultural and livestock production, the Ministry of Supply in Cairo announced yesterday, Reuters has reported.

The ministry said that the company would have a "large" capital base and would "increase economic cooperation and trade between the two countries."

 23 Apr 2021; MEMO: A coalition of 14 of the leading human rights groups and NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to waive human rights conditions on aid to Egypt. The appeal has been made in a letter sent to Blinken as the Biden administration considers a national security waiver to continue aid payments despite Cairo's appalling human rights record.

SANAA, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels said they launched three bomb-laden drones at a Saudi Aramco oil facility and the King Khalid Airbase in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Friday morning.

"Two drones hit King Khalid Airbase in Khamis Mushait city and the third one struck the Aramco oil facility in Jazan city," the group's al-Masirah TV reported, adding "the attacks were accurate."

Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said Saudi-led coalition forces intercepted three drones aimed at Khamis Mushait and Jazan.

TRIPOLI, April 23 (Xinhua) -- More than 100 illegal immigrants have drowned when their boat capsized off Libyan coast, Eugenio Ambrosi, chief of staff of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), revealed later Thursday.

"Reports of at least 100 lives lost in the Central Mediterranean today," Ambrosi tweeted. "These are the human consequences of policies which fail to uphold international law and the most basic of humanitarian imperatives."

CAIRO, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia will resume all the flights to Egypt's airports, including the ones to Red Sea resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada after more than five-year suspension to the two seaside cities, the Egyptian presidency office said in a statement on Friday.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "has welcomed the move that constitutes a momentum for promoting the bilateral ties," according to the statement.