Middle East & North Africa

KHARTOUM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- At least 18 people were killed and 54 others injured in armed militias' attacks in El Geneina, capital city of Sudan's West Darfur State, the Sudanese Doctors' Committee said Monday.

"We counted 18 dead and 54 injured ... Since yesterday (Sunday), about 10 surgeries have been performed. The hospitals are still receiving more victims," the committee said in a statement.

The violence started on Saturday and escalated on Sunday, it said, adding the attacks are still going on.

TEHRAN, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The first consignment of vaccines allocated to Iran under the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) program has arrived in the country's capital, the country's Food and Drug Administration said on Monday.

The shipment, including over 700,000 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, was shipped to Iran on Sunday night, Tasnim news agency reported, quoting Kianoush Jahanpour, the administration's spokesperson.

Iran's quota under the COVAX program amounts to 16.8 million doses, Jahanpour said.

JERUSALEM, April 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have developed a tool for predicting population development of harmful insects in agricultural fields, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) said on Monday.

The new method can reduce the use of pesticides, which are high cost and cause environmental damage, HUJI added.

The tool was developed in a study published in the journal Ecological Modeling, by researchers from HUJI and the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute in northern Israel.

05 Apr 2021; MEMO: Professor Saad Al Faqih, a Saudi politician and founder of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA), said on Sunday that Saudi's detention of Dr Mohammad Al Khodari, Hamas' envoy to Riyadh, "is a breach of Saudi and international conventions."

05 Apr 2021; MEMO: A leader of the Yemeni Houthi rebels, Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi, has called on Iran not to stop uranium enrichment before the parties to the 2015 nuclear agreement return to the deal.

"If Iran accepts to stop [uranium] enrichment before [other parties] implement the agreement, it will repeat the mistake of the previous agreement, which was not implemented despite the guarantees, and the negotiation will be linked to the [Iran] missile program later," Al-Houthi wrote on Twitter.

04 Apr 2021; MEMO: Jordan's Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday that King Abdullah's half-brother and former heir Prince Hamza had liaised with foreign parties over a plot to destabilise the country and had been under investigation for some time, Reuters reports.

05 Apr 2021; MEMO: More than three-quarters of Israelis believe that Israel is heading to its fifth elections in two years due to the ongoing political stalemate and fragmented blocs within the Israeli Knesset, Shehab News Agency reported on Sunday.

A survey conducted by Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) concluded that 68 per cent of Israelis were dissatisfied with the last election results.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities on Monday detained 10 former admirals after a group of more than 100 retired top navy officers issued a midnight statement that government officials tied to Turkey’s history of military coups.

The 10 retired admirals were detained as part of an investigation, launched by the chief prosecutor in Ankara on Sunday, over suspicions that they had reached “an agreement with the aim of committing a crime against the security of the state and the constitutional order,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

Jerusalem, Apr 5 (AP-PTI) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court for the resumption of his corruption trial.

The evidentiary phase of the trial begins on Monday as Israel's political parties meet with the president to weigh in on who should form the next government following last month's inconclusive elections.

The March 23 vote was largely a referendum on Netanyahu but produced no clear verdict.

New Delhi, Apr 4 (PTI) An Indian warship has begun a visit to Saudi Arabia and will participate in a military exercise with the navy of the Gulf nation in reflection of multi-faceted bilateral defence cooperation, officials said on Sunday.

An Indian Navy spokesperson said frigate INS Talwar arrived at the Jubail port of Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

"This visit underscores deep-rooted friendly ties and multi-faceted defence cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia," he said.