Middle East & North Africa

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) — After his historic meeting with Pope Francis on Saturday, Iraq’s top Shiite cleric affirmed that religious authorities have a role in protecting Iraq’s Christians and said they should live in peace and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis.

For its part, the Vatican said Francis thanked Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Shiite people for having “raised his voice in defense of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history.

CAIRO, Mar 5 (NNN-XINHUA) – China provided a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to the Arab League (AL) general secretariat in Cairo, the Chinese embassy in Egypt said, in a statement.

“This is a vivid interpretation of the China-Arab community of health and wellness, and it marks another solid step towards building a China-Arab community with a shared future,” Chinese Ambassador to Egypt, Liao Liqiang, was quoted as saying, in the statement.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it had intercepted six explosive drones fired towards the kingdom on Friday, with the Houthis claiming to have launched attacks into southern Saudi Arabia since dawn.

The Iran-aligned Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border drone and missile attacks on Saudi cities, mostly targeting the southern part of the country. The coalition says it intercepts most attacks.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A military helicopter crashed in southeast Turkey on Thursday, killing 10 army personnel including a lieutenant general and injuring three, the defence ministry said.

The helicopter took off from the Bingol province at 1055 GMT, the ministry said in a statement, adding that search operations were launched after it lost contact at 1125 GMT.

It described the crash as an accident, but did not elaborate. The injured soldiers were being taken to hospital, the ministry added.

04 Mar 2021; MEMO: Even as demands of an autonomous status for the oil-rich Basra region in southern Iraq are getting shriller, a cross-section of people in the capital Baghdad opposed any move to trifurcate their country, Anadolu Agency reports.

In 2006, current US President Joe Biden had proposed to split Iraq into three independent parts: Kurdish, Shia, and Sunni regions. The demands for granting autonomous status to the Basra region are also being raised from time to time.

05 Mar 2021; MEMO: Nine Turkish military personnel were killed in a helicopter crash in the southeast of the country, the Ministry of Defence said.

A further four people were injured in the crash in the town of Tatvan, in the predominantly Kurdish-populated Bitlis province.

The helicopter took off from the Bingol province at 10:55 GMT, it said in a statement, adding that search operations were launched after it lost contact at 11:25 GMT.

05 Mar 2021; MEMO: Egyptian subsidies on petroleum products dropped by about 45 per cent in the first half of the current financial year 2020-21, the petroleum minister announced yesterday.

Tarek El-Molla said that the petroleum subsidies had fallen to 8.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($537.8 million) in the first half of the current financial year, compared to 15.25 billion Egyptian pounds ($971.7 million) last financial year.

04 Mar 2021; MEMO: The US has called on Saudi Arabia to give up its status as a "developing" country at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which confers upon the Kingdom special treatment in economic negotiations.

"Saudi Arabia is a wealthy and influential player in the global economy," said Washington in a statement at the WTO. The Geneva-based organisation is carrying out its third review of the trade policies and practices of the Kingdom, a process due to end tomorrow.

05 Mar 2021; MEMO: Iran has given encouraging signs in recent days about opening informal talks with world powers and the United States, two European sources said on Thursday after European powers scrapped plans to criticise Tehran at the UN nuclear watchdog, Reuters reported.

Iran has so far refused to take part in a meeting brokered by the European Union between world powers and the United States on reviving its 2015 nuclear deal.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel, Denmark and Austria agreed on Thursday to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and roll-out of vaccines to protect people against new surges and mutations of the coronavirus.

The leaders of the three countries said their alliance will set up a foundation and vaccine distribution plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel’s world-leading inoculation drive.