Middle East & North Africa

BEIRUT, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- A European Union official announced on Friday that the EU supports Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's economic reforms, the National News Agency reported.

"The EU has been a partner for Lebanon since a long time and it has been following up on the latest developments in the country," EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said.

"The EU support Lebanon's stability and Hariri's reform measures," she added.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Tens of thousands of people, many of them young and unemployed men, thronged public squares and blocked main streets Friday in the capitals of Iraq and Lebanon in unprecedented, spontaneous anti-government revolts in two countries scarred by long conflicts.

BEIRUT, Oct 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Lebanon’s president offered to meet the protesters whose week-old mobilisation to demand a complete overhaul of the political system has brought the country to a standstill.

But Michel Aoun’s first speech since the start of the unprecedented protest movement was met with disdain by demonstrators who see him and the entire political class as part of the problem, not the solution.

WASHINGTON/QAMISHLI (Syria), Oct 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US said it would beef up its military presence to protect northeastern Syria oil fields as Kurdish forces abandoned several positions to comply with a deal allowing Damascus, Ankara and Moscow to carve up their now-defunct autonomous region.

25 October 2019; AFP: At least 16 people have been killed in violence in Ethiopia this week that began with protests against Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Abiy Ahmed, an Amnesty International researcher said Friday.

"Up to now we have confirmed 16 people dead, but the number must be more than that because new reports are emerging which we have not confirmed," Fisseha Tekle told AFP.

25 Oct 2019; MEMO: Sudan’s Attorney General, Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Habr, met with the delegation of the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) to discuss the extradition of ousted President Omar Al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and transitional justice.

25 Oct 2019; MEMO: After being charged with harassing lower-ranking female soldiers, the head of the Israeli naval operations, Brigadier General Shai El-Baz resigned.

The Israeli army said that El-Baz, who took over as chief of operations in May last year and had previously headed the Shayetet 13 commando unit, resigned following news of his involvement in events a decade ago.

25 Oct 2019; MEMO: The Israeli news website Walla revealed “some details about the Jewish espionage network that worked in Egypt during the 1950s, headed by the spy Marcel Nino, who died hours ago.”

ADEN, Yemen, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-backed Yemeni government reached a power-sharing deal with the Southern Transitional Council (STC) following several weeks of indirect talks between the two sides in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, local sources said on Friday.

A source of Yemen's government told Xinhua that "a deal which includes forming a power-sharing government has been reached between the government and the STC under the auspices of Saudi Arabia."

25 Oct 2019; MEMO: American authorities must extradite the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to Turkey when he enters the United States, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said today after Ankara slammed Washington for treating him as a “legitimate political figure”.