Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (NNN-PNN) – Israel announced yesterday, the completion of a high-tech underground wall around the Gaza Strip, aimed at preventing militants from entering the country.

The barrier includes hundreds of cameras, radars and other sensors, command centres and control rooms, the defence ministry said in a statement.

It also includes a maritime barrier, equipped with means to detect infiltrations at sea and a remote-controlled weapon system. The barrier spans over 65 km, and more than 140,000 tonnes of iron and steel were used in its construction.

CAIRO, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Patrick Zaki, an Egyptian rights researcher arrested last year on a trip home from Italy, was released from detention in Egypt on Wednesday pending the resumption of his trial on charges of spreading false information.

A picture published by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) showed Zaki smiling as he hugged his sister on a street in his hometown of Mansoura, north of Cairo.

A judge in Mansoura ordered Zaki's release on Tuesday, saying his trial would restart in February. 

KHARTOUM, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Sudan was unable to access $650 million in international funding in November when assistance was paused after a coup, the finance minister of the dissolved government said - a freeze that puts in doubt basic import payments and the fate of economic reforms.

The financing included $500 million in budget support from the World Bank and $150 million in special drawing rights from the International Monetary Fund, said Jibril Ibrahim, who was appointed to a civilian transitional government in February.

TEHRAN, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian official on Tuesday night slammed sanctions freshly imposed by the United States on Iranian governmental agencies and officials.

"Even amid #ViennaTalks, the U.S. cannot stop imposing sanctions against Iran," Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry, wrote on his personal Twitter account shortly before midnight.

08 Dec 2021; MEMO: The parties to the war in Yemen each have their own agenda, making the conflict hard to resolve. Here are some of these groups and what they want, as reported by Reuters:

THE HOUTHIS

In the late 1990s, the Houthi family in far north Yemen set up a religious revival movement involving the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam, which had once ruled Yemen but whose northern heartland had been marginalised.

08 Dec 2021; MEMO: Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh yesterday called for probing Israel's burial of hazardous nuclear and chemical waste in the occupied Palestinian territories, Arab48 reported.

During a conference about Climate Change held in Ramallah and attended by a number of foreign ambassadors, Shtayyeh shed light on the dangerous Israeli measures that devastate the Palestinian environment.

08 Dec 2021; MEMO: Two prominent international rights groups yesterday condemned travel bans imposed by Israel on Palestinian journalists, which mean they are unable to leave the Gaza Strip or the West Bank.

In a joint statement, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) called for an immediate end to the unjustified Israeli practice.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: A Saudi man has been arrested in France on suspicion of his involvement in the murder of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, three years ago.

According to reports by French media, the former Saudi Royal Guard, Khalid Aedh Al-Otaibi, was arrested at Charles-de-Gaulle airport today, after being found travelling under his own name.

08 Dec 2021; MEMO: Israeli police on Monday forcefully prevented Israeli journalist Gidi Weitz, correspondent of leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz, from carrying out his job, arresting and detaining him, the paper reported.

Police officers arrested Weitz as he tried to interview them, falsely claiming that he interfered with a police officer in the performance of his duty, Haaretz said.

JERUSALEM, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Israel on Tuesday announced the completion of a sensor-equipped underground wall on its side of the Gaza border, a counter-measure developed after Hamas militants used tunnels to blindside its troops in a 2014 war.

Israel went public with the project, which also includes an above-ground fence, a naval barrier, radar systems and command and control rooms, in 2016.