Middle East & North Africa

BASRA, Iraq, Dec 7 (Reuters) - A bomb killed four people in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Tuesday, the first such attack in years in a part of the country that has enjoyed relative stability, and a senior official said Islamic State militants were suspected of carrying it out.

The blast, near a major hospital in the predominantly Shi'ite Muslim city, was caused by a motorbike rigged with explosives, the military said in a statement, citing preliminary information.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

DAMASCUS, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two explosive devices have ripped through a U.S. military convoy in Syria's eastern province of Al-Hasakah, state news agency SANA reported Tuesday.

The blasts caused massive damage to the military vehicles at the Syrian-Iraqi border east of Al-Hasakah on Monday night, said the report, without giving further details.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has accused Israel of opposing regional dialogue and making efforts to thwart the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement concluded between Tehran and world powers.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Khatibzadeh said that Tel Aviv has opposed the nuclear agreement from the beginning. He added, however, that his country does not care about Israeli positions.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: Syria has accused Israel of carrying out an airstrike on the key port of Latakia in the early hours today, targeting shipping containers and causing a fire in the storage area. There were no reported casualties.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: The UAE today announced plans to move to a Saturday-Sunday weekend, making Fridays half-days to allow staff to attend prayers. The decision, which impacts public sector employees but may ripple down into the private sector, comes into effect on 1 January 2022, the statement said. As a result, Sunday 2 January will be a weekend, the statement explained. Currently weekends are Fridays and Saturdays.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: Poland aims to become an important supplier of high-quality goods and services to Qatar, President Andrzej Duda said on Monday. This is in addition to being an importer of Qatari gas, the Polish Press Agency has reported.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Red Sea International Film Festival opened on Monday in Jeddah. This is the first such festival to be hosted by Saudi Arabia.

The ten-day festival is being held in the historic Al-Balad area of the coastal city. The area is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: More than 40 Yemeni tribal leaders have called on all parties to the conflict in the country to start a "comprehensive and immediate ceasefire" and to reopen all humanitarian roads and corridors, Anadolu reported.

07 Dec 2021; MEMO: Egypt has signed an alliance with several American companies worth 3.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($19 billion) to develop the Tahrir Complex located in downtown Cairo.

The Tahrir Complex, also known as the Mogamma, used to be a government administrative building where people went to renew their visas, obtain their driving licence or to process documents.

06 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, is mulling escalation with the Israeli occupation over its continuous siege on Gaza Strip, Al-Jazeera reported a Hamas source as saying on Monday evening.

According to the source, Al-Jazeera also said that Hamas had accused Egypt of delaying the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.