Middle East & North Africa

22 Sep 2021; MEMO: United Arab Emirates Prime Minister and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum approved a 65 billion-dirham ($17.70 billion) housing programme for Emirati citizens to be implemented over the next 20 years, the Dubai Government Media Office said on Twitter today.

"Decent housing is a dignity and a right for all," he said.

22 Sep 2021; MEMO:Lebanon raised gasoline prices by 16 per cent today, the second hike in a week, cutting a subsidy on imported fuel which the new Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said the nation cannot afford, Reuters reports.

22 Sep 2021; MEMO: A recent poll found that about 80 per cent of Palestinians want Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, Quds Press reported yesterday.

The poll was conducted by Khalil Shikaki, who runs the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

22 Sep 2021; MEMO: US lawmakers yesterday removed $1 billion in military funding for Israel from legislation to fund the US government after objections from liberals in the House of Representatives, but party leaders pledged to bring the matter up again later this week, Reuters reports.

22 Sep 2021; MEMO: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has called on governments, companies and artists to boycott Dubai Expo 2020, which it says aims to "whitewash and distract attention from" Israel's "grave human rights violations."

22 Sep 2021; MEMO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi yesterday claimed that his country is working to reinforce human rights, citing the launch of the National Strategy for Human Rights earlier this month, Al-Khaleej Online reported.

The remarks came as part of his speech to the UN General Assembly being held in New York.

TEHRAN, Sept 21 (NNN-IRNA) – Iranian security forces destroyed four headquarters of “counter-revolutionary” groups by artillery, in northern Iraq, said the acting commander of the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada base, in Iran’s West Azarbaijan province, yesterday.

The recent operation came, in response to the movements of these groups in the area, which borders northern Iraq, Majid Arjomandfar was quoted as saying.

KHARTOUM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities said they had foiled an attempted coup on Tuesday, accusing plotters loyal to ousted president Omar al-Bashir of a failed bid to derail the revolution that removed him from power in 2019 and ushered in a transition to democracy.

Sudan's military said 21 officers and a number of soldiers had been detained in connection to the coup attempt, and a search continued for others. All affected locations under army control, it said.

CAIRO, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Tuesday said the revenues of the canal in the first eight months of 2021 rose by 11.6 percent year on year to 4.09 billion U.S. dollars.

Some 13,317 vessels crossed the canal from January to August in 2021 compared with 12,482 ships a year ago, up by 6.7 percent, the SCA said in a statement.

The increase in revenues came as the SCA has been implementing a plan to widen and deepen the southern part of the canal.

KHARTOUM, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Sudanese government has confirmed control over the security situation in the capital Khartoum after foiling a coup plot, according to an official statement on Tuesday.

"On Tuesday morning, a failed coup attempt, carried out by a group of armed forces' officers from the remnants of the former regime, was brought under control," Hamza Baloul Al-Amir, Sudan's information minister and government spokesman, said in the statement.