Middle East & North Africa

BAGHDAD, Aug 17 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi Minister of Finance, Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, resigned yesterday, amid a rampant political row in the country, the government said.

Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, accepted the resignation and immediately assigned Oil Minister, Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, as acting finance minister, Hassan Nadhim, the government spokesman, told a televised press conference, after the cabinet meeting.

BEIRUT, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Lebanese judge has ordered the release from detention without charge of man who last week took hostages at a Beirut bank in an attempt to access his savings frozen after the country's 2019 financial implosion, the man's brother and a legal group said.

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, 42, entered the Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in Beirut's Hamra district on Thursday and threatened employees with a firearm, agreeing to leave only after the bank pledged to give him $35,000 out of a total of his more than $200,000 deposit. 

JERUSALEM/ANKARA, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Turkey and Israel said on Wednesday they will re-appoint respective ambassadors more than four years after they were called back, marking another milestone after months of steady improvement in relations.

The two regional powers had expelled ambassadors in 2018 over the killing of 60 Palestinians by Israeli forces during protests on the Gaza border against the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.

But they have been working to mend long-strained ties with energy emerging as a key area for potential cooperation.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Israel and Türkiye have agreed to reinstate full diplomatic ties and will return ambassadors and consuls general to each other, the Israeli prime minister said Wednesday.

"The resumption of relations with Türkiye is an important asset for regional stability and very important economic news for the citizens of Israel," Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement issued by his office.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — To Enas Taleb, the headline felt like a spiteful punch line.

“Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world,” it read in bold, above a photograph of the Iraqi actress waving onstage at an arts festival.

The Economist article ran through possible explanations of the obesity gap of 10 percentage points between men and women in the Middle East, then cited Iraqis who see Taleb’s curves as the ideal of beauty.

“Fat,” a word now considered taboo in much of Western media, was repeated six times.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria denied on Wednesday it is holding U.S. journalist Austin Tice or other Americans after President Joe Biden accused the Syrian government of detaining him.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Damascus “denies it had kidnapped or is holding any American citizen on its territories.”

17 August 2022; MEMO: Egyptian football star Mohamed Salah has donated three million Egyptian pounds ($157,000) to rebuild and restore the church in Giza that burnt down over the weekend in a deadly fire.

During Sunday mass a fire blazed through Abu Sifin Coptic Church killing 41 people including 18 children and wounding 45.

As the flames and smoke blocked the only entrance into and out of the church, many worshippers and kids died during the stampede to get out.

15 August 2022; MEMO: Infertility rates in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are rising and are more than twice the global average, according to research carried out by ART Fertility Clinics, which has medical centres across the region. Global estimates of infertility are approximately 15 per cent, while data suggests that rates in GCC states are as high as 35 to 40 per cent.

16 August 2022; MEMO: The Sudanese Civil Defence Council announced, on Tuesday, the death of 75 people, the injury of 30 others, and the complete or partial collapse of thousands of homes, as a result of flooding triggered by torrential rains, Anadolu News Agency reported.

According to the Council, torrential rains have caused the total collapse of 12,551 houses, partial collapse of 20,275 houses, 33 facilities, 39 stores, 1,470 agricultural acres, 321 farms, 45 orchards and the death of 117 livestock.

17 August 2022; MEMO: Israel must face charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for killing five children in the Fallujah Cemetery in northern Gaza during its latest assault on the Gaza Strip, local families have said.