Middle East & North Africa

TEHRAN, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) seized a vessel carrying more than 22,000 liters of smuggled fuel in the southern waters of the country, official news agency IRNA reported Sunday.

Upon detecting the vessel, the IRGC's naval forces seized it and impounded the smuggled fuel, Chief Justice of Iran's Hormuzgan Province Mojtaba Qahremani was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Punishments for fuel smugglers include financial penalties, imprisonment, and confiscation of illegal properties, according to Qahremani.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi energy company Aramco said Sunday its profits jumped 90% in the second quarter compared to the same time last year, helping its half-year earnings reach nearly $88 billion. The increase is a boon for the kingdom and the crown prince’s spending power as people around the world pay higher gas prices at the pump while energy companies rake in top earnings.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s top judicial body said Sunday it doesn’t have the authority to dissolve the country’s parliament, days after an influential Shiite cleric gave it one week to dismiss the legislature so that new elections can be held.

The decision by the Supreme Judicial Council is likely to increase tensions between followers of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and members of Iran-backed groups as Iraq sinks deeper into its political impasse, now in its 10th month. The impasse is the longest in the country since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion reset the political order.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.

Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.

CAIRO (AP) — A fire ripped through a packed church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, killing at least 41 worshippers and injuring 14.

The church quickly filled with thick black smoke, and witnesses said several trapped congregants jumped from upper floors to escape. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” said a distraught witness, who only gave a partial name, Abu Bishoy.

14 August 2022; MEMO: At least 35 people were killed and 45 injured in a fire inside a church in the Egyptian city of Giza on Sunday, two security sources told Reuters.

An electrical fire broke out as 5,000 worshippers gathered for Mass at the Coptic Abu Sifin church in the Imbaba neighbourhood, the sources said.

The fire blocked an entrance to the church, causing a stampede, they said, adding that most of those killed were children, Reuters reports.

12 August 2022; MEMO: An Israeli settler rammed his car into Palestinian activist Bayan Al-Tabib on Thursday evening during a peaceful protest against settler and army attacks against Palestinians. The attack took place on a main road linking the cities of Nablus and Jenin in the Israeli-occupied northern West Bank, Anadolu has reported.

14 August 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabian and US forces have launched a joint military exercise in the Red Sea province of Yanbu yesterday.

According to state news agency SPA, the month-long drill, codenamed "Native Fury 22" will include combined tactics, interoperability, and logistical operations between Saudi and US naval counterparts.

"The exercise aims at training on bilateral military and operational plans as well as exchanging expertise between the two sides," Saudi general Saud Al-Okaili was quoted as saying.

13 August 2022; MEMO: Protests spread throughout northern Syria over the past few days, after remarks by Turkiye's Foreign Minister hinting at a possible reconciliation with the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

At a news conference on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced that he had met his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad at a conference in Serbia last October, and that the Turkish and Syrian intelligence services had restarted contact with each other.

13 August 2022; MEMO: France has expanded visa restrictions to include former Moroccan ministers, officials and businesspeople, Rai Al-Youm online newspaper reported on Friday.

Controversy over the French visa policy relating to Moroccans has moved from social to mass media, condemning Paris's "degrading policy" concerning Moroccans who apply for visas to visit France.