Middle East & North Africa

13 August 2022; MEMO: Qatar has accepted Hamas's request to rebuild Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli occupation during the latest three-day offensive on the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a statement, Hamas disclosed that Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdul-Rahman told Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh that Qatar accepted his request to rebuild the destroyed homes.

The Qatari prime minister told Haniyeh that his country would carry out the reconstruction via the Qatar Committee for the Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

13 August 2022; MEMO: Prominent Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visited his parents' graves in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Friday afternoon, in a politicised and media indication to draw attention to the fact that his presence in the Jordanian capital may not be linked to any political agenda. It also suggested that Meshaal and Hamas do not want to overstep the boundaries set for such visits, especially in light of the absence of official or political relations between Hamas and the Jordanian government.

13 August 2022; MEMO: The Tunisian Ennahda Movement expressed its satisfaction with the Administrative Court's decision to suspend the implementation of the presidential dismissal orders against several judges.

Last Wednesday, the Administrative Court decided to suspend the implementation of President Kais Saied's decision to dismiss a number of judges, according to a judicial statement.

13 August 2022; MEMO: During Friday Khotba, an imam close to Shia religious cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr warned of the continuous attempts to divide power in Iraq, news agencies reported.

For the second Friday, Al-Sadr supporters have been camping inside the Green Zone, the compound for government offices and foreign embassies, protesting the premiership nomination by the rival alliance of Iran-backed parties – the Coordination Framework.

12 August 2022; MEMO: A disoriented brown bear cub, believed to have been intoxicated after eating an excessive amount of "mad honey", was rescued in northwestern Turkey's Duzce province yesterday, Reuters reported.

Footage showed the bear wobbling and whining as she sat belly-up in the back of a pick-up truck, after people rescued the visibly-debilitated animal from the forest.

Mad honey, or "deli bal" in Turkish, is a type of rhododendron honey that can have hallucinogenic effects.

The United Nations rights chief Michelle Bachelet yesterday expressed "alarm" at the large number of Palestinians – particularly children – who have been killed and injured by Israeli occupation forces so far this year, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported.

JERUSALEM, Aug 12 (NNN-PNA) – Two people were killed and six others injured, after a bus in Jerusalem, went out of control and crashed into a station, last night.

The two killed in the accident were a 30-year-old woman and a three-year-old girl, and one of the injured was in a serious condition, according to the Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service.

Policemen, firefighters and medical staff were sent to the site of the accident, local media reported.

AMMAN, Aug 12 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC), yesterday, signed deals with two telecom operators, to introduce 5G services in the kingdom, according to a TRC statement.

While calling the telecommunications industry a significant contributor to Jordan’s economic growth, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, Ahmad Hanandeh, said at the signing ceremony that, incentives were provided for the operators to facilitate the introduction of the 5G services.

ISTANBUL, Aug 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two more ships left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Friday, including one laden with the first Ukrainian wheat to be exported under a UN-brokered deal, Turkiye’s defense ministry said.

A total 14 ships have now departed from Ukraine over the past two weeks, following the deal with Russia to allow a resumption of grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, after they were stalled for five months due to the war.

ADDIS ABABA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Ethiopia has completed the third phase of filling the reservoir for its huge dam on the Blue Nile river, the government said on Friday, a process that continues to irk the country's downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.

Addis Ababa says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a $4 billion hydropower project, is crucial to powering its economic development, but Egypt and Sudan consider it a serious threat to their vital water supplies.