Middle East & North Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia announced the successful completion of the third filling of its mega-dam on the Blue Nile.

"It is with great pleasure, I announce the successful completion of the third filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD)," said Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday during a program at the dam site.

The announcement came a day after the East African nation launched electricity generation from the second turbine of the mega-dam.

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan authorities said Saturday they found at least 15 migrants dead in the desert on the borders with Sudan, the latest tragedy involving migrants seeking a better life in Europe via perilous journeys through the conflict-wrecked nation.

The Department for Combating Irregular Migration in the southeastern city of Kufra said the migrants were on their way from Sudan to Libya when their vehicle broke down due to lack of fuel.

CAIRO (AP) — President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt announced a Cabinet reshuffle Saturday to improve his administration’s performance as it faces towering economic challenges stemming largely from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Cabinet shake-up, which was approved by parliament in an emergency session, affected 13 portfolios, including health, education, culture, local development and irrigation ministries.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians reacted with praise and worry Saturday over the attack on novelist Salman Rushdie, the target of a decades-old fatwa by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death.

It remains unclear why Rushdie’s attacker, identified by police as Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, stabbed the author as he prepared to speak at an event Friday in western New York. Iran’s theocratic government and its state-run media have assigned no motive to the assault.

13 August 2022; MEMO: European Union (EU) representatives, ambassadors and consuls organised a visit on Friday to the Ein Samiya Bedouin school east of Ramallah to protest the decision by the Israeli court in Jerusalem to demolish it immediately.

13 August 2022; MEMO: Iran has stated that it wants assurances and guarantees that no future US president would rescind the nuclear deal should it accept the European Union (EU) proposal to return to the deal, news agency IRNA reported Friday.

13 August 2022; MEMO: Renown Israeli rights group B'Tselem disclosed on Saturday that Shin Bet had raided the Sosya neighbourhood in Hebron Hills, detaining its field researcher Nasser Nawajah and interrogating him.

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.