Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

Inflation pushes average cost of filling Panini 2022 World Cup sticker album to £870

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Five-sticker packs for football tournament in Qatar are 12.5% more than for Russia 2018

Inflation has come for the football sticker album. Collecting and completing the official Panini Fifa World Cup Qatar 2022 album will cost fans an average of about £870.

Panini, which first produced a World Cup sticker album for the 1970 tournament in Mexico, has priced five-sticker packs for the Qatar 2022 album at 90p each. That is a 12.5% increase on the 80p cost of a five-sticker pack for the Russia 2018 album. For Euro 2016 a pack cost 50p.

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US navy intervenes after Iran seizes American sea drone

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard tried to tow away an unmanned vessel in the Persian Gulf but the fifth fleet secured its release

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized an American sea drone in the Persian Gulf and tried to tow it away, only releasing the unmanned vessel when a US navy warship and helicopter approached, according to US officials.

The incident on Tuesday marks the first time the navy’s Middle East-based fifth fleet’s new drone taskforce has been targeted by Iran.

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Israeli court sentences director of Gaza charity to 12 years in prison

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World Vision International worker accused of funnelling aid money to Hamas in trial largely held in secret

An Israeli court has sentenced the Gaza director of an international charity to 12 years in prison on allegations of funnelling aid money to Hamas, the end of a high-profile case mired in controversy and largely held in secret.

Disregarding UN concerns over a lack of evidence in the six-year case, the district court in the southern city of Beersheba said Mohammad el Halabi, who had been Gaza’s director for World Vision International, would have to serve six years in prison taking into account the deduction of the amount he was held during the trial.

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Sudan journalists defy military rule by forming first union in 30 years

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‘Historic’ move sees media professionals claim rights after years of persecution under Omar al-Bashir and crackdown after 2021 coup

Sudanese journalists have formed the country’s first independent union in more than three decades.

Abdulmoniem Abu Idrees, 58, Khartoum correspondent for the Agence France-Presse news agency, was elected the union’s first president in a vote on Sunday.

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Iraqi cleric tells loyalists to return to their homes after fighting in Baghdad

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Death toll rises during violent clashes between rival Shia groups after Muqtada al-Sadr resigns from politics

Explainer: why are Shia groups fighting each other in Iraq?

Supporters of the powerful Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr have heeded his call to return to their homes after a day of clashes that left at least 30 people dead, wounded hundreds and sparked fears of a wider conflict within the country’s Shia population.

Raising hopes that the immediate crisis would ebb, Sadr on Tuesday called for the Iraqi army to retake control of Baghdad’s green zone, which had been the scene of the fiercest fighting between Sadrist members and pro-Iranian militias. Shortly after noon, the city’s streets were rapidly emptying, as Iraq’s prime minister praised a stand-down that many observers believe helped avert a descent into protracted violence.

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Saudi woman jailed for 45 years over social media use, says group

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Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani accused of ‘using the internet to tear Saudi Arabia’s social fabric’

Another Saudi Arabian woman has been sentenced to decades in prison by the kingdom’s terrorism court for using social media to “violate the public order”, according to court documents seen by a human rights group.

Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a specialised criminal court convicted her of “using the internet to tear [Saudi Arabia’s] social fabric”, according to documents that were obtained and reviewed by Democracy for the Arab World Now (Dawn), an organisation founded by Jamal Khashoggi.

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Deadly violence in Baghdad after leading cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says he is quitting politics

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At least 15 killed in clashes between Iraq militias after Shia leader announces his exit from Iraqi politics

Months of political tensions over stalled attempts to form a government in Iraq have spilled over into violence, with at least 15 people killed and hundreds hurt in clashes between militias in Baghdad’s Green Zone and a nationwide curfew imposed.

The gunfire followed an announcement by the powerful Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that he was quitting politics and an earlier decision by his spiritual mentor to retire and attempt to persuade Sadr to transfer his fealty to Iran.

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Israeli rock star praises ‘brother’ settlers as he recants past views in move to right

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Ex-peace figure Aviv Geffen sparks controversy with public repentance at concert in occupied West Bank

The Israeli rock star Aviv Geffen, once a symbol of the country’s peace movement, has sparked controversy by apologising for his past views during a concert at a fervently nationalistic settlement in the occupied West Bank.

The public repentance on Thursday at the Beit El settlement can be seen as a cultural milestone in Israel’s move further to the right and another nail in the coffin of the more peace-oriented legacy of the assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, with whom Geffen had been associated.

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Leïla Slimani: ‘Attack on Salman Rushdie shows why we must not censor ourselves’

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The bestselling author fears she too could be a target but says terrorists cannot be allowed to win

The bestselling author Leïla Slimani says the knife attack on Salman Rushdie has left her and other writers afraid, but that they have a “duty” to keep making public appearances and resist censoring themselves, despite the dangers.

The French-Moroccan writer, whose novels include Adèle, Lullaby and The Country of Others and is Emmanuel Macron’s personal representative for the promotion of French language and culture, said defending her freedom as a writer “feels even more important than before” and was an act of resistance.

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Israel grapples with ‘systemic problem’ of fatal road crashes

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Traffic deaths dropped by only 4.7% in last decade, compared with a 31% fall worldwide

When Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in the Gaza Strip, fired about 1,000 rockets at Israel during an unexpected flare-up of violence earlier this month, most were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, and no Israelis were seriously hurt or killed.

On the country’s roads, however, it was a different story. In the same week, 19 people were killed in traffic incidents during a wave of particularly serious crashes.

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Ten years on, first full report records Syrian regime’s massacre at Daraya

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Investigation into attacks by Bashar al-Assad’s forces that left 700 people dead could help bring justice for victims

The “startling display of violence” meted out by Syrian government forces against civilians in the town of Daraya 10 years ago has been laid bare in the first detailed investigation into the massacre.

At least 700 people were killed when forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad stormed the town between 24 and 26 August 2012. Troops went door to door killing and detaining men, women and children. Terrified people sheltered in basements.

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US says clashes with Iran-backed militias won’t affect Tehran nuclear talks

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Nuclear negotiations under way, as US-led mission against the Islamic State exchanges fire with armed groups in Syria and Iraq

US-led forces and Iran-backed militias exchanged fire for the second day in a row, but the Biden administration said the fighting would not affect nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

US Central Command said the two bases, Conoco and Green Village, used for the US-led mission against the Islamic State (IS) had come under rocket attack on Wednesday evening, but there were no serious injuries. The US struck back with attack helicopters, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants conducting one of the attacks” and destroying vehicles.

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Anoosheh Ashoori: London Marathon dream of Iran detainee nears reality

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British-Iranian who set goal while at notorious Evin prison says he wants ‘something good to come out of all that pain’

Serving a minimum 10-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on spying charges, Anoosheh Ashoori, a 68-year-old British-Iranian retired engineer, knew he must find purpose if he was to avoid insanity.

He pledged that one day, when he was released, he would run the London Marathon. It was an ambitious dream, especially for a man who was not very fit and or expecting to be freed before the age of 73.

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Egyptian NGOs complain of being shut out of Cop27 climate summit

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Civil society groups say covert screening process excluded government’s critics

A group of Egyptian civil society organisations have been prevented from attending the Cop27 climate summit by a covert registration process that filtered out groups critical of the Egyptian government.

Egypt’s foreign, environment and social solidarity ministries privately selected and screened NGOs that would be permitted to apply for one-time registration for Cop27, a separate process from applications for official observer status, which closed last year.

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US carries out Syria airstrikes in reprisal attack on Iran-backed militia

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US military says strikes on Deir Ez-Zor were needed to ‘protect and defend US personnel’ after drone attacks on its forces

The US military has said it has carried out airstrikes in areas of eastern Syria used by Iran-backed militias.

The US military’s Central Command spokesperson, Colonel Joe Buccino, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel”, and were in response to an attack on 15 August targeting US forces.

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Arrests and TV confessions as Iran cracks down on women’s ‘improper’ clothing

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Protests follow appearance of ‘tortured’ writer on state television, while human rights group warn forced confessions on the rise as hijab laws hardened

There were protests and condemnation last week after an Iranian woman who was arrested for defying newly hardened hijab laws appeared on state television to give what observers claimed was a forced confession as a result of torture.

Sepideh Rashno, 28, was arrested in July soon after footage of her being harassed on a bus over “improper clothing”, was circulated online.

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CIA unable to corroborate Israel’s ‘terror’ label for Palestinian rights groups

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Exclusive: sources say report shows CIA unable to find evidence to support Israeli claim, but finding does not prompt US rebuttal

A classified CIA report shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision to label six prominent Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations”.

In October, Israel labeled as terror groups Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International–Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

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Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, one of Somalia’s greatest poets, dies aged 79

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Somali social media has been flooded with tributes to the man better known as ‘Hadraawi’

Messages of condolences continue to pour in from around the world following the death of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, regarded as one of Somalia’s greatest poets.

Warsame, better known as “Hadraawi”, died in Hargeisa, in Somaliland, on Thursday at the age of 79.

The snake sneaks in the castle:

although it’s carpeted with thorns

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United Arab Emirates reinstates ambassador to Iran after six-year absence

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UAE scaled back ties with the Islamic republic after Iranian protests over Saudi Arabia’s execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr

The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that its ambassador to Tehran would resume duties within days, six years after ties were downgraded in support of Saudi Arabia.

Ambassador Saif Mohammed al-Zaabi “will resume his duties at the UAE embassy in the Islamic republic of Iran in the coming days to contribute to further advancing bilateral relations”, the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement.

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