Category Archives: Middle East and North Africa

‘He was nine’: The Saudi minors still on death row despite royal decree

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Saudi Arabia announced it would end capital punishment for juvenile crimes, but campaigners fear at least 10 prisoners could be executed at any time

Saudi security forces arrested Mohammed Al Faraj outside a bowling alley when he was 15 years old. The teenager from Qatif, aShia-majority province in the east of the country, was separated from his companions and transferred to a prison for adults in the city of Dammam where he was detained and denied outside contact.

When his family was finally able to visit him in October 2017, Al Faraj claimed he’d been beaten and kicked, forced into stress positions for hours and left for days in solitary confinement. Observers say Al Faraj was tortured into confessing to three crimes related to protests in the restive Qatif province, including harbouring a fugitive, attending the funeral of a relative in 2012 and sending WhatsApp messages that could affect public security. The charges carry the death penalty.

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Egypt cracking down harder on human rights groups, experts say

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Three members of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights detained over ‘fake news’

Emboldened Egyptian security forces have stepped up their crackdown on human rights groups with a series of unprecedented recent moves triggering widespread alarm, experts are warning.

Last week the head of a leading human rights organisation and two of its staff members were detained after the group met with foreign diplomats in Cairo.

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France to ease Covid rules as Asian countries consider stricter action

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WHO says Europe faces third wave early in 2021 if nations repeat their failures to prepare

France is preparing to ease its Covid-19 lockdown rules in the weeks leading up to Christmas with new daily caseloads falling and pressure building from retailers to allow the annual shopping season to go ahead.

But parts of east Asia that were thought to be controlling the disease have raised the possibility of new restrictions.

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Hackers ‘try to steal Covid vaccine secrets in intellectual property war’

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Agencies point finger at state-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea

State-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are engaged in concerted attempts to steal coronavirus vaccine secrets in what security experts describe as “an intellectual property war”.

They accuse hostile-state hackers of trying to obtain trial results early and seize sensitive information about mass production of drugs, at a time when a range of vaccines are close to being approved for the public.

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Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza

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Defence forces say Israel’s air force hit two rocket ammunition manufacturing sites

Israel says its military struck Hamas targets in Gaza in response to a rocket attack launched from the Palestinian enclave.

The Israeli air force struck two rocket ammunition manufacturing sites, a military compound and “underground infrastructures”, the Israel Defence Forces said on Sunday.

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Spy Jonathan Pollard expected to fly to Israel after US lifts parole

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Release marks latest gesture by departing Trump administration towards the Israeli government

Jonathan Pollard, a US citizen jailed for 30 years after being convicted of spying in one of the most dramatic espionage cases of the cold war, is expected to fly to Israel after being released from parole.

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, welcomed the lifting of travel restrictions, his office said in a statement on Saturday, adding that he had “consistently worked towards securing Pollard’s release”.

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Libya interior minister campaigns to lead country as fragile peace holds

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Fathi Bashagha looks to France for support ahead of elections

Libya’s interior minister has completed a three-day charm offensive in France, as a tentative ceasefire in the war-torn country holds and diplomatic jostling for its leadership roles intensifies.

Fathi Bashagha, who hopes to become Libya’s interim prime minister, is regarded by the United Arab Emirates and forces in the east of Libya as under the influence of both the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey, a country with which France is increasingly in conflict, not only in Libya but across the Middle East.

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Ethiopia fighting could drive 200,000 to Sudan in coming months, says UN

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Officials warn that number of refugees crossing border already surpassing preparations

Violence in northern Ethiopia will probably drive 200,000 people into neighbouring Sudan over the coming months, UN agencies have warned, where food, shelter and medicine are urgently needed.

The number of refugees streaming across the border has already surpassed agency preparations by 11,000 people, a UN refugee agency official said.

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Wealthy nations urged to give portion of Covid vaccine as ‘humanitarian buffer’

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Stockpile sought for use in rebel-held territories, asylum camps and for others unlikely to receive vaccinations

Public health groups are lobbying countries to commit a portion of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies to a “humanitarian buffer” that would be used to inoculate people living in rebel-held territories, those in asylum-seeker camps and others unlikely to receive vaccinations from their governments.

The emergency stockpile is intended to act as a safety net to ensure the global effort to end the Covid-19 pandemic is not sabotaged by governments using vaccines as bargaining chip with restive populations, or simply denying it to some marginalised groups.

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Onion-style Arabic satirical news website launches English edition

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Al-Hudood (the Limits) has attracted ire of authorities in Middle East since 2013

A groundbreaking Arabic satirical news site that skewers the Middle East’s politicians and pieties – dodging the ire of hostile governments and their online supporters – has launched an English language edition.

Al-Hudood (the Limits), with deadpan headlines reminiscent of the US publication the Onion, has rankled authorities in the Arab world since launching in 2013. It gives new audiences a taste of groundbreaking humour that ranges from dry (“Students at local school memorise lesson in independent thinking”) to dark (“Intelligence service corrects beliefs of man who thought he only feared God”) to pitch-black (“Syrian dies of natural causes”).

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Mike Pompeo makes unprecedented visit to Israeli settlement

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Trump’s top diplomat becomes first US secretary of state to officially visit a settlement

Israel’s military occupation has received a symbolic US stamp of approval after Mike Pompeo toured an archaeological dig run by a far-right settler group and visited a settlement that farms grapes on land Palestinians say was stolen from them.

The trips on Wednesday and Thursday marked the first time a US secretary of state had officially visited settlements, a deeply provocative move that previous American administrations went to lengths to avoid.

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‘Night of the beating’: details emerge of Riyadh Ritz-Carlton purge

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Exclusive: three years on, some of the Saudi detainees reveal what they say took place

In early November 2017, nearly 400 of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful people, among them princes, tycoons and ministers, were rounded up and detained in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, in what became the biggest and most contentious purge in the modern kingdom’s history.

The arrests shook the foundations of Saudi society, in an instant turning untouchable establishment figures into targets for arrest. Statuses were discarded, assets seized and business empires upended. A conventional pact between the state and its influential elite was shredded overnight.

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Will Trump’s major foreign policy legacy be Israel and Palestine?

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From ‘peace’ deals to gutting aid, the US president has had a major impact on the region

Donald Trump has cast himself as an isolationist president focused on Americans. However, in one major foreign policy issue, Israel and Palestine, the US leader has possibly made more of an impact than any of his predecessors.

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Iran admits breach of nuclear deal discovered by UN inspectorate

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Iran uses advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges in underground plant in breach of 2015 nuclear agreement

Iran has admitted a further breach of the 2015 nuclear deal by firing up advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges installed at its underground plant at Natanz.

The finding was made by the UN nuclear weapons inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Association, and confirmed by the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA.

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The bookseller of Tunis: one man’s fight to preserve relic of bygone age

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As news of its uncertain future spreads, readers are flocking to the city’s oldest bookshop – but can it survive changing tastes and technology?

Despite the pandemic, shoppers crowd the small bookshop at 18 Rue d’Angleterre. Many are here for the first time, squeezing their way between the stacks of books piled high along the walls of the bookshop said to be the oldest in Tunis.

Sunk within an obscure street near the city’s medina, there is little to distinguish number 18 from its rival further down the street, or the small haphazard book stands that shelter in the square opposite from a rain that never quite comes. All nestle amid the bleached awnings of the French ville nouvelle, itself marking the transition from the storied Arab architecture of the medina to the grand colonial designs of Tunis’ city centre.

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Israel says it launched airstrikes on Syria over explosive devices at border

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Syria says three military personnel were killed in ‘Israeli aggression’ over Damascus

Israel’s military has said it launched air strikes against the Syrian army and Iran’s Quds Force in Syria on Wednesday after explosive devices were planted in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

In a statement, the Israeli military said its planes hit storage facilities, military compounds and Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries.

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Australian women say Qatar has not contacted them since invasive Doha airport examinations

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Women say they have had no apology from Qatar Airways or government and are considering legal action

Women who were removed from a Qatar Airways flight and subject to an intimate medical examination, sparking international outrage last month, have not received any individual apologies or been directly contacted by the airline.

Passengers on the flight, which departed Doha for Sydney on 2 October, have told Guardian Australia there has been no direct contact with them from either Qatar Airways of the Qatari government in the six weeks since the incident took place.

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Fears of foreign policy chaos in Trump’s final days fueled by Iran bombing report

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The outgoing president reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran as administration eyes last chance to achieve objectives

Fears that Donald Trump might try to wreak havoc on the world stage in his final, desperate, weeks in office appear to have been well-founded, after he reportedly asked for options on bombing Iran.

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UK, Italy and Spain record highest daily death totals since spring – as it happened

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Related: Coronavirus live news: senator Chuck Grassley tests positive; airlines offer Covid testing

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Iran warns of ‘crushing response’ if Trump targets nuclear site

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Outgoing president reported to have looked at military options against Tehran and its allies

Iran has warned of a strong response if Donald Trump goes ahead with plans to use the twilight of his presidency to mount a strike on Iran or its allies in the region.

It was reported that Trump last week looked at options for striking Iran’s main nuclear site, but was dissuaded from taking action after his advisers warned it might lead to a larger conflict in the Middle East. The report was sourced to four US officials by the New York Times.

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