BEIRUT, Lebanon – The World Bank has called on Lebanon to accelerate implementing a comprehensive recovery plan out of its currently deep economic and financial crisis. “Despite early warnings, Lebanon has lost precious time and numerous opportunities to adopt a path to reform its economic and financial system,” Saroj Kumar Jha, th...
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – A UN official said Tuesday that the situation in Somalia is extremely dire as 7.1 million people are going to be affected by drought before the end of the year unless there is a massive humanitarian effort. Some 6.1 million Somalis have been affected by the drought emergency as of May, […]
Fnideq, Morocco – (AFP): Spain opened the borders of its North African enclaves Ceuta and Melilla to Moroccan workers on Tuesday, two years after their closure and following the resolution of a drawn-out diplomatic crisis. The European Union’s only borders on African soil had been shuttered in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus ...
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – (AFP): Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalization of diplomatic relations in 2020. Two-way trade between Israel and the UAE last year totaled some $900 million dollars, according to Israeli figures. UAE...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended a dinner reception in his honor Tuesday hosted by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkey (TOBB) in the Turkish capital Ankara. Sharif arrived in Türkey on a three-day official visit on Tuesday. M. Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the head of the TOBB, welcomed Sharif and [&...
TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s powerful UGTT labor union has declared a general strike on June 16 in protest of the government’s refusal to reform public companies. In a statement, the union said the strike was called “over government’s unwillingness to reform public companies.” It said the general strike will cover 159 public institutions i...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) will hold its annual meeting in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh from Wednesday. The four-day meeting will start under the main theme of “Beyond Recovery: Resilience and Sustainability” and will be attended by ministers from 57 member countries and representatives of Islam...
ANKARA (AA) – US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Turkey’s presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin exchanged views on the NATO bids of Sweden and Finland in a phone call on Monday. The global food crisis, energy security, bilateral relations, and developments in Syria and Ukraine were also discussed. During the call, it was un...
KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Around 100 people were killed in clashes between artisanal gold miners in northern Chad last week, the government announced Monday. The violence broke out on May 23 and 24 at an informal gold mining site in the mountainous Kouri Bougoudi district, some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) northeast of the capital N’Djamena ...
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egypt and the European Union (EU) in the coming weeks to export natural gas to EU countries, the country’s energy minister said on Monday. Karine Elharrar told the Israeli Army Radio that Israeli and European teams are working on setting cooperation between them [&helli...
