Jordan warns price gougers taking advantage of coronavirus crisis
Updated 27 April 2020
Arab News
DUBAI: The Jordanian government has warned of legal actions against businesses found violating price controls being imposed by the trade ministry amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials are continually monitoring market and have noted an increase in prices of some foodstuffs were observed, Tariq Hammouri, the minister of industry, trade and supply, was reported by state news agency Petra as saying.
Price ceilings cover wholesale centers and consumers’ outlets, Hammouri said, as he called on everybody to abide by the procedures set by the ministry.
Iranian foreign minister to discuss Iran-US nuclear talks during Moscow visit
Updated 7 sec ago
Reuters
MOSCOW: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sent his foreign minister to Russia on Thursday with a letter for Russian President Vladimir Putin, aiming to shore up support from Moscow ahead of a second round of nuclear negotiations with the United States. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing and extending tariffs to third countries that buy its oil if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington over its disputed nuclear program. The United States has moved additional warplanes into the region. The US and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Iran’s right to enrich uranium is not negotiable. Russia, a longstanding ally of Tehran, plays a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West as a veto-wielding UN Security Council member and a signatory to an earlier nuclear deal Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018. “Regarding the nuclear issue, we always had close consultations with our friends China and Russia. Now it is a good opportunity to do so with Russian officials,” Araqchi told state TV. He said he was conveying a letter to Putin that discussed regional and bilateral issues. Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity beyond what is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to the level suitable for an atomic bomb. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says it has a right to a civilian nuclear program. Moscow has bought weapons from Iran for the war in Ukraine and signed a 20-year strategic partnership deal with Tehran earlier this year, although it did not include a mutual defense clause. The two countries were battlefield allies in Syria for years until their ally Bashar Assad was toppled in December. Putin has kept on good terms with Khamenei as both Russia and Iran are cast as enemies by the West, but Moscow is keen not to trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.
Lebanon detains several people on suspicion of firing rockets at Israel
A Hamas official told the AP that several members of the group were detained in Lebanon recently and released shortly afterward
Updated 4 min 34 sec ago
AP
BEIRUT: The Lebanese military said it has detained a group of people linked to firing rockets into Israel last month.
In a statement issued late Wednesday night, the army said it had detained several people, including a number of Palestinians, who were involved in firing rockets in two separate attacks toward Israel in late March that triggered intense Israeli airstrikes on parts of Lebanon. Lebanon’s Hezbollah group denied at the time it was behind the firing of rockets.
The army said that a vehicle and other equipment used in the rockets attacks were confiscated and the detainees were referred to judicial authorities. The army said it had carried out raids in different parts of Lebanon to detain the suspects without giving further details.
On Thursday, the state-run National News Agency reported that Gen. Rodolph Haikal briefed a weekly cabinet meeting about the security situation along the border and the ongoing implementation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war.
Three security and one judicial officials told The Associated Press that four Palestinians linked to the Hamas group are being questioned.
A Hamas official told the AP that several members of the group were detained in Lebanon recently and released shortly afterward adding that they were not involved in firing rockets into Israel. He said in one case authorities detained a Hamas member who was carrying an unlicensed pistol.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Hezbollah started launching attacks on Israel a day after the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023 with the Palestinian militants’ attack on southern Israel. The war that left more than 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused wide destruction ended in late November with a US-brokered ceasefire.
Since the ceasefire went into effect in late November, Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes that left dozens of civilians and Hezbollah members dead.
On Tuesday, the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights said that at least 71 civilians, including 14 women and nine children, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon since a ceasefire took effect.
Echos Of Civil War
50 years on, Lebanon remains hostage to sectarian rivalries
Amputee Palestinian boy image wins World Press Photo award
The photographer is from Gaza and was herself evacuated in December 2023
The jury praised the photo’s “strong composition and attention to light” and its thought-provoking subject-matter
Updated 17 April 2025
AFP
Amsterdam: A haunting portrait of a nine-year-old Palestinian boy who lost both arms during an Israeli attack on Gaza City won the 2025 World Press Photo of the Year Award Thursday.
The picture, by Samar Abu Elouf for The New York Times, depicts Mahmoud Ajjour, evacuated to Doha after an explosion severed one arm and mutilated the other last year.
“One of the most difficult things Mahmoud’s mother explained to me was how when Mahmoud first came to the realization that his arms were amputated, the first sentence he said to her was, ‘How will I be able to hug you’?” said Elouf.
The photographer is also from Gaza and was herself evacuated in December 2023. She now portrays badly wounded Palestinians based in Doha.
“This is a quiet photo that speaks loudly. It tells the story of one boy, but also of a wider war that will have an impact for generations,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, World Press Photo Executive Director.
The jury praised the photo’s “strong composition and attention to light” and its thought-provoking subject-matter, especially questions raised over Mahmoud’s future.
The boy is now learning to play games on his phone, write, and open doors with his feet, the jury said.
Caption
“Mahmoud’s dream is simple: he wants to get prosthetics and live his life as any other child,” said the World Press Photo organizers in a statement.
The jury also selected two photos for the runner-up prize.
The first, entitled “Droughts in the Amazon” by Musuk Nolte for Panos Pictures and the Bertha Foundation, shows a man on a dried-up river bed in the Amazon carrying supplies to a village once accessible by boat.
The second, “Night Crossing” by John Moore shooting for Getty Images, depicts Chinese migrants huddling near a fire during a cold rainshower after crossing the US-Mexico border.
The jury sifted through 59,320 photographs from 3,778 photo journalists to select 42 prize-winning shots from around the world.
Photographers for Agence France-Presse were selected four times for a regional prize, more than any other organization.
Nairobi-based Luis Tato won in the “Stories” category for the Africa region for a selection of photos depicting Kenya’s youth uprising.
Jerome Brouillet won in the “Singles” category Asia-Pacific and Oceania for his iconic picture of surfer Gabriel Medina seemingly floating above the waves.
Clarens Siffroy won in the “Stories” category North and Central America for his coverage of the gang crisis in Haiti.
Finally, Anselmo Cunha won in the “Singles” category for South America for his photo of a Boeing 727-200 stranded at Salgado Filho International Airport in Brazil.
Lebanon’s former interior minister appears before Beirut port blast investigator
Judge Bitar resumed his investigation earlier this year following prolonged legal and political obstacles
Updated 31 min 29 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Former Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk appeared before Judge Tarek Bitar on Thursday as part of the ongoing investigation into the 2020 Beirut port explosion.
Machnouk arrived at the judge’s office accompanied by his attorney, Naoum Farah, the National News Agency reported.
The interrogation session began shortly after their arrival, marking a significant step in the judicial probe into one of Lebanon’s most devastating tragedies, which killed over 200 people and injured thousands.
Judge Bitar resumed his investigation earlier this year following prolonged legal and political obstacles.
Echos Of Civil War
50 years on, Lebanon remains hostage to sectarian rivalries
Gaza rescuers say 25 killed in Israeli strikes on displaced people
Overnight strike targeted several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in 16 deaths
Updated 29 min 50 sec ago
AFP
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Gaza’s civil defense agency reported on Thursday that a wave of Israeli air strikes hit multiple encampments for displaced Palestinians across the territory, killing at least 25 people.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said an overnight strike targeted several tents in the Al-Mawasi area of the southern city of Khan Yunis, resulting in 16 deaths.
“At least 16 martyrs, most of them women and children, and 23 others were wounded following a direct strike by two Israeli missiles on several tents housing displaced families in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis,” Bassal said.
According to Bassal, two additional strikes on other encampments of displaced people killed eight and wounded several more.
Seven were killed in a strike on tents in the northern town of Beit Lahia, while another attack near the Al-Mawasi area killed a father and his child who were living in a tent, Bassal said.
Echos Of Civil War
50 years on, Lebanon remains hostage to sectarian rivalries
