Middle East Experience

The first United Nations World Tourism Organisation regional office officially opens on Thursday
Source: Arabian Business
Full Article: Saudi Arabia at centre of regional tourism push as UNWTO opens Riyadh office

By the regime's count, President Bashar al-Assad won 95.1% of the vote, handing him another seven-year term.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Syria's Assad wins fourth term in election US calls fraudulent

Egypt’s relations with Hamas have begun to warm up in recent months after years of tension following the 2013 overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Has Egypt turned the page on discord with Hamas?

A decade ago, Lebanon’s tourism industry fed $9.5 billion into the country’s GDP – figures the cash-strapped government can only dream of now..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanon's domestic tourism to set sail this summer

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called for Israel to allow for independent investigations into its latest escalation with Hamas.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: UN rights chief warns Israel's Gaza strikes could be war crimes

The WHO’s European director warned on Friday that the Covid-19 pandemic won’t be over until at least 70 percent of people are vaccinated, while deploring that the vaccine rollout in Europe is still “too slow.”“The pandemic will be over once we reach 70 percent minimum coverage in vaccination,” the World Health Organization’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge told AFP in an interview.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section. Kluge also said that one of his main worries was the increased contagiousness of new variants of the novel coronavirus.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“We know for example that the B.1617 (Indian variant) is more transmissible than the B.117 (British variant), which already was more transmissible than the previous strain,” Kluge said.According to the Belgian doctor, speed is “of essence” in pandemic.“Even when WHO declared a pandemic, many countries were still waiting, we lost valuable time.”While the regional director, who has held the position since February 2020, lauded calls for solidarity he stressed that a speedy rollout of vaccines was of the utmost importance.“Our best friend is speed, the time is working against us, the vaccination roll-out still goes too slow,” Kluge said.“We need to accelerate, we need to enlarge the number of vaccines.”In the 53 countries and territories that make up the WHO’s European region -- including several in Central Asia -- 26 percent of the population has received a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.In the European Union, 36.6 percent of the population has received at least one dose, according to a count by AFP.Read more:EU regulator approves Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 to 15Sinopharm vaccine: Chinese scientists publish world’s first report on clinical trialsUK approves single shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Pandemic won’t be over until 70 pct are vaccinated, says WHO’s Europe chief

Nationality, religion, country, or race don’t matter, what matters is that we should all stand for humanity, he said..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Dubai: Delivery rider donates earnings for Palestinians

Republicans in the US Senate on Friday derailed a bipartisan inquiry into the deadly assault on the Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, despite a torrent of criticism they were playing down the violence.Democrats and some moderate Republicans had called for a commission to probe the events leading up to and on Jan. 6, when hundreds of supporters of Trump, a Republican, stormed the Capitol, fighting with police, urging violence against lawmakers and delaying the formal certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. The violence left five dead including a Capitol Police officer.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The measure failed by a vote of 54 to 35, short of the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation in the 100-member Senate.“What are you afraid of - the truth?” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor.Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has argued that the commission would duplicate work done by other congressional committees, as well as a sweeping federal criminal investigation that has so far has resulted in the arrests of more than 440 people.But Republicans are also concerned that the commission, modeled on one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, would focus attention on the violence and on Trump’s persistent false claims about the 2020 election well into next year’s midterm congressional election campaigns.The proposal already passed the House of Representatives with the support of all Democrats and one in six Republicans.“We just can’t pretend that nothing bad happened, or that people just got too excitable. Something bad happened. And it’s important to lay that out,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, who supported the measure, told reporters late on Thursday.Read more:As Russia tensions simmer, NATO conducts massive military exercisesBelarus leader Lukashenko flies into Russia for talks with Putin amid uproarUS calls for immediate release of American journalist in Myanmar
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Republicans in US Senate block probe of Capitol riot

The World Food Programme said on Wednesday it is tripling its assistance to Lebanon, offering cash assistance to nearly 300,000 people amid an unparalleled financial and economic crisis..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: WFP raises cash assistance to Lebanon amid worsening crisis

Ten years after their respective uprisings, Tunisia and Libya are still at a crossroads..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Tunisian-Libyan relations amid transitions