TUNIS: Tunisia will again supply flour to more than 1,000 non-subsidized bakeries in the North African country after most of them ceased operating, government and industry officials said on Sunday.

The deal could help ease a bread shortage that has worsened over the past two weeks.

Since the beginning of August, European-style bakeries selling baguettes in the formerly French-ruled country had been prevented from accessing their quota of subsidized flour, after President Kais Saied said there should be “one type of bread for all Tunisians.”

CAIRO: Libya’s central bank announced Sunday its reunification after being split for nearly a decade due to the country’s long-running civil war that resulted in two rival administrations, in the east and the west.
The bank said in a terse statement that it has become a “unified sovereign institution” following a meeting in the capital, Tripoli, between Central Bank Governor Sadiq Al-Kabir and his deputy in the country’s east, Marai Rahil.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi and UN officials on Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of a deadly attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The Aug. 19, 2003, truck bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, which housed the UN headquarters in Iraq at the time, killed 22 UN staff including the head, Sergio Vieira de Mello, a rising UN star. It was the deadliest attack against UN staff in its history.
The attack came in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq that toppled ex-ruler, Saddam Hussein, but unleashed an insurgency and years of brutal civil war in the country.

RABAT: Morocco has not made a formal request to join the BRICS grouping and will not attend its summit in South Africa, state news agency MAP said.
Citing an unnamed diplomatic source, MAP denied a statement by South Africa’s Foreign Minister Anil Sooklal who said earlier this month Morocco was among the nations seeking to join the bloc.
“South Africa allowed itself to speak about Morocco’s ties with the BRICS without prior consultation,” it said.

BEIRUT: Small portable alarms named in memory of a young British Embassy worker raped and murdered in Lebanon in 2017 have been distributed on Beirut Corniche as part of a campaign to protect women and girls from violence.

Known as Becky’s Button, the lightweight devices were handed out by the Becky’s Button Association on Saturday, with volunteers explaining how the alarms can offer protection from sexual harassment or assault.