TUNIS: Tunisian police on Saturday arrested political activist Khayam Turki, his lawyer said, noting however that he was not known to be wanted by the authorities.
Turki, 58, had once been considered as a potential candidate to head the government after the resignation of Premier Elyes Fakhfakh in 2020, and belongs to the social democratic Ettakatol party.
The lawyer Abdelaziz Essid said Turki had been arrested early morning by police who stormed his house and searched it.

BERLIN: The German government has acknowledged an increase in spying by Iranian intelligence agents on exiled Iranians living in Germany since the start of mass protests last year, Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Saturday.
Nationwide unrest triggered by the death of a young woman detained by Iranian morality police last year has led to “increasing indications of possible spying on opposition events and individuals” in Germany, the federal government said in response to an information request from the far-left Linke Party.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s veteran central bank chief Riad Salameh said he would not seek a new term in office once his latest six-year stint at the head of the Banque du Liban ends.
“My decision is that, at the end of the term, it will be a page I turned in my life and I will move to work outside the central bank,” Salameh told Saudi Arabia-based Asharq News.
Salameh’s term is set to end in July.

LONDON: The UN is under growing scrutiny for failing to provide immediate assistance to northwestern Syria, which has yet to receive adequate aid after an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude struck the region, The Guardian reported on Friday.

The UN Security Council has authorized cross-border aid to Syrians in the country’s northwestern region and beyond since 2014. This is due to Syrian authorities illegally obstructing humanitarian access in areas under their control, according to the Cross Border Legal organization. 

AMMAN: Jordan’s armed forces have sent a field hospital and the medical team to staff it to Turkiye to help treat victims of the earthquake that struck the south of the country on Monday.
Maj. Gen. Yousef Huneiti, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met the medics before they departed, passed on the greetings of King Abdullah, told them to help those in need, and urged them to be good ambassadors for the Jordanian Armed Forces, the Jordan News Agency reported on Friday.