ALGIERS: An Algerian businessman and activist imprisoned for urging a boycott of the country’s 2019 presidential election was released Wednesday, a rights group said, after he announced this month he would quit politics.
Rachid Nekkaz was released on “humanitarian grounds,” the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees said on Facebook.
Algerian daily Le Soir d’Algerie reported the 51-year-old had been granted a presidential pardon.
Nekkaz had unsuccessfully tried to stand as a candidate in the 2019 poll.

BEIRUT: The Lebanese caretaker government held its second session amid the presidential vacuum on Wednesday.

The ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement boycotted the session, arguing that a caretaker government has no right to hold sessions to manage the country’s affairs.

The session was attended by 17 ministers, including seven of 12 Christian ministers. Hezbollah’s ministers also attended after being given permission by their leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

ANKARA: Turkiye’s far-right, anti-refugee Victory (Zafer) Party has launched a fundraising campaign with the pledge that the money raised will be used to pay for one-way bus tickets to send all Syrian refugees home.
In a campaign video, the party asked supporters for the names of people they want to be sent back to Syria. It said it will buy tickets not only for the refugees but for those who support refugee rights in Turkiye.

DAVOS: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that progress is being made on Yemen, but much work still needs to be done.

Prince Faisal called for a truce brought in last year in the country to be reinstated and said work must begin toward making the ceasefire permanent.

The conflict will end only “through a political settlement” and “negotiated solutions,” he said.

RIYADH: Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s permanent observer to the UN, has announced the Security Council will hold an open discussion on Wednesday to review the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Palestine, the Saudi Press Agency has reported.

Mansour has stressed the importance of maintaining international pressure on Israel to end its illegal actions against Palestinians.