TUNIS: Tunisian President Kais Saied on Tuesday urged the International Monetary Fund to take into account the social impact of any economic reforms it may demand as part of a bailout package.
The North African country has been in preliminary discussions with the global lender for a new loan to save an economy ravaged by years of high unemployment, inflation and public debt even pre-dating its 2011 revolution.

ISTANBUL: A wildfire broke out in southwestern Turkey on Tuesday, sparking fears of a repeat of last year’s blazes that devastated tens of thousands of hectares across the country’s Mediterranean and Aegan provinces.
The fire broke out near the Aegean coastal resort of Marmaris, in the province of Mugla, in an area known as Bordubet.
State-owned Anadolu news agency said the fires had spread quickly due to windy conditions and were continuing to expand at a rapid pace. The cause for the fire is unknown, it said.

BEIRUT: Lebanon, Syria and Egypt on Tuesday agreed to ship 650 million cubic meters of natural gas per year from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria, part of a US-backed effort to address Lebanon’s crippling blackouts with electricity and gas transfers.
The deal, signed at a ceremony at the Lebanese energy ministry in Beirut, would see gas piped to Lebanon’s northern Deir Ammar power plant, where it could add some 450 megawatts, or around four extra hours of power per day to the grid.

JERUSALEM: An Israeli settler stabbed a Palestinian man to death during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry and a witness said.
An Israeli police spokesperson said it was unclear who stabbed the man. They were investigating the incident but no arrests had been made.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the 28-year-old, identified as Ali Hassan Harb, had been stabbed in the heart by a settler.

BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun stressed on Monday that Lebanon is “committed to carrying out the required reforms,” but said the country “needs the IMF’s program within the limits of its applicability in Lebanon.”

Aoun’s stance coincided with a warning by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati for “the international community to cooperate with Lebanon to secure the return of Syrian refugees to their country, or else Lebanon will work to get Syrians out through legal means and the firm application of Lebanese law.”