LONDON: A Cambridge University professor has been accused of racism for comments about a pro-Palestine demonstration.

The university’s Palestine Solidarity Society and Middle Eastern North African Society said Dr. James Orr’s comments about protests in central London, of which he said “Import the Arab world, become the Arab world,” were “obviously racist.”

Orr, a member of the Faculty of Divinity, made the remarks on social media below a video of demonstrators praying on Kensington High Street in the capital, waving Palestinian flags and setting off flares.

CAIRO: Israel’s call Friday for half of the Gaza Strip’s population to evacuate south is hiking Egypt’s fears of a massive influx of refugees across the heavily fortified border into its territory.
Since Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel sparked a massive retaliation in Gaza, Egypt’s leadership has frantically tried to negotiate the entry of humanitarian aid through its crossing into the Palestinian territory — partially in hopes of averting an exodus into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Officials say its efforts have received no response from Israel.

BAGHDAD: Iran’s foreign minister, whose government supports Hamas and other Middle East militant groups, said on Thursday opening a “new front” against Israel would depend on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

LONDON: Tunisia has sent back €60 million ($63 million) to the EU, which was intended to help curb migrant crossings over the Mediterranean, and has accused the bloc of treating it like a vassal, The Times reported on Thursday

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar said the cash was wired back on Oct. 9, six days after it had been received, and added that his country’s national sovereignty was a source of “dignity and strength.”

He added: “We have not started wars and we have not plunged humanity into world wars, as you have done.”

MARRAKECH, Morocco: World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she hoped the Israel-Hamas conflict could be ended quickly, warning it would have a “really big impact” on already weak global trade flows if it widened throughout the region.
Okonjo-Iweala, in Morocco for this week’s annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, said Middle East violence could add to factors throttling trade growth, including higher interest rates, a strained Chinese property market and Russia’s war in Ukraine.