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Abu Dhabi, UAEWednesday 14 April 2021

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After a 30-year hiatus, the Ramadan cannon at Cairo's Citadel will be fired again on Tuesday. Egypt Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Egypt Ramadan cannon fires for first time in 30 years
Narges's mother Soraya was killed in the maternity ward attack in Kabul on May 12, 2020. Stefanie Glinski for The National

'Why have you abandoned us?': the Afghan families left to grieve alone after horror attacks

Asia
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, pictured at a military parade, control a network of militias. File photo / AFP

Iran a 'regional menace', US intelligence report says

The Americas
FILE PHOTO: Sudan Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok in Berlin, Germany, February 14, 2020. Reuters

Sudan’s Hamdok invites Egyptian and Ethiopian leaders to meet over disputed dam

Egypt

White House criticises Iran’s ‘provocative’ enrichment announcement

World

Bread crisis in Lebanon could lead to loss of hundreds of jobs

Lebanon

Egypt seeks out-of-court financial settlement with owners of 'Ever Given' ship

Egypt
IN DEPTH
Members of the Mesopotamia Commission, set up to discuss the future of Mesopotamia at the Cairo Conference, in 1921. Pictured are Gertrude Bell (second from left, second row), T E Lawrence (fourth from the right, second row), Winston Churchill (centre, front row), and Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel (left of Churchill). Getty

How Churchill’s ‘40 thieves’ carved out the Middle East

Egypt
Syrian women and children wait to leave the Kurdish-run al-Hol camp in north-east Syria. AFP

Syrian families released from Al Hol struggle for acceptance after ISIS trauma

MENA
The social audio app Clubhouse has gained popularity in Lebanon in recent months. Reuters

Lebanon: Hezbollah critics report threats on Clubhouse app

Lebanon
Costumed men ride on horse-drawn Pharaonic War Wheels before a parade to transfer 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, in Cairo. EPA

Egypt royal mummies' parade fuels national pride

Egypt
Haifa Triki, 27, is a payload specialist on the Challenge-1 satellite team. Erin Clare Brown / The National

Meet the young minds behind Tunisia's satellite success story

MENA
Iraqi Kurdish men walk with their horses during the annual Iraqi Kurdish Spring cultural festival in Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on April 12, 2021. / AFP / SAFIN HAMED

Kurds on horseback celebrate annual festival in traditional attire - in pictures
Workers hang traditional Ramadan lanterns, called "fanous", as part of preparations ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, in Najaf, Iraq, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Ramadan in the Middle East - best pictures
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, pictured at a military parade, control a network of militias. File photo / AFP

Iran a 'regional menace', US intelligence report says
Men installing a decoration ahead of the beginning of Ramadan. EPA

The Mena region prepares for Ramadan - in pictures
A shepherd tends to his flock of long-horned cattle near the Dinder national reserve, in Sudan's southern Sennar state, on April 6, 2021. / AFP / ABDULMONAM EASSA

Sudan's Dinder National Park - in pictures
An 8- month- old sea turtle is about to be released in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast in Michmoret, Israel, Wednesday, April 7, 2021. Six sea turtles were released 2 month after they were rescued and gone through treatment after a disastrous oil spill that has blackened most of the country's shoreline and reached beaches of neighboring Lebanon. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Swim to freedom: young turtles released to Mediterranean Sea - in pictures
epa09118995 A man decorates his shop with traditional Ramadan item 'fanous' as the region prepares for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the West Bank city of Hebron, 06 April 2021. 'Fanous' is a lamp or light and one of the Ramadan decoration items that are sold at the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims across the world prepare for the holy fasting and are required to abstain from food, drinks and sex from dawn to dusk during Ramadan, which begins this year on 13 April. EPA/ABED AL HASHLAMOUN

A Palestinian shopkeeper readies his wares for Ramadan - in pictures
Amin Israil, the grandson of an Iraqi Jew who settled in Sudan and whose family later converted to Islam, and his daughter Salma view old family pictures together during an interview with AFP at their home in Wad Madani, the capital of Sudan's east-central al-Jazirah state, on February 11, 2021. The Jewish community in Sudan was one of the smallest in the Middle East, but it, like those of other Arab states, dwindled in the latter half of the 20th century, as tensions surrounding the 1948 creation of Israel permeated the region. Like elsewhere in the Arab world, Sudanese Jews bore the brunt of growing anti-Israel sentiment amid conflict with the Jewish state. Decades later, their descendants see a recent rapprochement between their country and Israel as an opportunity to connect with their origins. / AFP / Ebrahim HAMID

The dwindling Jewish community in Sudan - in pictures
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad sacked the governor of war-ravaged Syria’s central bank amid a crash in the currency in recent months. AP

Syria's Bashar Al Assad sacks Central Bank chief

MENA
The UAE on Monday reviewed progress on action plans to fight money laundering and countering terrorism financing. Victor Besa / The National 

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed reviews country's action plans to fight financial crimes

Economy
Baya Mahieddine's gouache 'The Musicians' (1988) will be on view with Elmarsa at next month's Menart fair. Courtesy Elmarsa, Dubai

New Middle Eastern art fair to open in Paris in May

Art
Lebanon has been without a fully functioning government since the massive explosion that destroyed parts of Beirut last August. Reuters

Lebanon's government must endorse maritime border claim

Lebanon
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reviews the country’s new nuclear achievements on National Nuclear Energy Day in Tehran on Saturday. Iranian Presidency Office / Reuters

Iran: Uranium enrichment acceleration response to Israel's 'nuclear terrorism'

MENA
Casualties were taken to nearby hospitals. Etienne Bouy/Sipa USA

Egypt bus crash kills 20

Egypt
Cairo International Film Festival president Mohamed Hefzy. This year's festival will take place in December. Courtesy Ciff

Cairo International Film Festival 2021 announces dates

Film
Demonstrators take part in a protest against mounting economic hardships in Beirut. Reuters

Lebanon: government opponents unite in a bid to topple ‘mafia’ in power

Lebanon
A sticker reads crude oil on the side of a storage tank in the Permian Basin in Mentone, Texas. Opec said the higher prices seen in the crude commodity markets could prompt a higher level of US production. Reuters

Opec forecasts a recovery in the oil market and revises demand growth upward

Energy
Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, says the brighter global economic outlook is a reflection of joint steps taken by IMF member countries to combat the pandemic. Victor Besa / The National 

'Decisive' actions helped mitigate pandemic, UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs says

Economy
Iran's chief negotiator Abbas Araghchi leaves nuclear talks with the EU, China and Russia in Vienna on April 9. AFP  

Iran enriching uranium to 60%, says nuclear negotiator after Natanz attack

MENA
The Covid-19 outbreak and the collapsing economy are making life more difficult than when Lebanon was at war, citizens of the country say. AFP

Civil war survivors say poverty in Lebanon worst in living memory

Lebanon