LONDON: Yemen called Saturday for the United Nations, the international community and human rights organizations to “take a clear position on the war crimes and brutal violations committed by the Houthi militia” in Yemen.
The head of the Yemeni government, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, said they must take a stand on the violations that the Iran-backed militia have committed against the population in the Al-Hima area of northern Taiz, in southwestern Yemen.
The Houthi militia besieged the villages of Al-Hima and Al-Haq in Taiz on Friday, killing four people, including a child, wounding seven others and extensively damaging and destroying several homes.
The premier said that “the international community and its organizations are not content with standing idly by to the crimes of the Iranian-backed militia,” adding that “this position” encourages the Houthis to continue their crimes against unarmed civilians.
Abdulmalik made the comments during a phone call with Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan, in which the prime minister stressed that “the killing of children, women and civilians, random arrests, bombing of homes and forced displacement of residents will not be subjected to statute of limitations and the perpetrators will pay for their crimes,” reported the official Yemeni News Agency.
The governor briefed the prime minister on reports about the crimes committed by the Houthi militia, their siege and the bombing of residents’ homes and farms with rockets and artillery, killing of women and children, and kidnapping dozens of innocent people.

JERUSALEM: Thousands of Israelis on Saturday renewed weekly demonstrations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for the long-serving leader to resign over corruption charges against him and his alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.
Protesters held signs reading “Go,” and “Bibi, let my people go,” referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
The protest in a Jerusalem square near Netanyahu’s official residence comes as Israel is the midst of its third national lockdown, which was recently tightened to shutter schools, and as the country presses forward with a world-leading vaccination drive. Netanyahu’s trial was set to resume this week, but was postponed indefinitely amid the tighter restrictions.
Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust connected to three long-running investigations. He has denied any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by hostile media, law enforcement and judicial officials. Protesters argue that Netanyahu cannot properly lead the country while under indictment.
Israel has seen a recent surge in cases despite unleashing one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns. The country has given the first of two vaccine doses to nearly 20% of its population, and Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel has secured enough vaccines to inoculate the whole adult population by the end of March.
Netanyahu has placed the vaccination drive at the center of his campaign for reelection that same month. On March 23, Israel will hold its fourth nationwide vote in less than two years. In the meantime, he has called on Israelis to make “one last big effort” to halt transmission by adhering to the tightened restrictions.

SAMAWAH, Iraq: An imposing house stands out among other buildings in Iraq’s Samawah city — once a multi-generational family home, it’s now a museum of a bygone age in the country’s tribal south.
Abdellatif Al-Jablawi, the property’s owner and family patriarch, led a tour of the traditional house where he was born 80 years ago.
At the time, three generations, from grandparents to grandchildren, lived in the house, with its intricate “shanasheel” bay windows, wooden balconies and tall doors topped by elaborate lintels.
“Over the generations, everyone preferred to rent elsewhere and the house emptied out,” said Al-Jablawi, now the oldest member of his family.
The house comprises 13 rooms splashed with sunlight colored by stained glass windows, including a grand ceremonial salon and kitchen, which Al-Jablawi still calls “the fireplace,” as it was known when he was young.

The rooms are connected by steep, narrow stairs and walls of yellow brick, a historic building material still produced in southern Iraq.
Al-Jablawi said the structure had been at risk of “falling into ruin” when he decided to act.
“I decided to buy back all the shares of the house … and, in 2015, I found an architect specialized in renovating heritage buildings,” he said.

ALGIERS: Two former Algerian prime ministers went on trial again Saturday on appeal for corruption, the official APS news agency said, after the supreme court annulled their earlier convictions.
Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal both served under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
APS said they were involved in a corruption scandal and accused of covert financing of Bouteflika’s final re-election bid.
The new proceedings in the capital Algiers come after the supreme court in November accepted a defence appeal.
Several former ministers and other well-known figures are also on trial over the same affair, APS said.
The trial of Ouyahia and Sellal in December 2019 was the first in a series of high-profile corruption cases launched after Bouteflika resigned earlier that year.
It was also the first time since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962 that former prime ministers had been put on trial.
Ouyahia was prime minister four times between 1995 and 2019, and had been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.
Sellal, who served from 2012 to 2017 and managed four of Bouteflika’s election campaigns, was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Their sentences were confirmed on appeal in March.
The pair were sentenced to further jail time in separate cases last year.
Bouteflika, who was Algeria’s longest-serving president, was forced to resign in April 2019 after losing the backing of the army amid enormous street protests against his decision to seek a fifth term.
Following his departure, authorities launched a string of investigations against high-ranking former officials and business figures, several of whom have been convicted.
Some see the trials as little more than score-settling between rival clans among the ruling elite, however, rather than a genuine reform effort.

BEIRUT: A senior Lebanese health official broke down in tears while describing how stricken coronavirus patients had begged him for a vacant hospital bed so that they would not die at home in front of their families.

Dr. Joseph Al-Helou, director of the Ministry of Public Health’s medical care directorate, said that hospitals in Lebanon are rapidly being overwhelmed but are receiving hundreds of calls from seriously ill people pleading to be admitted.

“Hospitals are under great pressure as there are only a few vacant beds,” Al-Helou said in a video address that was widely shared on social media platforms.

His comments came as the rise in coronavirus cases exceeded even the bleakest predictions, with more than 5,400 new infections reported on Thursday and Friday, and warnings that case numbers could reach 9,000 on Sunday.

Revealing the suffering of medical staff unable to offer beds to patients, a tearful Al-Helou said: “We are receiving hundreds of calls from people who want to be admitted, even if only to the emergency departments. If we tell them that they have to wait for a vacant bed for five, 10 or even 24 hours, they accept. Today, there are 41 people waiting in emergency departments.

“We are working until past midnight to provide transport for patients. Some people decided to celebrate New Year’s Eve in restaurants — isn’t that a grave crime?”

Al-Helou said that a nurse had come to him in tears, saying that a priest had died in front of her.

“I have never cried, but this is unbearable,” he said. “A man begs me, a woman pleads with me to let her die on the street and not in front of her children. How can that be? Medical personnel are drained. Some people are dying at home, and others lack oxygen at home.”

Aida Al-Noori, a nursing supervisor at the Al-Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital in Beirut, told Arab News: “It is a terrifying scene in emergency departments. Doctors are giving patients prescriptions to get treatment at home, and we teach those who need oxygen how to use it at home. Patients in critical conditions stay here.”

She added: “In the coronavirus department, we have 21 intensive care beds and we are clearing another floor in order to dedicate 16 beds to coronavirus patients.”

Dr. Andre Kozaily, director of the Bouar Public Hospital in Keserwan, Mount Lebanon, said that medical staff are treating some coronavirus patients in cars because the facility has reached maximum capacity.

According to the Ministry of Health’s daily COVID-19 data, infected cases have reached their peak in Ashrafieh (Beirut), Haret Hreik (in the southern suburb of Beirut), Dekwaneh (Metn), Aley and Zouk Mosbeh (Keserwan), Jbeil, Saida, Zgharta, Riyaq (Bekaa), Hermel (Baalbek) and Abbasiyeh (in the south).

Dr. Sharaf Abu Sharaf, head of the Lebanese Order of Physicians, criticized the ministry, saying it had failed to adequately equip public hospitals for the past year.

“Doctors and medical personnel in the private sector are carrying out their duty to the fullest. Private hospitals cannot be blamed. I was in the Zahle Public Hospital today where only six of 120 beds are occupied. Why weren’t people directed to go there? Where is the money that has been paid to the ministry to equip hospitals? Nothing has been prepared.”

Lebanon has 30 government and 130 private hospitals.

Abu Sharaf said that there is a shortage of doctors available to treat the rising numbers of patients.

Hamad Hassan, the caretaker health minister, called on people to “refrain from going anywhere, unless absolutely necessary, during the lockdown.”

Lebanon still has not received any vaccine while the country waits on parliament to adopt a law protecting vaccinated people who might suffer from complications.

Lamia Yammine, the caretaker labor minister, revealed on Saturday that she has been infected with the virus, while Information Minister Manal Abdel-Samad urged media companies to “intensify awareness-raising campaigns to reduce the number of infections.”

Petra Khoury, adviser to the caretaker prime minister on medical matters, warned that with cases peaking in Lebanon, every person has a moral duty to avoid infecting another person.”

“Wear masks,” she said.