BAGHDAD: An Iraqi cleric who escaped from prison and went on the run for two days died on Thursday as security forces closed in on him, authorities said.
Saad Qambash, once head of Iraq’s Sunni Waqf, was jailed for four years earlier this month for fraud.
His escape triggered a decision by Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani to sack a security chief in Baghdad and close the detention facility in the capital’s Green Zone from which the senior cleric had fled on Tuesday night.

RAMALLAH: Despite ongoing Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, Israeli military forces continued to storm Palestinian towns and arrest people in many parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem amid violent confrontations on Saturday.

Palestinian observers expect an escalation in tension and violence after Eid, which began on Friday and continues until Sunday.

KHARTOUM: Sporadic shelling rang out late on Friday in Sudan’s capital even though warring factions announced a truce, while one force said it was willing to allow airports to reopen for the evacuation of foreign nationals.
The United Nations, US, UK, Japan, Switzerland, South Korea, Sweden and Spain have said they were making preparations or attempting to remove their personnel after almost a week of violence.

BEIRUT/PARIS: French prosecutors have told Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh they plan to press preliminary fraud and money laundering charges against him, partly based on allegedly forged bank statements used to conceal his wealth, according to French court documents seen by Reuters.
The accusation of using fake account statements, which had not previously been reported, is contained in documents sent to Salameh by French judicial authorities ahead of a planned hearing in France on May 16.

BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned on Friday against Tunisia backtracking on the fundamentals of its democracy, after the arrest of opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi this week.
Baerbock told reporters that Berlin viewed Ghannouchi’s arrest “with the greatest concern” and cautioned that the “democratic achievements in Tunisia since 2011 must not be lost.”