AL-MUKALLA: The Yemeni riyal began plummeting in government-controlled areas this week, days after the head of the Presidential Leadership Council said his government will be unable to pay public employees due to Houthi strikes.

The riyal was exchanged at 1,200 per dollar in Aden, Al-Mukalla and other liberated areas on Tuesday compared to 1,170 last week, erasing months of improvement over the previous nine months.

BEIRUT: A Lebanese MP has called for action against smugglers who are worsening the economic crises by smuggling already scarce US dollars out of the country to Syria.

Hadi Abu Al-Hassan said the smugglers, who are capitalizing on the weak Lebanese pound, were worsening the availability of hard currency and causing “insane” rises in exchange rates.

AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: Efforts to renew the UN-brokered truce and bring peace to Yemen have been dashed after Omani mediators left Sanaa without any reported progress, and the Iran-backed Houthis threatened to renew the fight if their demands are not met. 

The Omani mediators, who arrived in Sanaa last week, departed the city on Sunday after meeting top Houthi officials and hearing their requests for extending the ceasefire and participating in peace negotiations to end the conflict.

CAIRO: Tribal violence in Sudan’s long-restive region of Darfur killed at least 12 people over the past few days, an aid group said.

The clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the Beleil area in South Darfur province also wounded at least 42 people, said Adam Regal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur.

Local authorities said the clashes grew out of an attempt by herdsmen to loot a motorized rickshaw known as a tuk-tuk in the village of Amouri, killing one person.

TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu called a vote in parliament on his new government for Thursday Dec. 29, the speaker of the Knesset said on Monday, after almost two months of coalition wrangling.

Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing and religious parties won a clear victory in parliamentary elections last month, but the veteran leader has had a harder time than expected in finalizing deals with his partners.