CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the total number of people with diabetes in Egypt who are registered with health insurance has reached 11 million.

Diabetes affects 15 percent of the world’s population, the minister said at a press conference on the diabetes awareness campaign “100 Million Healthy Lives Initiative.”

The minister said Egypt is interested in reaching these patients and providing them with early diagnosis and treatment services.

DUBAI: In the 21st century, English has become the lingua franca of nearly the whole world. In the Gulf, children are often pushed to learn English from a young age, and many speak near-perfect English with barely a hint of an accent. Just Google “English schools in Saudi Arabia,” and you will find yourself drowning in thousands of results.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah group has handed over a man suspected of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper earlier this month, a security official told AFP on Sunday.
Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others injured on December 14 when their UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the village of Al-Aqbiya in the country’s south, a stronghold of the Iran-backed group.
UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates near the border.

TUNIS: A Tunisian rights group has condemned a “repressive and inhumane” government decision to deport a group of migrants who had been evacuated from a defunct refugee camp.

The 25 men from Egypt, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan had sought asylum in Tunisia after fleeing violence in Libya in 2011, but their requests were denied, said Romdhane Ben Amor of the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights.

He said their repatriation would “put their lives at risk.”

CAIRO: Egyptian customs officers have foiled attempts to smuggle bladed weapons, narcotics and foreign currency though Cairo International Airport.

Cairo International Airport customs authorities detained two passengers in possession of undisclosed foreign currency, drugs and bladed weapons.

Officials said that a suspected smuggler was arrested recently while trying to exit via the Green Line gate.

When his bags were passed through an X-ray machine, authorities discovered bladed weapons hidden among clothing.