AZRAQ, Jordan: At a grocery store checkout in the Jordanian refugee camp of Azraq, Sameera Sabbouh stares wide-eyed into a scanner to pay for her shopping — her iris scan unlocking payment from a digital aid account with the help of block- chain technology.

Many of the nearly 40,000 Syrians who live in the camp recognize the convenience of the cashless, card-free payment method, which verifies recipients’ identity by referencing a UN database, but few said they like it.

AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni Ph.D. holder who had just completed a degree at a university in Morocco has been found dead off the coast of Spain after the boat he was traveling in to reach Europe capsized.

Dhef Allah Al-Thaifani reportedly drowned when the vessel transporting illegal immigrants from Morocco overturned in waters adjacent to the Spanish city of Ceuta.

The incident has prompted fresh demands for an end to the conflict in Yemen and warnings to Yemenis not to attempt the dangerous crossing to Europe.

JEDDAH: Courts in Tehran have sentenced 400 people to jail terms of up to 10 years over their involvement in protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, Iran’s judiciary said on Tuesday.

Iran has been gripped by nearly three months of protests — which officials describe as “riots” — since the death of Amini after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country’s dress code for women.

AL-MUKALLA: A Yemeni human rights group and relatives have accused the Iran-backed Houthis of torturing and killing a prisoner of war and then for years concealing his death from family.

The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms said that Omar Ahmed Al-Samae, a Yemeni government fighter seized from a battlefield in the province of Saada in 2018, was mercilessly tortured before being murdered. The militia group later told his family that he was being held in jail.

KUWAIT: The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and the Arab Competition Network have congratulated Kuwaiti authorities on their efforts to protect consumers against commercial fraud.
The organizations said the measures they introduced have helped to create effective and beneficial competition, the Kuwait News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Kuwait’s Competition Protection Agency has made significant progress in the past decade in its efforts to “regulate the local market,” Natalya Khaled, ESCWA’s economic affairs chief, said during a two-day conference.