Derna: Libya’s flood disaster, which killed thousands in the city of Derna, also displaced more than 43,000 people, the International Organization for Migration said Thursday.
A tsunami-sized flash flood broke through two aging river dams upstream from the coastal city after the Mediterranean Storm Daniel lashed the area on September 10.
It razed entire neighborhoods, sweeping untold thousands of people into the sea.

LONDON: Those who think peace can prevail in the Middle East without the Palestinian people enjoying their full rights are mistaken, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, he said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory “violates the principles of international law and legitimacy while it races against time to change the historical, geographical and demographic reality on the ground, aimed at perpetuating the occupation and entrenching apartheid.”

RABAT: Quake-hit Morocco’s government announced on Wednesday a budget of more than $11 billion for reconstruction, rehousing and socio-economic development of areas hit by the deadly disaster.
The 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit Al-Haouz province south of Marrakech on September 8, killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring thousands more.
The government said in a statement it was setting aside 120 billion dirhams ($11.7 billion) to help 4.2 million inhabitants affected by the quake over a period of five years.

NEW YORK: Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah affirmed countries’ right to maintain sovereignty, independence and territorial sanctity in a speech during a UN Security Council session.
Addressing a session on safeguarding global peace on the margins of the 78th UN General Assembly, Al-Sabah emphasized nonintervention in states’ internal affairs, resolving conflicts peacefully and abstaining from the use of force, as well as people’s right to self-determination, and encouraging respect for human rights.

NEW YORK: The world must do more to stop the flow of arms and resources to Iran-backed Houthi militias, Rashid Al-Alimi, the chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, said on Thursday.

Al-Alimi, the opening speaker at the 8th plenary meeting of the 78th UN General Assembly’s general debate in New York, strongly condemned human rights violations committed by the Houthis since the conflict erupted in Yemen almost a decade ago.