DUBAI: The UAE announced a new coronavirus case on  Monday bringing the number of those infected in the Emirates to eight.

The latest case is an Indian national who had been in recent contact with one of the other cases, the Ministry of Health and Prevention said.

Five Chinese and two Filipinos had already had the coronavirus diagnosed.

The ministry said all the cases were in a stable condition apart from one who was being treated in an intensive care unit “under close observation by a team of senior consultants.”

On Sunday, the ministry said 73-year-old Liu Yujia from China had made a full recovery.

“We assure members of the community that we are taking all adequate preventive measures including check-ups and observation of the patients’ escorts,” it added.

WASHINGTON: The US military is preparing to report a more than 50 percent jump in the number of cases of traumatic brain injury stemming from Iran’s missile attack on a base in Iraq last month, US officials told Reuters on Monday.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said there were now over 100 cases of TBI, up from the 64 that had been previously reported last month.
The Pentagon declined to comment.

AMMAN: Nearly 700,000 civilians have been displaced by a renewed Russian-backed Syrian government offensive against the rebel-held northwest since early December, including nearly 100,000 in the last week alone, the United Nations said on Monday.
Davis Swanson, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the situation was increasingly dire near the border with Turkey where over 400,000 people had already taken shelter from earlier anti-rebel offensives last year before the latest campaign.

CAIRO: The Egyptian army said it had thwarted a terrorist attack on a security base on Sunday in the Sinai peninsula, killing 10 gunmen.
Military spokesperson, Col. Tamer El-Rifai, said that the Egyptian armed forces prevented the terrorist attack on one of its security bases in North Sinai and a four-wheel drive vehicle used by the terrorists was also destroyed.
The standoff also killed two officers and left five others injured. 
The military spokesperson said the attack occurred at 5pm local time (3pm GMT)
“The search operations and the pursuit of terrorist elements are being conducted to eliminate them in the Al-Hadath region,” he said in a statement on his Facebook page.
The armed forces and the police also confirmed their continued efforts to eliminate and uproot terrorism.

RABAT: Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of the Moroccan capital Sunday to protest against a new US Middle East peace plan which the Palestinians say favors Israel.
Carrying Palestinian flags, the demonstrators, including local politicians and trade unionists, marched in Rabat chanting “Long Live Palestine.”
They called for a boycott of American products, denounced the United States as “enemies of peace” and chanted “Palestine is not for sale.”
Some of the demonstrators, who wore red-black-green-white scarves in the colors of the Palestinian standard, burned an Israeli flag and spoke against any attempt by Morocco “to normalize” ties with the Jewish state.
Morocco has warming but quiet relations with Israel, and no formal diplomatic ties.
Israel and Morocco opened “liaison” offices in each other’s countries in the mid-1990s but Rabat closed them after an escalation of Palestinian-Israeli violence in 2000.
Elsewhere in North Africa, hundreds of Tunisians also protested Sunday against the US peace plan, in the eastern city of Sfax, an AFP journalist reported. Tunisia’s powerful UGTT labor union, which organized the march, called the proposal an “accord of shame.”
Last month US President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians which the Palestinians have rejected as biased in favor of the Jewish state.
Under the plan, Israel would retain control of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its “undivided capital,” and annex settlements on Palestinian lands. Palestinians however want all of east Jerusalem to be the capital of any future state.
The plan has also been rejected by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — two bodies in which Morocco is a prominent member.
After Trump unveiled the plan, the foreign minister of Morocco, a key US ally, said Rabat “appreciates the constructive efforts for peace deployed by the US administration for a durable solution in the Middle East.”
Nasser Bourita went on to reiterate that Morocco’s position is to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.