INEGHEDE, Morocco: Mohammed Al Moutawak’s village was destroyed by Morocco’s powerful earthquake and his apple harvest ruined, but he refuses to leave the land that is vital to small farmers like him.
Drought and extreme weather have long taken a toll on the North African kingdom’s growers, but the quake spells new challenges that are just beginning to come into focus.
“We thought hail was our worst enemy, but now we’ve got another,” said the 56-year-old farmer from the mountain village of Ineghede in the worst-hit Al-Haouz region south of Marrakech.

CAIRO: Sudanese paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said the rapid support forces will start consultations to form civilian authority in areas under its control if Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan “keeps claiming false legitimacy.”
Burhan forming a new government in Port Sudan would lead to a scenario “where two parties control different areas,” Daglo said in a recorded speech on Thursday.

NEW YORK: The UN special envoy for Sudan who was declared unwelcome by the country’s military rulers resigned in a final speech to the UN Security Council, warning that the conflict between Sudan’s rival military leaders “could be morphing into a full-scale civil war.”

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s central bank must address continued risks of the misuse of dollars at Iraqi commercial banks to avoid new punitive measures targeting the country’s financial sector, a top US Treasury official said, citing fraud, money laundering and Iran sanctions evasion.
In July, the United States barred 14 Iraqi banks from conducting dollar transactions as part of a wider crackdown on the illicit use of dollars.

CAIRO: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi received French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna in Cairo on Thursday, stressing “the importance Egypt attaches to strengthening cooperation with France.”

The French minister described Egypt as a “reliable partner and an important country” for France in a post on X — formerly Twitter — as she began her visit to the North African state on Wednesday evening.