16 October 2017 - NPWJ News Digest on Middle East and North Africa democracy

Articles

Iraq accuses Kurds of 'declaration of war' in Kirkuk
By Al Jazeera, 15 Oct 2017

The Iraqi government has accused Kurdish authorities of bringing fighters from Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to the disputed province of Kirkuk, in a move it called a "declaration of war". The accusation was quickly rejected by Kurdish officials later on Sunday.
 

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Christian leaders condemn killing of Egyptian Coptic priest
By BBC, 13 Oct 2017

Father Samaan Shehata was collecting humanitarian aid for his parish in Beni Suef on Thursday when he was chased by a man who stabbed him several times. The assailant fled the scene but was reportedly later arrested by police. The motive for the attack, which was filmed on CCTV, was not known. However, the minority Coptic community has been targeted repeatedly in recent months.
 

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Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reach unity plan after 10-year split
By Washington Post, 12 Oct 2017

JERUSALEM — The Palestinian militant group Hamas backed a plan to begin reconciliation with its rival, Fatah, on Thursday, after more than a decade at loggerheads that left the Palestinian territories split between competing leaderships. Palestinian officials said the deal stipulates that a unity government formed in 2014 and led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party will run the Gaza Strip until a new administration is formed before the end of the year. But thorny obstacles that have blocked past unity bids — including the fate of Hamas’s powerful armed wing — have not yet been discussed.

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Western Sahara: SADR FM - 'France Obstructs the Holding of a Referendum On Self-Determination in Western Sahara'
By allAfrica, 12 Oct 2017

 Algiers (Algeria) — Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, member of the National Secretariat of the Frente POLISARIO and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), said today at a press conference in the Algerian capital, Algiers, that "France is obstructing the holding of a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara," adding that the same country "prevents through the Security Council that MINURSO fulfill its mandate, which is to organize a referendum for that the Saharawi people can decide their future ". "It is the French state that provided the Moroccan forces with weapons and ammunition, sending its members of its military staff under the cover of "military consultants" to design the wall of disgrace and shame that divides our land and our people and supervised the stages of its construction.," added Ould Salek.

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