Sleep disorders and associated factors among medical students in the Middle East and North Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Specific SDs included in each category as per ICSD-3 are presented in Table S3. We excluded studies on medical science students (nursing, pharmacy, dentistry) unless specified as medical students studying for their Medical Degree (MD or MBBS). Prevalence data on mixed disorder levels, mixed sex, and/or mixed training periods were pooled in a separate group. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the impact of SD prevalence during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on the pooled estimates when applicable. Factors associated with SDs among MENA medical students (secondary outcome) were synthesized as reported in the included studies.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 16:44 UTC
Who is Ajlan & Bros, the Saudi mining ally for Perseus Mining in
Home Sectors Mineral resources Who is Ajlan & Bros, the Saudi mining ally for Perseus Mining in East and North Africa? Ajlan & Brothers, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate originally specialising in textiles, is stepping up its investments in the mining sector in line with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s Vision 2030. Someone shares this article with you▪ Who is Ajlan & Bros, the Saudi mining ally for Perseus Mining in East and North Africa? ▪ Ajlan & Brothers, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate originally specialising in textiles, is stepping up its investments in the mining sector in line with Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s Vision 2030. ▪ https://www.africabusinessplus.com/en/818485/who-is-ajlan-bros-the-saudi-mining-ally-for-perseus-mining-in-east-and-north-africa/
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 16:41 UTC
Nigeria dispels attempts of a coup
from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, NigeriaNigeria BureauABUJA, (CAJ News) – THE Nigerian Defence has dismissed allegations of a planned coup by the military. The publication also asserted, among other things, that the suspicion prompted an emergency meeting involving President Bola Tinubu, the Chief of Staff to the President and Commander of the Guards Brigade. “The Defence Headquarters wishes to categorically state that the allegation is totally false,” Brigadier General Tukur Gusau, Acting Director of Defence Information, said. He said the Guards Brigade had been statutorily assigned the responsibility of protecting The Presidency and by extension the Federal Capital Territory and its environs. Africa’s largest nation by population, Nigeria, suffered a string of coups for decades before returning to civilian rule in 1999.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 16:24 UTC
Egypt: Rights Group and its Director Threatened and Smeared
The Egyptian authorities and affiliated groups have responded to recent reporting by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian human rights group with a focus on Egypt’s militarized North Sinai, with a smear campaign and threats against the group and its director, Ahmed Salem, 18 civil society organizations denounced today. Salem, a United Kingdom-based Egyptian human rights activist, said that, through intermediaries close to Egyptian authorities, he received threats that he “would be brought back to Egypt” if he did not drop his work. Such campaigns have frequently involved transnational repression, targeting human rights defenders based outside Egypt, including by harassment, arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions and prosecutions of family members of those living in exile. According to Human Rights Watch’s research, thousands of North Sinai residents have been subjected to mass arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, abduction, torture, and extrajudicial killings. Signatories:Amnesty InternationalCairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)Committee for JusticeDemocracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against TortureEgyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR)Egyptian Human Rights Forum (EHRF)EgyptWide for Human RightsEl Nadeem CenterEuroMed RightsFairSquareHuman Rights WatchInternational Commission of JuristsInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)International Service for Human RightsMiddle East Democracy Center (MEDC)The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 16:05 UTC
Abu Dhabi SWF gives Egypt $35bn FDI bailout
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ’s $35bn investment into Egypt is the biggest FDI into the Middle East and Africa (MEA) to date and helps shore up the country’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves. AdvertisementData from greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets shows the $35bn pledge is the world’s fifth biggest announced FDI pledge on record, and the biggest to date in MEA. It beats the region’s previous record set by Infinity Power, which is backed by another Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, last March when it committed to co-develop a $34bn green hydrogen project in Mauritania. This is the latest example of a growing trend of sovereign wealth funds taking greenfield risk and investing directly into real assets. “The immediate FDI will help the country overcome its current hard currency crunch,” Egypt’s prime minister Mostafa Madbouli Madbouly said at the signing ceremony on February 23.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 15:05 UTC
Sub-Saharan Africa Apparel: Navigating Growth Challenges
The African clothing and footwear industry, estimated at over USD30 billion is dynamic, presenting abundant opportunities for stakeholders. The prevalence of second-hand clothing is so pronounced that it has led some countries to push for greater regulation. Even the second-hand clothing market is evolving towards premium options, with thrift stores in upscale areas catering to a more affluent clientele. African players in the industry are compelled to reassess their supply chains for increased agility and reduced lead times. Learn more about apparel in sub-Saharan Africa in our briefing, Africa’s Fashion: Tales of Diversity, published in December 2023.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 14:49 UTC
Multiple high impact wells await drilling in Africa: Westwood
Finding a decline in global high impact well count to just 64 wells in 2023, Westwood Global Energy Group has observed that it is the lowest number the research body has ever recordedIt was a sharp drop from 82 wells in 2022. It says that the conventional link between oil prices and drilling might have been finally disrupted. Africa, however, is the sole region that witnessed a continued rise in high impact drilling in 2023, with the completion of 13 high impact wells. Much of this high activity can be attributed to Namibia following the frontier successes in 2022, besides drilling in seven other countries in the continent. Westwood predicts that Africa should see drilling of around 20 high impact wells, with Orange Basin leading.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 14:48 UTC
Algeria: Three Sub-Saharans killed by Polisario militias in Tindouf – The North Africa Post
Militias of the terrorist Polisario group murdered three Sub-Saharans last Tuesday evening, a few kilometers from the camps of Tindouf in Algeria, according to sources quoted by the news website Sahel Intelligence. The three men were accompanying Sahrawis attempting to flee the Tindouf camps, where terror imposed by the Polisario prevails. General Saïd Chengriha, chief of the Algerian army and the de facto ruler, has prohibited any investigation into the killing of the three Sub-Saharans. This decision adds to the impunity enjoyed by the Polisario, a subcontractor of Algerian security and intelligence services in the expulsion of Sub-Saharan migrants. Sahrawi activists in the Tindouf camps have repeatedly expressed their outrage at the blatant attempts to conceal the crimes committed by the Polisario terrorists and their accomplices.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 14:34 UTC
Sayyid Badr discusses Gaza Strip with Swiss Envoy to Middle East and North Africa
Muscat: Sayyid Badr Hamad Al Busaidi, Foreign Minister received in his office here on Monday Ambassador Wolfgang Amadeus Bruelhart, Swiss Envoy to the Middle East and North Africa. The meeting reviewed bilateral relations and means of promoting them, as well as ways to diversify cooperation in the economic, trade and cultural fields. The meeting underscores the importance of following up the agreements and MoUs signed between the two countries during the visit of President Dr. Alain Berset of the Swiss Confederation to the Sultanate of Oman in November 2023. This, the two sides believe, will help reduce the escalation, contain the expansion of the conflict in the region and activate the initiatives and efforts to achieve a just peace based on the two-state solution. The meeting was attended by a number of officials from both sides.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 14:12 UTC
Meloni Wants Italy to Be Europe’s New ‘Bridge’ to Africa
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni used the Jan. 28-29 gathering—dubbed “A Bridge for Common Growth”—to strategically frame her government’s approach to Africa, acknowledging the vibrant economic, political, social and cultural transformations occurring across numerous African nations. Meloni’s unequivocal call for a new partnership of equals underscored Italy’s commitment to fostering development in Africa. At the summit, Meloni delivered her address to a distinguished assembly comprising representatives from 46 African nations, including heads of state and government, national ministers and delegates from prominent international organizations. In her speech, Meloni articulated her ambitions for establishing a new paradigm of cooperation emphasizing Italy’s role as a bridge between Africa and Europe, distinct from the “predatory temptations” and “charity-like” approach to Africa from the past. She called that exploitative model ill-suited to Africa’s “extraordinary development potential,” while adding that Italy “wants to be the standard-bearer” for the new and mutually beneficial relationship.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 13:38 UTC
Locust swarms will intensify with climate change, threatening food security, study finds
It details that, as climate change worsens, locusts will expand their ranges in the very same North African and Middle Eastern regions where the Bible is set. A December study from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Research found that agricultural insect pests will thrive as climate change worsens. The authors of that piece also found that climate change will be a boon to certain types of agricultural insect pests. This point was also made in a 2020 study for the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, which similarly examined how global insect pests will react to climate change. "This means that the severity of a given insect pest may both increase and decrease with ongoing climate warming."
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 13:37 UTC
How is technology revolutionizing payment reconciliation for retailers?
As retailers expand into mid-market and beyond, the manual reconciliation of payments becomes increasingly complex and costly. Automated reconciliation provides a single, accurate view of transactions the next morning, empowering quicker decision-making and problem resolution. This eradicates the typical 1 to 3% margin of error associated with manual reconciliation. From various payment methods to intricate VAS scenarios, automation ensures accurate reconciliation and facilitates seamless settlement instructions with banks. With robust data governance and compliance measures in place, automated reconciliation emerges as a strategic imperative for retailers aiming to thrive in an increasingly digitized marketplace.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 12:47 UTC
Britain to harness power of Sahara solar farms using 700 ft ship
The project will link solar and wind farms spread across the desert in Morocco - Fadel Senna/AFPA project to power Britain using solar farms thousands of miles away in the Sahara is moving a step closer to fruition as its backers prepare to commission the world’s biggest cable-laying ship. The 700 ft vessel will lay four parallel cables linking solar and wind farms spread across the desert in Morocco with a substation in Alverdiscott, a tiny village near the coast of north Devon. There, they will connect with seven solar farms and up to 1,000 wind turbines built across an area of Moroccan desert roughly the size of greater London. Simon Morrish, co-founder of the Xlinks project and group chief executive, said the aim was to overcome the intermittency of UK wind and solar. However the wind and solar farms in North Africa would be experiencing very different weather, of near-constant sunshine during the day and strong winds during afternoons and evening.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 12:42 UTC
AI and ML Use Cases in Telco Service Operations
The telecommunication industry is swiftly embracing Artificial Intelligence and ML technologies. Let’s explore a few examples of AI and ML applications in Telco service operations:Predictive MaintenancePredictive maintenance is made easier for the telecommunications sector by AI and ML. AI and ML enable Telco to schedule maintenance, avoiding service disruptions properly. ML algorithms also optimize network configurations based on changing demands and environmental factors. Smart Scheduling and ForecastingTeleco uses AI algorithms to schedule its employees smartly.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 12:26 UTC
Gabon’s National Oil Company to Buy US Firm
Officials agreed to acquire Carlyle’s Assala Energy after it used its right to pre-empt the sale of the business for $1.3bn to France’s Maurel & Prom, the firms said on Friday. Maurel & Prom had agreed in August 2023 to acquire Assala Energy for $730m, a deal which also included rolling over a $600m credit facility. The office of Gabon’s presidency said the deal would allow the country to secure and manage its natural resources and boost its finances. Carlyle’s non-US energy arm CIEP first invested in Assala in 2017 when it acquired Shell’s ageing operations in Gabon for $628m. Gabon produces about 200,000 barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil, making it the second-smallest Opec producer.
Source:The North Africa Journal
February 26, 2024 09:59 UTC