BBC News Middle East

A group that tries to help migrant boats in trouble in the Mediterranean says one vessel is still adrift more than three days after the authorities were alerted.

The group, called Alarm Phone, says the Libyan authorities have been told of the vessel in distress in their waters.

Italian and Maltese officials have also been alerted but they have refused to help, saying the Libyans are responsible for mounting a rescue.

Alarm Phone says those on board are in danger, and it's described the delay in assisting them as criminal.

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The European Union has removed Algeria from its updated list of countries whose citizens are allowed to enter the bloc during the coronavirus pandemic.

Algeria has recently experienced a resurgence in coronavirus cases, with the current total number of infections at 29,229 according to the WHO.

The EU safe list has countries considered as having a “sufficiently good epidemiological situation,” and the capacity to manage the pandemic.

Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay are on the updated list.

It acts as a guideline for the bloc's member states as they seek to reopen their tourist industries.

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Kenya is sending a team to Lebanon to investigate the alleged mistreatment of Kenyan citizens at the Beirut consulate.

This comes after a CNN investigative report into allegations that Kenyan women working in Lebanon as domestic workers had been exploited or assaulted by Kenya's honorary consul and his assistant.

Dozens of women interviewed by the US broadcaster and other non-governmental organisations in Beirut claim they were beaten, verbally abused, overcharged for consular fees and even told to go into sex work to get money to help with their repatriation.

But the consulate officials, who are both Lebanese, have denied the allegations.

Local reports say a team from the Kenyan embassy in Kuwait, which oversees the Lebanese consulate, will head to Beirut to establish the facts.

"We are planning to travel to Lebanon for a fact-finding mission in the first week of August, because our airspace is currently closed," the Kenyan Ambassador to Kuwait Halima Mohamud told the Daily Nation.

Last month, more than 100 Ethiopian migrant workers were dumped outside their embassy in Beirut, amid an ongoing economic crisis in Lebanon, heightened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Reuters

Police in Morocco have arrested an investigative journalist on charges of rape and receiving foreign funds with the aim of harming state security.

The arrest of Omar Radi comes after he had been summoned for police questioning many times in recent weeks over allegations that he had received money linked to foreign intelligence - which he has denied.

The charge of rape against Mr Radi has only just emerged - Moroccan state news says a woman has filed a complaint of indecent assault involving violence and rape.

Human rights groups have previously accused the Moroccan authorities of intimidation against Mr Radi, who has investigated corruption among the elite.

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