Tunisia 🇹🇳 suspends Emirates flights ✈ following female passenger 👩 travel ban*

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Tunisian authorities say their decision to suspend all Emirates airline flights into the country "cannot be described as a diplomatic crisis" between the North African country and the United Arab Emirates.

A tit-for-tat dispute began on Friday when Emirates prohibited female Tunisian passengers from being able to board flights to the UAE -- without giving a reason.  
Speaking Tuesday, Tunisian presidential spokeswoman Saida Garrach said the UAE had "voiced fear that an attack will probably be committed by Tunisian women or women with Tunisian passports."  
The travel ban triggered confusion and anger at the Tunis airport and on media. In response, the Tunisian transport ministry on Monday suspended all Emirates flights into Tunis. Emirates employees were first informed of the news the night before in an internal company email that read: "Any passengers holding TUN as final destination are not to be accepted for travel at point of origin."  
Emirates announced on Twitter that the Dubai-Tunis service had been stopped "based on instructions by the Tunisian authorities."

Medical evacuations have begun in a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, the Red Cross has said. In a tweet, it said that "critical" patients were being moved from the Eastern Ghouta area to the capital. Last week, a UK charity said President Bashar al-Assad had been considering a request to evacuate seven children with cancer from the area, which has been under government siege for four years.

They are among more than 130 children needing urgent medical treatment there. Nearly 12% of children in Eastern Ghouta - which has a total population of 400,000 - are suffering from acute malnutrition, the UN has said.

Earlier this month the Red Cross said life in Eastern Ghouta was becoming "impossible" and the situation there had reached a "critical point". The UN has been trying for weeks to arrange medical evacuations.

Brazil has declared Venezuela's most senior diplomat in Brazil, Gerardo Delgado, as persona non grata. The move came days after Venezuela's decision to expel Brazil's own ambassador to Caracas, Ruy Pereira. Explaining its decision, Venezuela said Brazil had acted illegally in impeaching its former left-wing president, Dilma Rousseff.

On Saturday, Venezuela also expelled Canada's charge d'affaires, accusing him of interfering in internal affairs. Canada's foreign ministry retaliated on Monday, announcing that ambassador Wilmer Barrientos Fernández, who was already abroad, would not be allowed to return. Venezuela's charge d'affaires, Ángel Herrera, was also asked to leave.

*Bayern Munich Sign German Striker Sandro Wagner*

Bayern Munich said Thursday they had signed experienced German international striker Sandro Wagner from Hoffenheim as a backup for Robert Lewandowski.

German press reports said Bayern paid a fee of around 13 million euros ($15.4 million) for the 30-year-old.

"We are convinced that Wagner will improve the quality of our team with his class and his experience," Bayern's sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic said.

Wagner's contract runs until June 30, 2020.

Polish international Lewandowski had complained about a lack of rest.

Herdsmen shoot at NAF fighter jet in Adamawa*

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Gun-wielding herdsmen have fired at the Alpha Jet and the EC 135 Helicopter deployed by the military in an attempt to resist the interventions by the Nigerian Air Force in the troubled communities of Numan and Demsa Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.

The herdsmen, who were dressed in black, reportedly attempted to bring down the fighter aircraft which were flown to fire “only warning shots” and not to kill any of the attackers.

Reports two weeks ago said that the NAF, on the invitation of the Nigerian Army in Adamawa, deployed some fighter aircraft to support the ground forces in stopping the crisis.

The NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Air Vice-Marshal Olatokunbo Adesanya, who confirmed the deployment of the air assets, had said it would be “a continuous exercise.”

The police in Adamawa State also confirmed attacks by the rampaging Fulani militia on Dong and Lawura villages in the Demsa LGA, saying that many buildings were razed, scores were killed while many other residents fled the communities.

*NNPC can’t sustain 100% fuel importation, says LCCI*

As the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) continues to rock many parts of the, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation cannot continue to be the sole importer of the product into the country.

Private oil marketers had since last year stopped fuel importation due to shortage of foreign exchange and increase in crude prices, which they said had made it unprofitable to import petrol and sell at N145 per litre.

The LCCI advised the Federal Government to stop treating petrol as a social product by encouraging private sector operators to play a bigger role in the nation’s downstream petroleum sector.

The Director-General, LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Wednesday, said, “It’s unfortunate that we are having fuel queues back. But there is a very fundamental problem with our petroleum downstream sector, and the problem is that it is over-regulated. You cannot have a sector as big as that serving our size of population and we expect only the government provider to be supplying fuel. It is not a sustainable model."