The 5 incidents of Oct. 8 that will never be forgotten

CAIRO – 9 October 2017: October 8 will be marked as the day Egypt qualified to the World Cup at the last minute of the match for the first time in 28 years; that is in addition to five other historic events that happened on the same day of the Egyptian National Team’s historic moment.

The first air strike on Gaza after reconciliation

The Israeli military destroyed an outpost belonging to the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, after Gaza militants fired a rocket towards Israel, according to AFP.

The rocket set off air raid sirens in southern Israel but fell short, landing inside Palestinian territory, the Israeli military said in a statement.

Officials in Gaza said no one was injured when the tank shell struck a Hamas observation post near the border with Israel, the first air strike after the recent reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

U.S. mission to Turkey suspends visa services for security reasons

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey announced that the U.S. mission to Turkey had suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all U.S. diplomatic facilities in Turkey, on the grounds that it needed to "reassess" Turkey's commitment to its personnel, according to Reuters.

The decision followed last week’s incident, when a U.S. consulate employee in Istanbul was arrested on charges of links to a cleric blamed for last year’s failed coup, a move condemned by Washington as baseless and damaging to ties between the NATO allies.

After U.S. missions reduced visa services in Turkey, the Turkish embassy in Washington said on Sunday it suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the United States.

Spanish PM threatens to suspend autonomy in Catalonia if they declare independence

Spain's prime minister said in an interview to newspaper El Pais published late on Saturday, that they “could use constitutional powers to stop Catalan independence if the leaders of this region do not retreat from their threats to declare independence from Spain.”

Rajoy also said he planned to leave in Catalonia the extra 4,000 police officers the government had shipped into the region during the independence vote on October 1, until the crisis was over.

The conservative prime minister added he would not call a snap national election as a result of the political crisis and ruled out using mediation to resolve it.

Bashir extends ceasefire for two-months in three states

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on extended a two-month ceasefire in the states of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan on October 8 to prepare the region for negotiations, official media reported.

Bashir's decision comes two days after the United States lifted a trade embargo imposed on Khartoum in 1997, over charges of supporting Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda, whose founder and former leader Osama bin Laden resided in Sudan from 1992 to 1996. The decision to extend the truce will be upheld until December 31, according to Sky news.

For the first time, Cuba celebrates Guevara in the absence of its late President Fidel Castro

Cuba celebrated the anniversary of the rebellious Argentinean leader Ernesto Chi Guevara, who was killed 50 years ago in the jungles of Bolivia, according to Times.
The 39-year-old Guevara was captured and executed by a CIA-trained unit of the Bolivian army on October 9, 1967.

The 86-year-old Raul Castro took a back seat at Sunday’s ceremony to Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is expected to replace him as president next year.