Middle East & North Africa

KHARTOUM/ANKARA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Army, said on Tuesday that the Sudanese government is open to any initiative that may help relieve the suffering of the Sudanese people.

Al-Burhan made the remarks on Tuesday during phone conversations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azali Assoumani, president of the Union of the Comoros and chair of the African Union(AU), Sudan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

ANKARA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Tuesday a 45 percent wage hike for 700,000 public workers ahead of May 14 elections.

"We are increasing the wages by 45 percent, including the welfare share. With this protocol, we determine the framework of the wages that approximately 700,000 of our brothers will receive in the 2023-2024 period," Erdogan said at a signing ceremony for the Public Collective Labor Agreement.

The minimum monthly wage for public workers will be 15,000 Turkish liras (768.72 U.S. dollars), he said.

CAIRO (AP) — Clashes that erupted last month between armed fighters in a city in Sudan’s restive Darfur region killed at least 100 people, according to Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate.

Hospitals were still out of service in the Darfur city of Genena and an accurate count of the wounded was still hard to make, the doctors’ union added in a statement posted on its official Facebook page late Sunday.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — For Nidal Jumaa, a Syrian from Aleppo, life in Turkey is tough. He works part-time at a furniture workshop and collects plastics and cardboard from trash cans that he sells for recycling, but can hardly afford the rent for his run-down house in a low-income neighborhood of Ankara.

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — There was no mourning tent for 23-year-old Palestinian Zuhair al-Ghaleeth. There were no banners with his portrait, no chants celebrating his martyrdom.

Instead, a bulldozer dropped his bullet-riddled body into an unmarked grave, witnesses said.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel killed three senior commanders of the militant Islamic Jihad group in targeted airstrikes early Tuesday, the military said. Palestinian health officials said 13 people were killed in all, including the commanders, their wives, several of their children and others nearby.

Bengaluru, May 9 (PTI) Wresting power from the BJP will be a morale booster for the Congress, key for reviving its electoral fortunes and strengthen its credentials as the main opposition player against the saffron party, ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Tehran, IRNA – De-dollarization is a strategic policy pursued by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), says CBI Governor Mohammadreza Farzin.

He made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran on Monday with Oman’s Minister of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion Qais bin Mohammad Al Yousef where the two sides explored ways for further enhancement of bilateral trade.

Tehran, IRNA – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says that the Islamic Republic is committed to expanding its nuclear electricity sector to reach a generation capacity of 10 gigawatts (GW).

Mohammad Eslami said on Monday that Iran will make efforts to attract foreign investment into its nuclear electricity sector, adding that a budget law for the calendar year to March 2024 projects construction of nuclear power plants with reliance on domestic and foreign investments.

Tehran, IRNA – Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Bagheri Kani has said the United States dealt a devastating blow to the international rule of law by withdrawing from Iran nuclear deal some five years ago, adding that the opportunity to revive the deal is not always there.

Bagheri, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, made the remarks on Tuesday on the anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018.