Middle East & North Africa

DUBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Weeks of protest in Iran entered a more violent phase on Sunday as students defied an ultimatum by the Revolutionary Guards and were met with tear gas, beatings and gunfire from riot police and militia, social media videos showed.

The confrontations at dozens of universities prompted a threat of a tougher crackdown in the seventh week of demonstrations since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after she was arrested by the morality police for attire deemed inappropriate.

Iranians from all walks of life have been protesting since Amini's death.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the country's first car manufacturing plant and rolled out the first domestically-produced car on Saturday, as the republic celebrates the 99th anniversary of its founding.

"As the foremost producer of commercial vehicles in Europe and one of the world's leading automobile exporters, not having a domestic car brand had long wrenched our hearts," Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of the factory of Togg, or Türkiye's Automobile Joint Venture Group.

TEHRAN, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A total of 120 cyberattacks were launched against Iran's infrastructure in the past 15 days, an adviser to the head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization said on Saturday.

The majority of the attacks targeted service networks in an effort to cause public dissatisfaction, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted Ali Akbar Shahverdian as saying in an address to a meeting in southwest Iran.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A tanker truck explosion in northeastern Baghdad on Saturday killed at least eight people and wounded another 18, Iraqi security sources have said.

The moving truck carrying liquefied petroleum gas exploded after a road accident with another car in the al-Binouk neighborhood, damaging several nearby civilian cars and buildings, a source from the Iraqi Interior Ministry's media office told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

JERUSALEM, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday visited the Karish gas rig in the Mediterranean for the first time since his country signed a historic maritime demarcation deal with Lebanon.

Standing at the Karish rig, where gas production started on Wednesday, Lapid said the natural gas field "is the energy and economic future" of Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military prepped the family home of a Palestinian gunman for demolition Sunday, a day after he killed an Israeli man near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

Several people were also wounded in the shooting late Saturday.

Dramatic security camera video showed the assailant firing his assault rifle outside a grocery before a security guard rammed him with his truck and pinned him to the ground. An off-duty military officer then opened fire and killed the assailant, later identified as Mohammed Jaaberi, 35.

BEIRUT (AP) — President Michel Aoun left Lebanon’s presidential palace Sunday, marking the end of his six-year term without a replacement, leaving the small nation in a political vacuum that is likely to worsen its historic economic meltdown.

As Aoun’s term ends, the country is being run by a caretaker government after Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati failed to form a new Cabinet following May 15 parliamentary elections. Aoun and his supporters warn that such a government doesn’t have full power to run the country, saying that weeks of “constitutional chaos” lay ahead.

New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday described Jammu and Kashmir as the pride of every Indian, and said that it is time to leave behind the old challenges and take full benefit of new possibilities.

Addressing the Jammu and Kashmir Rozgar Mela through video conferencing, he also said that there is a need to work with a new approach and new thinking for fast-paced development.

“We are committed to taking benefits of development equally to all sections and citizens," Modi said.

Jadcherla (Telangana), Oct 30 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who is leading the party's pan-India Bharat Jodo Yatra on Sunday gave some exciting moments during the foot march as he suddenly started to sprint along with some school children, forcing others to run.

29 October 2022; MEMO: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkiye will distribute natural gas from Russia to Europe through its TurkStream project.

Erdogan noted in a speech in Ankara on Friday that this will take place as a result of talks with Moscow.