Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stressed that Turkey and the EU should work to address common challenges over regional conflict, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday.

"Pressure and unilateral action are not an answer. We need to work hand in hand to address common challenges, for the benefit of both Turkey and the EU," Borrell said on his Twitter account after a meeting with the Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu in Ankara.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A summit between the Turkish and Russian leaders on Thursday may be the last chance to work out a deal that avoids further calamity in Syria’s northwest.

Faced with mounting losses for his troops in Syria’s Idlib province and a potential wave of refugees fleeing the fighting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is eager for a cease-fire, and Vladimir Putin is ready to bargain.

TRIPOLI, March 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The only functioning airport in the Libyan capital said that it was shifting all flights to the town of Misrata due to shelling in the area following an escalation in fighting over recent days.

Rocket fire and shelling towards the airport ramped up late last week as a United Nations effort to bring the warring sides together in Geneva failed to make headway.

On Monday, the U.N. special envoy Ghassan Salame said he was resigning.

ANKARA, March 4. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expects that a ceasefire will be declared in the Syrian province of Idlib following his Thursday meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, as Erdogan himself told reporters on Wednesday.

"As for the talks, we expect a ceasefire to be declared," Erdogan said, as cited by the NTV channel.

4 March 2020; AFP: Human rights group Amnesty International on Wednesday accused the Iranian security forces of killing 23 children, mostly with live ammunition, during a November crackdown on anti-government protests.

Protests broke out across Iran from November 15 after the announcement of a surprise petrol price rise. The authorities responded with a crackdown that Amnesty has already said left 304 people dead, a figure vehemently disputed by Tehran.

MUSCAT, Mar 4 (NNN-ONA) – The Sultan of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq, on Tuesday, instructed the government to take measures to set up a “job safety” fund.

He also asked the government to finance the fund with 10 million Omani riyals (26 million U.S. dollars), as a start for the establishment.

According to the royal instructions, a finance system for the fund will be developed through participation of private sector employers and workers.

AMMAN, Mar 4 (NNN-PETRA) – Foreign ministers of Jordan and Norway, today (Wednesday), expressed willingness to boost ties and signed an agreement, outlining bilateral consultation, Jordanian Foreign Ministry said, in a statement.

During a meeting at the Dead Sea, with Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ine Eriksen Soreide, Jordanian Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi said, Jordan and Norway share common stances and values, stressing the potential for cooperation in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, education and defence.

DUBAI (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates carrier flydubai swung to a profit of 198.2 million dirham ($54 million) last year, helped by a compensation agreement with Boeing over the worldwide 737 MAX grounding.

The Dubai state-owned airline is one of the world’s biggest MAX customers, though only operated around 14 of the jets when they were grounded in March 2019.

However, its fleet size shrank by more than a quarter to 45 jets last year as it retired older aircraft and new MAX jets were also grounded.

CAIRO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed over the phone the latest developments in resolving the dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

During the conversation, Trump expressed his appreciation that Egypt signed initials of the agreement that resulted from the rounds of negotiations on the GERD during the past months, Egyptian Presidency's spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

ANKARA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and British foreign ministers discussed on Tuesday the ongoing Turkish operation in the Syrian province of Idlib and the migratory flow to Europe, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

During a joint press conference with his visiting British counterpart Dominic Raab in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu urged Greece and the other EU countries to respect international law in treating refugees.