Middle East & North Africa

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A boat carrying migrants capsized in a lake in eastern Turkey on Thursday, killing seven people on board, officials said. At least 64 migrants were rescued.

The boat sank in Lake Van as it approached the town of Adilcevaz in Bitlis province, the provincial governor’s office said in a statement. It was carrying migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Five of the migrants were found dead in the lake while two others died in a hospital, the statement said.

Turkey is a main crossing point for migrants trying to reach Europe.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s governing Likud party was holding primaries on Thursday, in the first serious internal challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his more than a decade in power.

Veteran politician Gideon Saar hopes to unseat Netanyahu, arguing that he will be better placed to form a government in national elections in March after Netanyahu failed to do so in two repeat elections this year.

BEIRUT (AP) — More than 200,000 men, women and children fled their homes in northwest Syria in buses, trucks and cars in recent weeks, amid intense air and ground bombardment by government forces, a Syrian relief group said Wednesday.

Government forces have been bombarding southern and eastern Idlib province, the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country, since late November. A ground offensive that began last week has displaced more people and government forces have captured more than 40 villages and hamlets, according to the Syrian army and opposition activists.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into its southern territory Wednesday, forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be hustled from a stage during an election rally in the city of Ashkelon.

The Israeli military said its air defense system, known as Iron Dome, intercepted the rocket. There were no reports of casualties.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have shut down mobile internet access to overseas sites in several provinces, an Iranian news agency reported on Wednesday, a day before new protests called for on social media.

Social media posts and some relatives of people killed in unrest last month over hikes in gasoline prices have called for renewed protests and commemoration ceremonies for the dead on Thursday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi ARAMCO said on Wednesday a new agreement between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait paves the way for the resumption of oil production in the Neutral (partitioned) Zone shared by the two countries.

Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah signed on Tuesday an agreement and a memorandum of understanding in Kuwait, state news agency KUNA said.

LONDON/ANKARA/ATHENS (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan paid a surprise visit to Tunisia on Wednesday to discuss cooperation for a possible ceasefire in neighboring Libya, where Ankara supports the internationally recognized government.

The visit comes after Turkey signed an accord with Libya’s internationally recognized government last month that seeks to create an exclusive economic zone from Turkey’s southern Mediterranean shore to Libya’s northeast coast.

JERUSALEM, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli military's chief said Wednesday that Israel "has carried out actions" in Iraq to foil convoys of weapons that could be used against Israel.

Aviv Kohavi made the rare acknowledgment during a speech in a conference in the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a private research college outside Tel Aviv.

Kohavi told the security conference that Iranian weapons "are being transferred freely from Iraq" and "we cannot let it go on without addressing it."

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s president has met with Tunisia’s president in a surprise visit to Tunis to discuss the conflict in neighboring Libya.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Wednesday he and President Kais Saied discussed steps for a ceasefire in Libya and a return to political dialogue.

The fighting in Libya has threatened to plunge the North African country into violence rivaling the 2011 conflict that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

BEIRUT (AP) — Panic set in on a WhatsApp group used to organize Lebanese protests when one member said he intended to kill himself because he can’t provide for his kids.

The desperate call came on the heels of the suicide of a father of two that had stunned the public and raised alarm over how dire Lebanon’s economic conditions have become.