Middle East & North Africa

ISTANBUL, July 28 (NNN-Bernama) — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says he plans to promote collaboration with Turkish companies in the production of a ‘super car” in order to further enhance the capability of the nation’s automotive industry. 

The prime minister said he had long been aware of Turkish companies’ capability but only now could he see it first-hand.

“I was aware of their capability. But there was no follow-up at the time as I was not the prime minister then, so making progress would have been difficult.

28 July 2019; AA: The third phase of the Turkey Drone Championship kicked off Saturday in Cappadocia, a charming touristic hub famed for its fairy chimneys in Turkey.

As part of the Teknofest, Turkey’s leading aerospace and technology festival, 32 licensed pilots are participating in the competition.

BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian government airstrike hit a busy open-air market in the country’s northwest on Saturday, killing at least 11 people, most of them children, according to activists. The town of Ariha has been particularly targeted over the last week as the government escalates its offensive against the country’s last rebel stronghold.

28 July 2019; AFP: The remaining signatories to the Iran nuclear deal will meet in Vienna on Sunday to try again to find a way of saving the accord after the US pulled out, amid mounting tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Envoys from Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and Iran will take part in the meeting which comes a month after a similar gathering failed to achieve a breakthrough.

28 July 2019; DW: The migrants were plucked from several inflatable boats in the Strait of Gibraltar and returned to Morocco. The rescue came a day after one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean this year.

The Moroccan navy has rescued 242 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Spain in dinghies.

28 July 2019; DW: An official Sudanese investigation said that 87 people were killed when security forces broke up a protest in June. The probe's death toll sparked fresh anger, with protesters saying the toll was much higher.

Prosecutors in Sudan announced the results of an official probe on Saturday into a widely condemned crackdown on peaceful protesters in June, reigniting public anger.

TRIPOLI, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A field hospital here was shelled on Saturday, in which five medical workers were killed and eight others injured, as the armed conflict between the UN-backed government forces and the east-based army continues.

"The Ministry of Health condemns in the strongest terms the shelling of a field hospital by a military aircraft in Tripoli airport road (in southern Tripoli), which killed five medical personnel and injured eight others," the ministry said later Saturday in a statement.

27 July 2019; MEMO: Oman’s minister responsible for foreign affairs held talks with Iran’s foreign minister on Saturday, Iranian state media reported, as tensions mount in the Gulf after Tehran detained a British-flagged oil tanker, reports Reuters.

27 July 2019; MEMO: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed details of a proposed railway project that will connect the port of Haifa to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ANTALYA, July 26. /TASS/: Russia and Turkey have discussed deliveries of Russian SSJ 100 and MC-21 civil aircraft and joint production of helicopters, Russian Minister of Energy Alexander Novak said on Friday after a session of the Russia-Turkish intergovernmental commission.

"As for the industrial sector, we discussed deliveries of helicopters and the establishment of a joint venture for the production of helicopters. Future plans include joint production and supplies of SSJ 100 and MC-21 planes," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.