Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu departed on Tuesday night to Poland to attend the Warsaw Conference on the Middle East.

"The focus of the conference is Iran," Netanyahu told reporters before leaving.

"We employ many means against Iran's aggression, against their attempts to achieve nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles," Netanyahu said.

Iran denies it attempts to develop nuclear weapons.

DAMASCUS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A total of 70 civilians were killed and wounded Tuesday by a U.S.-led airstrike in eastern Syria, state TV reported.

The airstrikes targeted a camp for displaced people in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zour.

The airstrikes have intensified recently on Islamic State (IS)-held areas in the eastern Euphrates river region.

On Saturday, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) started on the final stage of attacks against the IS in the eastern Euphrates river region in eastern Syria.

DENIZLI, 12 Feb 2019; AA: Police have detained four people in southwestern Denizli province during an operation against smugglers of historical artifacts, according to a police source on Tuesday.

Police officers followed a car closely after police units from the Department of Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime received a tip-off on historical artifacts from Syria, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

JERUSALEM; 11 Feb 2019; AA: Israeli forces rounded up 22 Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military on Monday.

The individuals were arrested for “suspected involvement in popular terrorist activities”, the army said in a statement, without elaborating on the nature of these activities.

ISTANBUL; 11 Feb 2019; AA: Swiss food company Nestle exports its products to the world from Turkey, said head of marketing and corporate communications at Nestle Turkey.

The company, which has four factories in Turkey, entered the domestic market in 1875 with baby formula.

Now it manufactures over 800 products in 12 categories, Zeynep Sungu told Anadolu Agency.

10 Feb 2019; AFP: Ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika declared he will seek a fifth term in April elections in a message published by state media Sunday, after he was endorsed by his party and the ruling coalition.

The 81-year-old head of state uses a wheelchair and has rarely been seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013.

11 Feb 2019; AFP: Riyadh does not know the location of dissident Jamal Khashoggi's body, despite having detained the Saudi team that murdered him, a high-ranking foreign affairs official in the kingdom said in an interview broadcast Sunday.

The dissident journalist was dismembered after his murder October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but his remains have yet to be found.

11 Feb 2019; DW: Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets of the capital Tehran on Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the Shah's last government.

The march is the culmination of official celebrations called the "10 Day Dawn" that marks the period in February 1979 when the revolution's leader Khomeini returned from exile and toppled the monarchy.

TEHRAN, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran is ready to boost the capacity of its uranium enrichment, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said on Sunday.

"Based on a decree by Iran's Supreme Leader and the emphasis put on this issue by AEOI head, the country is ready to increase its uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 separative work units (SWUs)," Kamalvandi was quoted as saying by Press TV.

JERUSALEM, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) - Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that some of the money transferred by Israel to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will be frozen.

Israel collects customs duties on goods exported to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip via Israeli ports and then transfers the funds to the PNA. The levies amount to some 127 million U.S. dollars per month.