Middle East & North Africa

JERUSALEM, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army Friday night conducted a large-scale strike on approximately 80 Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said in a statement Saturday morning.

On Friday night, 30 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Approximately 10 rockets were intercepted by the IDF's Iron Dome aerial defense system. Two fell within the Gaza Strip and the the rest fell in open areas.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the four-way summit ended with a call for a full-scale cease-fire to halt the bloodshed in Syria.

"We had a fruitful and sincere consultation during the summit," Erdogan said at the joint press conference following the quadrilateral summit in Istanbul.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron joined the summit hosted by Erdogan to discuss the ways for a long lasting political solution for Syria.

HEBRON; 25 Oct 2018; AA:Dozens of Palestinian students were reportedly injured on Thursday after Israeli forces fired teargas at a school in the occupied West Bank.  

“Israeli forces fired teargas canisters into the Al-Nahda School in the southern West Bank city of Hebron [Al-Khalil],” Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors illegal Israeli settlement activity, told Anadolu Agency.  

By Muhammed Enes Can, Basak Akbulut Yazar and Murat Kaya

ISTANBUL; 25 Oct 2018; AA: Turkish investigators have recorded statements of 38 employees of the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, as part of a probe into killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, judicial sources said on Thursday.

25 Oct 2018; DW: The finding contradicts earlier assertions that Khashoggi's death at Riyadh's Turkish consulate was accidental. Saudi Arabia is attempting to distance the royal family from the journalist's killing.

Saudi prosecutors said the alleged killers of Jamal Khashoggi acted intentionally, in comments published by Saudi news agency SPA.

RIYADH, October 25. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia will soon invest in the Russian-Chinese investment fund (RCIF, a joint venture of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and China Investment Corporation), and the fund will be renamed, head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev told reporters during the Future Investment Initiative forum.

MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Ankara will begin the deployment of the Russian-made S-400 air defense systems in October 2019, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Thursday, adding that Ankara had started recruiting military personnel to maintain the complexes.

RIYADH, October 25. /TASS/. Russian Railways will soon submit an application for the construction of railways in Saudi Arabia, head of the Russian Direct Investments Fund (RDIF), a member of the board of directors of Russian Railways, Kirill Dmitriev, told reporters on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative forum.

BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Special Envoy to Iraq Jan Kubis on Thursday welcomed the parliament approval of new Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and his cabinet, and urged him to work hard to meet the aspirations of the people of Iraq.

RIYADH, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday that an investigation has been launched into Turkey's information indicating the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "planned," Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The announcement was made by the General Attorney in a statement carried by SPA, which said the Turkish information was sent through the Joint Working Team between the two countries.