Middle East & North Africa

GAZA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Three Italians working for the Italian embassy were released by Hamas on Tuesday night after being held at an office of the United Nations (UN) in Gaza for two days, local media reported.

The Italians are security guards who arrived in Gaza on Monday to ensure the visit of the Italian Ambassador to Israel Gianluigi Benedetti on Wednesday, local media quoted sources close to the UN as saying.

ANKARA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that his country will set up a 32-km safe zone in northern Syria, following a consensus with U.S. President Donald Trump.

During a speech to the lawmakers of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the parliament, Erdogan said that he held a "quite positive" phone conversation with Trump late Monday, discussing the possibility of creating a safe zone in northern Syria.

15 Jan 2019; AFP: The new special UN envoy to Syria began his first trip to Damascus on Tuesday, facing the daunting task of rekindling moribund peace talks and succeeding where his three predecessors failed.

Norway's Geir Pedersen, who replaces Staffan de Mistura, is the fourth negotiator to have been appointed UN special envoy to Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011.

15 Jan 2019; DW: The US and Turkish presidents moved from Twitter to the telephone to exchange their views over the US-allied Kurdish fighters in Syria. Washington is insisting the anti-"Islamic State" fighters should not be harmed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, took to the telephone to discuss the situation in northern Syria on Monday.

15 Jan 2019; DW: Iran announced on Tuesday that one of its satellites had failed to reach the "necessary speed" to achieve orbit.

Telecommunications Minister Mohammed Javad Jahromi told Iranian state television that the rocket carrying the satellite had passed the first and second launch stage, but that it had developed problems in the third phase.

AMMAN, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Jordan is in negotiations to get 1.2-billion-U.S.-dollar soft loan from the World Bank to support its fiscal and economic reforms at low interest rate, the state-run Petra news agency reported Monday.

Jordan's Minister of Finance Ezzeddine Kanakrieh said the loan will not add any burden on Jordan's public debt as it will be used to pay some outstanding debts and it will help reduce the percentage of the public debt to the gross domestic product.

SANAA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile toward a Saudi Arabian military base in the kingdom's southern border region of Najran on Monday, the Shiite rebels said in a statement.

"The Badr-1-P ballistic missile targeted a gathering of Saudi troops in the military base in Bir Askar area," according to the statement released by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency.

The statement said the missiles hit the target accurately. There was no comment yet from Saudi government.

TUNIS, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi said in a speech on Monday that the democratic transition in his country is still not safe.

Tunisia revived Monday the eighth anniversary of the popular uprisings which resulted in the toppling of former President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali on Jan. 14, 2011.

Essebsi said that the country is plagued with a state of official uncertainty, and continued conflicts and divisions amid political tension and social unrest.

Tehran, Jan 14 (AP) An Iranian Boeing 707 cargo plane coming from Kyrgyzstan crashed on Monday while trying to land west of Iran's capital, state media reported, with an emergency official saying only one person of the 16 on board was known to have survived.

Fire immediately engulfed the aircraft after it skidded off a runway and crashed into a wall separating the Fath Airport from a residential neighborhood. Images carried by Iran's state-run media showed the burned-out tail of the plane sticking out, surrounded by charred homes.

JERUSALEM; 13 Jan 2019; AA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted attacks on Iranian and Hezbollah positions in Syrian capital Damascus. 

“The Israel Defense Forces has attacked hundreds of Iranian and Hezbollah targets,” Netanyahu said during a weekly government meeting on Sunday. 

“Just in the past 36 hours, the air force attacked Iranian depots full of Iranian weapons in the Damascus International Airport,” he was quoted as saying by The Times of Israel newspaper.