Churches will put into effect a decision to reduce the number of participants in masses and other religious and educational events starting Sunday. The number of participants may only reach a maximum of 25 percent of the church’s capacity. The the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria issued the decision in a statement on 27 October, as part of preventive measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The statement noted that the percentage can also be reduced based on the health situation of each diocese. The decision will be also applied to funerals and wedding ceremonies as well as all educational centres and institutions related to churches. The Coptic Orthodox Church also decided to suspend all trips and spiritual retreats, third day memorials and baptisms, and to limit priests’ visits to telephone calls. Egypt has urged caution in anticipation of a second wave of coronavirus infections, amid the resurgence in cases in many European countries in parallel with the advent of autumn. So far, the country has reported a total of 107,555 coronavirus cases and 6,266 related deaths, according to official figures by the health ministry. The number of daily cases in Egypt has slightly increased over the past 10 days.

An attacker armed with a knife killed three people at a church Thursday in the Mediterranean city of Nice, French authorities said. It was the third attack in two months in France, which has grown increasingly tense during a furor over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that were re-published by the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Other confrontations and attacks were reported Thursday in the southern city of Avignon and in the Saudi city of Jeddah, but it was not immediately clear if they were linked to the attack in Nice. Thursday s assailant in Nice was wounded by police and hospitalized after the killings at the Notre Dame Bascilica, less than a kilometer (half-mile) from the site in 2016 where another attacker plowed a truck into a Bastille Day crowd, killing dozens of people. France attack France s anti-terrorism prosecutor s office opened an investigation into the Nice killings, which marked the third attack since the September opening of the trial of 14 people linked to the January 2015 killings at Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. The gunmen in the 2015 attacks claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida. Thursday s attacker was believed to be acting alone and police are not searching for other assailants, said two police officials, who were not authorized to be publicly named. ``He cried `Allah Akbar! over and over, even after he was injured, said Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, who told BFM television that two women and a man had died, two inside the church and a third who fled to a nearby bar but was mortally wounded. ``The meaning of his gesture left no doubt. French media showed the Nice neighborhood locked down and surrounded by police and emergency vehicles. Sounds of explosions could be heard as sappers exploded suspicious objects. France attack In the southern city of Avignon later in the morning, an armed man was shot to death by police after he refused to drop his weapon and a flash-ball shot failed to stop him, one police official said. And a Saudi state-run news agency said a man stabbed a guard at the French consulate in Jiddah, wounding the guard before he was arrested. The French Council of the Muslim Faith condemned the Nice attack and called on French Muslims to refrain from festivities this week marking the birth of Muhammed ``as a sign of mourning and in solidarity with the victims and their loved ones. Islamic State extremists issued a video on Wednesday renewing calls for attacks against France. The lower house of parliament suspended a debate on France s new virus restrictions and held a moment of silence Thursday for the victims. The prime minister rushed from the hall to a crisis center overseeing the aftermath of the Nice attack. French President Emmanuel Macron was headed to Nice later in the day. Less than two weeks ago, an assailant decapitated a French middle school teacher who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad for a class on free speech. Those caricatures were published by Charlie Hebdo and cited by the men who gunned down the newspaper s editorial meeting in 2015. In September, a man who had sought asylum in France attacked bystanders outside Charlie Hebdo s former offices with a butcher knife.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday Turkey had the legitimate right to act again if militants are not cleared from its border with Syria, where it has carried out several incursions in the last four years. “If the terrorists here are not cleared as we were promised, we have the legitimate right to mobilize once again,” Erdogan said in a speech to his AK Party s lawmakers in parliament. In an offensive a year ago, with the support of Syrian rebels, Turkey seized a 120 km (75 mile) stretch of border territory in northeast Syria from the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara views as a terrorist group. That incursion was widely condemned by Ankara s Western allies as the YPG was a the main component of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that helped the United States defeat Islamic State. Erdogan also voiced concern about the situation in northwest Syria s Idlib region, which was the scene of heavy fighting between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed rebels until Ankara and Moscow reached a ceasefire deal in March. On Monday, air strikes on a camp in northwest Syria run by rebel fighters backed by Turkey killed at least 35 people and wounded scores, a war monitor and a rebel source said. “The attack by Russia on (Turkey-backed) Syrian National Army forces in the Idlib region shows that lasting peace in the region is not wanted,” Erdogan said.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning, killing at least eight students and wounding 136 others, police and a hospital spokesman said. The bombing happened as a prominent religious scholar during a special class was delivering a lecture about the teachings of Islam at the main hall of the Jamia Zubairia madrassa, said police officer Waqar Azim. He said initial investigations suggest the bomb went off minutes after someone left a bag at the madrassa. TV footage showed the damaged main hall of the seminary, where the bombing took place. The hall was littered with broken glass and its carpet was stained with blood. Police said at least 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of explosives were used in the attack. Several of the wounded students were in critical condition, and hospital authorities feared the death toll could climb further. Authorities said some seminary teachers and employees were also wounded in the bombing. Initially police said the bombing killed and wounded children studying at the seminary but later revised their account to say that the students were in their mid-20s. Shortly after the attack, residents rushed to the seminary to check up on their sons or relatives who were studying there. Many relatives were gathering at the city s main Lady Reading Hospital, where the dead and wounded students were brought by police in ambulances and other vehicles. Some Afghan students studying at the seminary were also among the wounded, officials said. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the bombing and asked authorities to ensure the provision of best possible medical aid to the victims. “I want to assure my nation we will ensure the terrorists responsible for this cowardly barbaric attack are brought to justice,” Khan said. The bombing drew condemnation from the country s opposition party, which has been holding rallies meant to force Khan s government to quit. From his hospital bed, a wounded student, Mohammad Saqib, 24, said religious scholar Rahimullah Haqqani was explaining verses from the Quran when suddenly they heard a deafening sound and then cries and saw blood-stained students crying for help. “Someone helped me and put me in an ambulance and I was brought to hospital,” he said. Saqib had bandages on both arms but he was listed in a stable condition. Another witness, Saeed Ullah, 24, said up to 500 students were present at the seminary s main hall at the time of the explosion. He said teachers were also among those who were wounded in the bombing. A video filmed by a student at the scene showed the Islamic scholar Haqqani delivering a lecture when the bomb exploded. It was unclear whether the teacher was among the wounded. Mohammad Asim, a spokesman at the Lady Reading Hospital, said eight students died and they received dozens of wounded people, mostly seminary students. The attack comes days after Pakistani intelligence alerted that militants could target public places and important buildings, including seminaries and mosques across Pakistan, including Peshawar. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Peshawar which is the provincial capital of Pakistan s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The province has been the scene of such militant attacks in recent years, but sectarian violence has also killed or wounded people at mosques or seminaries across Pakistan. The latest attack comes two days after a bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta killed three people. The Pakistani Taliban have been targeting public places, schools, mosques and the military across the country since 2001, when this Islamic nation joined the U.S.-led war on terror following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. Mohammad Khurasani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, condemned Tuesday s bombing. In a statement, he described the attack as a cowardly act, claiming that the country s institutions were behind it. Since then, the insurgents have declared war on the government of Pakistan and have carried out numerous attacks, including a brutal assault on an army-run school in the city of Peshawar in 2014 that killed 140 children and several teachers.

The defence minister of Libya s Government of National Accord (GNA) said on Monday that the Tripoli-based government will maintain military and security relations with Turkey despite a ceasefire deal that was announced this week during talks in Geneva. On Twitter, Salaheddin Al-Namroush emphasized that the GNA will “enhance cooperation with Turkey as an ally and continue training programs that were received and will continue to be received by those enrolled in the GNA defence ministry s training institutes." “Attention must be given to security and military agreements in the meantime more than ever before, especially if the ceasefire is abided by and peace is established in Libya. Building a Libyan army on reliable foundations and a unifying, national doctrine that is based on youth is one of the most important gains of achieving peace in Libya,” he tweeted. Al-Namroush claimed that the ceasefire agreement signed during the Joint Military Commission talks held last week in Geneva does not include cancelling the 2019 military cooperation agreement between the GNA and Turkey. Last Friday in Geneva, parties to the Libyan conflict accepted a complete and permanent ceasefire. The agreement stipulates a return to camps by all armies and armed groups. They also agreed that foreign fighters and mercenaries must leave the North African state by 23 January. The UN-sponsored deal, moreover, states that military agreements with foreign governments must be stopped until a new government is established. Other measures that were agreed upon include the creation of a joint military committee and police operations room, opening land and air routes, ending hate speech, swapping detainees and rebuilding forces that will protect oil sites. The Geneva meetings represented a new round of UN-backed peace negotiations for Libya after those held in Egypt s Red Sea resort city of Hurghada and Morocco s coastal town of Bouznika, south of the capital Rabat in September. In Morocco, parties to the Libyan conflict agreed on the "criteria, transparent mechanisms, and objectives" for key power positions. Negotiations in Hurghada saw an agreement between the Libyan parties to work on the release of all prisoners, protect the North African state s oil and gas facilities and completely resume production and export activities. Talks in Geneva will be followed with meetings by the so-called Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) in Tunisia in early November, which seeks to “generate consensus on a unified governance framework, and arrangements that will lead to the holding of national elections in the shortest possible timeframe in order to restore Libya s sovereignty and the democratic legitimacy of Libyan institutions.” The meetings will be both virtual— beginning on 26 October—and face-to-face amid the “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and online in order to protect the health of the participants.” Libya has been divided between two authorities in Tripoli and Tobruk for six years. While the GNA is based in Tripoli, the capital, Khalifa Haftar s Libyan National Army (LNA) controls the east and is allied to the Tobruk-based House of Representatives. The LNA is backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, France, and Russia; while the GNA is backed by Turkey, Qatar, and thousands of Syrian mercenaries. On 22 August, both parties to the conflict declared a ceasefire that ended fears about possible GNA aggression against the port city of Sirte, 370 kilometres east of the capital Tripoli and Jufra, which has a major military airbase. GNA head Al-Sarraj announced on Facebook that he "issued instructions to all military forces to immediately cease fire and combat operations in all Libyan territories." Speaker of the Libyan parliament in Tobruk Aguila Saleh also announced a ceasefire that was welcomed by world leaders. The two warring parties agreed to hold elections in March 2021.

KABUL (Reuters) – A suicide bombing at an education center in Afghanistan s capital Kabul killed 24 people including teenage students and wounded dozens more on Saturday, officials said. A Ministry of Interior spokesman, Tariq Arian, said security guards had identified a bomber who detonated explosives in the street outside the Kawsar-e Danish centre. Most of the victims were students aged between 15 and 26, according to the health ministry. Fifty-seven were injured in the attack, the interior ministry said. A Taliban spokesman on Twitter denied responsibility for the attack, which came at a sensitive time as teams representing the insurgents and the government meet in Qatar to seek a peace deal. Islamic State claimed responsibility in a statement on Telegram, without providing evidence. Family members gathered at a nearby hospital, searching for missing loved ones among bags containing the remains of those killed, laid out on the hospital floor, while outside orderlies wheeled injured patients on stretchers for treatment, a Reuters witness said. The attack, which was condemned by NATO and the Afghan government, took place in an area of west Kabul that is home to many from the country s Shia community, a religious minority in Afghanistan targeted in the past by groups such as Islamic State. Dozens of students died in the same area of Kabul in an attack on another education centre in 2018. A teacher at the Kawsar-e Danish center, who asked not to be named due to security concerns, said he and other teaching staff were in shock at the targeting of the institution which had provided tutoring to give thousands of children a pathway to higher education. “All the students were full of energy, belonging to poor families but hoping for a brighter future,” he said. The latest attack came on the back of heavy fighting in multiple provinces in recent weeks, which has displaced thousands of civilians. The U.S. Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad early on Sunday on Twitter called again for an immediate reduction in violence and an acceleration in the peace process, citing rising violence in the country in recent weeks including a finding by the human rights commission that an Afghan government airstrike had killed 12 children. “How much more can we endure, as individuals and as society? How many times can we rise?” asked Shaharzad Akbar, chair of Afghanistan s Independent Human Rights Commission on Twitter shortly after Saturday s attack, saying the targeting of civilians was a war crime.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – A year after Lebanon was rocked by huge protests against its entrenched ruling elite, politicians have picked the same prime minister who was pushed out then to lead it out of crisis now. Saad al-Hariri, a three-time prime minister and heir to a wealthy dynasty, has been Lebanon’s leading Sunni Muslim politician since the killing of his father in 2005. He stood down last year when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to rally against a political class that they accuse of milking the state for decades. At the time, Hariri said his efforts to seal agreement on badly needed reforms had hit a dead end, blocked by sectarian divisions and vested interests, and only the “big shock” of his resignation as prime minister could break the deadlock. Nationwide protests persisted, demanding the overthrow of a political class which demonstrators blame for pillaging the state and pushing it into crisis. “All of them means all of them,” they chanted. In the months that followed, a former academic and a diplomat both struggled to lead or even form technocrat governments to steer the country in a new direction. Almost exactly a year later, after escalating catastrophes including a banking crisis and currency crash, a dramatic rise in poverty and a huge explosion at Beirut’s port, Hariri says he is the “natural candidate” to lead Lebanon. On Thursday, he pledged to form a government of specialists “with a mission to enact economic and financial reforms” – reforms that President Emmanuel Macron of France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, set out for unlocking foreign aid. POLITICAL RIVALRIES But rifts that obstructed change during his last term in office look set to plague his efforts to form his fourth government. The two main Christian political blocs, the Free Patriotic Movement led by the president’s son-in-law Gebran Bassil, and its rival the Lebanese Forces, refused to back his nomination. The heavily armed Shi’ite Hezbollah group did not name anyone but said it would work “positively” towards forming a government. Iran-backed Hezbollah and its political allies, including the Shi’ite Amal party and the FPM, won a majority of MPs in 2018 elections. Hariri’s career was built on the patronage of Gulf Arab states, the deployment of his family fortune – spending large amounts of it in Lebanon to finance a political network – and respect among many Lebanese for his father, Rafik al-Hariri. The early years of his political career were defined by his close alliance with Saudi Arabia and confrontations with the Lebanese allies of Syria and Iran, chief among them Hezbollah. A U.N.-backed court in August convicted a Hezbollah member in absentia of conspiring to kill his father Rafik, a former premier who was close to the West and Sunni Gulf allies and had been seen as a threat to Iranian and Syrian sway in Lebanon. Hezbollah denies any role in the 2005 bombing, and Saad al-Hariri has said he was seeking justice, not revenge for the killing. SAUDI TIES SUFFERED Hariri formed his first coalition government in 2009 after the anti-Syria and anti-Hezbollah coalition he led at the time won a parliamentary majority with Saudi backing. That “March 14” alliance gradually disintegrated in the years that followed. His cabinet was toppled in early 2011 when Hezbollah and its allies quit over tensions linked to the Rafik al-Hariri tribunal. In the ensuing few years, Saad remained mostly outside Lebanon on security grounds. As the war in neighbouring Syria escalated, Lebanon became gripped by tensions linked to the conflict. Hariri meanwhile suffered a financial blow from the collapse of his family’s construction business in Saudi Arabia, hitting the finances of his political network in Lebanon. Hariri made a series of political concessions in Lebanon that resulted in him eventually backing Hezbollah’s Christian ally Michel Aoun for the presidency. The deal saw Hariri become premier for a second time in 2016. He remained an opponent of Hezbollah but his focus was largely on Lebanon’s economic troubles. Hariri’s ties with Saudi Arabia, furious at Hezbollah’s expanding role in Lebanon, suffered. They hit a nadir in November 2017 when it was widely acknowledged that Riyadh had forced him to resign and held him in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Hariri publicly deny this, though Macron confirmed that Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia.

Pope Francis has said that he thinks same-sex couples should be allowed to have "civil unions". He made the comments, which observers say are his clearest remarks yet on gay relationships, in a documentary directed by Evgeny Afineevsky. "Homosexual people have a right to be in a family," he said in the film, which premiered on Wednesday. "They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it. "What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered." He added that he "stood up for that", apparently referring to his time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires when, although opposing same-sex marriages in law, he supported some legal protections for same-sex couples. Pope worried about gay clergy How Pope Francis became a movie star Pope tells gay abuse victim God loves you The film Francesco, about the life and work of Pope Francis, premiered as part of the Rome Film Festival. As well as the Pope s comments on civil unions, the film also shows him encouraging two gay men to attend church with their three children. Pope Francis s biographer, Austen Ivereigh, told the BBC he was "not surprised" by the latest comments. "This was his position as Archbishop of Buenos Aires," said Mr Ivereigh. "He was always opposed to marriage being for same-sex couples. But he believed the church should advocate for a civil union law for gay couples to give them legal protection." Under current Catholic doctrine, gay relationships are referred to as "deviant behaviour". In 2003, the Vatican s doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that "respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions". Strong words but no sign of doctrinal change The remarks have set tongues wagging among Vatican-watchers - and they mark Francis s clearest support for the issue since becoming Pope. But is this really a fundamental change by the pontiff - or more an off-the-cuff statement by a leader of the Catholic Church who has been known to flirt with liberal sentiments in the past, only to fall back on traditional doctrine when push comes to shove? As archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming Pope, he was a staunch opponent of gay marriage, which was legalised in Argentina in 2010, and instead advocated civil unions for homosexual couples. This is his first vocal backing as Pope - and will undoubtedly be welcomed by many on the more liberal wing of the church and criticised by the conservatives. But any significant doctrinal change on such an issue would typically be presented in a more formal way and after much internal debate. There is, for now, little sign that either is imminent. Presentational grey line What has he said about homosexuality in the past? The Pope s comments are the latest in a series of sentiments he s expressed about LGBT rights - voicing some support, but not a full endorsement. In 2013, in the book On Heaven and Earth, the Pope said that legally equating same-sex relationships to heterosexual marriages would be "an anthropological regression". He also said then that if same-sex couples were allowed to adopt, "there could be affected children... every person needs a male father and a female mother that can help them shape their identity". That same year, he reaffirmed the Church s position that homosexual acts were sin, but said homosexual orientation was not. "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" he asked. In 2014 it was reported that Pope Francis had expressed support for civil unions for same-sex partners in an interview, but the Holy See s press office denied this. Then in 2018, Pope Francis said he was "worried" about homosexuality in the clergy, and that it was "a serious matter".

AMMAN/ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is withdrawing troops from a military post in northwest Syria that was surrounded by Syrian government forces last year, but is consolidating its presence elsewhere in the region, sources familiar with the operation said on Monday. The observation post at Morek was one of a dozen set up by Turkish soldiers in 2018 under an ill-fated deal to calm fighting between Syrian government troops and Turkey-backed rebels controlling the northwestern Idlib region. Morek and several other Turkish posts were surrounded last year by advancing Syrian government forces. Ankara has kept them manned and re-supplied since then, while reinforcing the remaining rebel-held territory to hold back government forces and prevent millions of refugees streaming towards Turkey. Turkish officials have in the past ruled out pulling back from a single observation post, but the sources said there was no longer any military value in staying at Morek. “The dismantling of the base has begun,” a senior Syrian opposition figure close to Turkey told Reuters. The withdrawal from the exposed position would take several days, he said, describing it as part of Turkish efforts to “consolidate ceasefire lines” reached in a March agreement with Russia which halted the heaviest fighting in years around Idlib. Two other sources familiar with the operation, who asked not to be named, said the withdrawal started early on Monday. “The Turkish armed forces are not considering evacuating another observation post at this stage,” one of them said. Syrian rebels say Turkey retains between 10,000 and 15,000 troops in the pocket of northwest Syria, alongside rebel fighters backed by Ankara and jihadist forces it has committed to disarm and contain. Already home to 3.6 million Syrian refugees, Turkey is determined to prevent a further influx of people fleeing fighting. The United Nations says there are around four million people in north-west Syria, of which 2.7 million have been displaced during the nine-year-old conflict. Turkey has backed rebels who sought to overthrow Bashar al-Assad. But the Syrian president, supported by Russia and Iran, has driven back the rebel fighters who once threatened to encircle Damascus and are now confined to their small pocket in the northwest of the county.

A cabinet committee in charge of licensing churches operating without a permit has legalised the status of 45 churches and 55 service buildings since May, the cabinet s spokesman, Nader Saad, said. This brings the total number of churches and related service buildings legalised by the committee since its establishment in 2017 to 1,738, Saad added. The announcement came during a meeting headed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and attended by a number of state officials, including Minister of Justice Omar Marwan and Minister of Local Development Mahmoud Shaarawy. The officials have reviewed the status of churches and related buildings which have submitted requests for legalisation since the committee s last meeting on 18 May, Saad said. In 2016, Egypt s parliament approved a long-awaited law regulating the building and renovation of churches. In 2017, the committee was established by the prime minister. The 10-member committee comprises one Christian representative, six government officials from several ministries, representatives from the national security apparatus, the intelligence apparatus, and the administrative control body. Egypt s Copts make up about 10-14 percent of the country s 100 million-plus population, according to unofficial statistics, with the vast majority of Christians in Egypt belonging to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Lebanon s top Christian cleric urged Lebanese leaders to stop delaying talks on forming a government in a scathing Sunday sermon in which he blamed them for the country s financial crisis and political deadlock. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader of the Maronite church, was speaking a day after demonstrators marched through Beirut to mark the first anniversary of a protest movement which erupted last October against corruption and mismanagement. In the year since, Lebanon s problems have been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and a devastating explosion in Beirut in August. "Take your hands off the government and liberate it. You are responsible for the crime of plunging the country into total paralysis in addition to the implications of the corona pandemic," the patriarch said in his sermon. His remarks came after two main Christian parties, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Lebanese Forces, said this week they would not back the nomination of former Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to lead a new government to tackle the deep economic crisis, further complicating efforts to agree a new premier. "The responsibility and accountability is collective. Who among you officials has the leisure of time to delay consultations to form a government?" he said. "No one is innocent of Lebanon s (financial) bleeding." In another Sunday sermon, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Elias Audi also lambasted the political elite. "The number of ministries and the names of ministers and quotas is still more important (to politicians) than the fate of Lebanon and the Lebanese," he said. "Return to your conscience, leaders ... be humble and listen to the pain of your people." Hariri, who quit as prime minister last October in the face of the nationwide protests, has said he is ready to lead a government to implement reforms proposed by France as a way to unlock badly needed international aid. Parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister were due to be held last Thursday, but President Michel Aoun postponed the discussions after receiving requests for a delay from some parliamentary blocs.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s military exports to its ally Azerbaijan have risen six-fold this year, with sales of drones and other military equipment rising to US$77 million last month alone before fighting broke out over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, according to exports data. The figures compiled by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly, which groups more than 95,000 exporting companies in 61 sectors, show Azerbaijan bought US$123 million in defence and aviation equipment from Turkey in the first nine months of 2020. Most of the purchases of drones, rocket launchers, ammunition and other weapons arrived were after July, when border clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces prompted Turkey and Azerbaijan to conduct joint military exercises. Sales jumped from US$278,880 in the month of July to US$36 million in the month of August, and US$77.1 million in just September, the data showed. Military sales to Azerbaijan in the first nine months of 2019 totalled US$20.7 million. Fighting between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces broke out on September 27 over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain enclave which is recognised internationally as part of Azerbaijan but is governed and populated by ethnic Armenians. “Azerbaijan clearly turned to Turkey for help … and wasted no time realising that the threat would grow,” said Istanbul-based defence analyst Turan Oguz. “Ankara is very determined in providing Baku with its needs,” he said. “The strong defence cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey is getting stronger by the day.” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has backed Azerbaijan and said Armenians must withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh. Ankara, which wants a role in ceasefire talks, says it is not directly involved in the fighting. But Azeri officials have touted their use of Turkish armed drones, which have spearheaded Ankara’s military operations in Syria, Iraq and Libya. The surge in arms sales reflects Turkey’s growing cross-border influence in the region, and is one measure of how quickly Azerbaijan embraced Ankara before the flare-up of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. MILITARY MIGHT Asked about the data, a Turkish defence ministry representative referred to statements by Minister Hulusi Akar, who said late last month Turkey will support Azerbaijan “with all our means.” Russia has long been the chief weapons supplier to both Azerbaijan and Armenia, with which it has a defence pact. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told Reuters on Tuesday that only a change in Turkey’s stance could prompt Azeris to halt military action in Nagorno-Karabakh, but he gave no indication he saw any sign of a shift. In September, Azerbaijan jumped to the top of the list of Turkish arms buyers, followed by Oman and the United States with US$63 million each, the exports data shows. Authorities in Turkey say the country has become the world’s fourth largest drone producer since Erdogan increased domestic production to reduce reliance on Western arms. Oguz, the analyst, said drones being used in Nagorno-Karabakh included the Bayraktar TB2, produced by a company launched by Selcuk Bayraktar, an aerospace engineer who in 2016 married Erdogan’s daughter. Turkish-made smart ammunition is also apparent in battlefield videos released by Azerbaijan’s defence ministry, Oguz said.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon announced on Monday the names of its delegation that will hold indirect talks later this week with Israel over the disputed maritime border between the two countries. The announcement by President Michel Aoun’s office comes two weeks after Lebanon and Israel reached an agreement on a framework for the US-mediated talks. The talks are scheduled to begin Wednesday at the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping force in the southern Lebanese border town of Naqoura. Israel and Lebanon have no diplomatic relations and are technically in a state of war. They each claim about 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea as within their own exclusive economic zones. Aoun’s office said the four-member Lebanese delegation will be headed by air force Brig. General Bassam Yassin. The three other members are navy Colonel Mazen Basbous, Lebanese oil official Wissam Chbat and border expert Najib Massihi. Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz will lead the Israeli delegation, according to Israeli officials. Lebanese officials have made sure to send a team of experts to show that this week’s talks with Israel are purely technical and don’t mean any kind of normalization between the two countries. Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group said last week that the talks don’t mean reconciliation with Israel. A statement by Hezbollah’s bloc in parliament said last week that defining the border of “national sovereignty” is the job of the Lebanese state. The talks will see the Lebanese delegation speaking through UN and US officials to the Israelis. US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker, the top American diplomat for the Middle East, will be in Lebanon ahead of the talks to attend the opening session, the State Department said. It added that Schenker will be joined by Ambassador John Desrocher, who will serve as the US mediator for these negotiations. The agreement to commence discussions on the maritime boundary “is a vital step forward that offers the potential to yield greater stability, security, and prosperity for Lebanese and Israeli citizens alike,” the State Department said in its statement Monday. The talks come as Lebanon is passing through the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. Beirut hopes that oil and gas discoveries in its territorial waters will help it come out of the crisis. Lebanon began offshore drilling earlier this year and is expected to start drilling for gas in the disputed area with Israel in the coming months. Lebanon and Israel hold monthly tripartite indirect meetings in Naqoura to discuss violations along their border. The countries also held indirect negotiations in the 1990s when Arab states and Israel were working on reaching peace agreements. Although the Palestinians and Jordan signed agreements with Israel, Lebanon and Syria did not.

Twelve civilians were killed in volatile central Mali on Tuesday morning in addition to 12 soldiers who died in a twin attack that began overnight, police and humanitarian officials said. The group was travelling in a minibus following a military convoy sent to reinforce an army outpost which was attacked in the early hours of Tuesday, when it fell into an ambush, according to a police official. The civilians were on their way to a weekly market in Bankass, a town in central Mali s Mopti region, when the attack occurred. The police official said that two women and a baby were among the civilian dead. A humanitarian official working nearby confirmed the account. Three Malian soldiers were killed in the convoy ambush, the army said, offering a provisional tally. Nine soldiers were killed in the earlier outpost attack. Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, and which has since spread to the centre of the country and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed in the fighting to date, and hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. In Mali, the centre of the vast country has become the epicentre of the violence, with jihadist attacks and ethnic violence commonplace. Anger at the brutal conflict contributed to protests against president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita this year, which culminated in his ouster in a military coup on August 18.

Turkey s move to carry out a seismic survey in the eastern Mediterranean south of Greek island Kastellorizo is a major escalation of tensions, threatening peace and security in the area, Greece s foreign ministry said on Monday. Late on Sunday Turkey s navy issued an advisory, saying the Oruc Reis ship would conduct a seismic survey in the eastern Mediterranean over the next 10 days. "The new Turkish NAVTEX on surveys south of Kastellorizo within the Greek continental shelf, at a distance of just 6.5 nautical miles from Greek shores, is a major escalation," Greece s foreign ministry said. Coming a few days after a meeting of Greek and Turkish foreign ministers, where Turkey committed on proposing a date for exploratory talks, the move showed Turkey is "unreliable" and "does not really truly want a dialogue," it said. "We call on Turkey to recall its decision," NATO ally Greece said. The foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece met last week and agreed to hold bilateral talks on the disputes. According to Turkey s maritime notice, two other vessels, the Ataman and Cengiz Han along with the Oruc Reis exploration ship, will continue works in an area including the south of Kastellorizo until Oct. 22. Last month, Ankara withdrew Oruc Reis from contested waters to "allow for diplomacy" ahead of a European Union summit. After the summit the bloc said it would punish Turkey if it continued its operations in the region, in a move Ankara said further strained Turkey-EU ties.

At least five Malian villagers have been killed by suspected jihadists in the centre of the country where attacks and ethnic clashes have been on the rise, witnesses and local officials said on Sunday. The attack followed the kidnapping by gunmen on Tuesday of around 20 people at a weekly market in the same village, Farabougou, near the central Malian town of Niono.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – All US troops in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas,” President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, just hours after his national security adviser said Washington would reduce its forces in Afghanistan to 2,500 by early next year. A landmark deal between the United States and the Taliban in February said foreign forces would leave Afghanistan by May 2021 in exchange for counterterrorism guarantees from the Taliban, which agreed to negotiate a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing formula with the Afghan government. Trump and other officials have said the United States will go down to between 4,000 and 5,000 troops in Afghanistan around November. Beyond that, officials have said that a reduction will depend on conditions in Afghanistan. On Twitter, Trump said: “We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!” It was unclear whether Trump was giving an order or verbalizing a long-held aspiration. Trump, who is seeking re-election next month, has made walking away from “ridiculous endless wars” the cornerstone of his foreign policy, even though thousands of troops remain in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The Taliban, fighting to expel foreign forces and re-establish their Islamic state since their ouster in 2001, welcomed Trump’s comments. The US president’s statement was “a positive step towards the implementation of the Doha agreement”, Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said in a statement, referring to the February pact signed in the Qatari capital. The US-backed Afghan government did not immediately respond to requests for comment but officials have warned against a hasty withdrawal of foreign forces. Trump’s comments could further weaken the Afghan government’s leverage during negotiations with the Taliban on a ceasefire and power-sharing taking place in Qatar. ‘HARD PROCESS’ Just hours before Trump’s tweet, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said the United States had less than 5,000 troops in Afghanistan currently and would go down to 2,500 by early next year. “Ultimately, the Afghans themselves are going to have to work out an accord, a peace agreement. … It’s going to be slow progress, it’s going to be hard progress, but we think it’s a necessary step – we think Americans need to come home,” O’Brien told an event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The National Security Council and White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House’s plan for the drawdown will almost certainly be subject to review should Trump lose his bid for a second term in the November 3 election. Despite the agreement on the US troop withdrawal and the talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the war shows no sign of ending. Scores of Afghan soldiers and Taliban fighters have been killed in clashes in recent seeks. Dozens of civilians have also died. Testifying before a US House of Representatives committee last month, US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said that once the number of US. troops reached 4,500, the administration “would do an evaluation of ties and actions that we have taken and make decisions on that.” About 2,400 US service members have been killed in the Afghan conflict and many thousands more wounded. Wednesday also marks 19 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored al Qaeda militants who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. Reporting by Idrees Ali, David Brunnstrom and Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Andrea Shalal, Abdul Qadir Sediqi and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Editing by Peter Cooney, Robert Birsel FILE POTO: US President Donald Trump poses on the Truman Balcony of the White House after returning from being hospitalized at Walter Reed Medical Center for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) treatment, in Washington, US October 5, 2020. REUTERS/Erin Scott

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun has called for binding consultations with members of parliament next week to name a new prime minister, his office said Wednesday. The announcement comes two weeks after the latest prime minister-designate resigned amid a political impasse over the formation of a new government. Mustafa Adib’s resignation on September 26, dealt a blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s efforts to break a dangerous stalemate in this crisis-hit Mideast country. The consultations are set for October 15. Adib’s resignation nearly a month after he was appointed to the job came at a time when Lebanon is going through a severe economic and financial crisis, made worse by the spread of the coronavirus, and desperately needs international assistance. The crisis has been amplified by the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port in August that killed 194 people, wounded about 6,500 and caused billions of dollars in damage. After Adib’s resignation, Macron accused Lebanon’s political class of “collective betrayal” and choosing “to favor their partisan and individual interests to the general detriment of the country.” Lebanon’s two main Shiite parties — the militant Hezbollah and its ally Amal led by parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri — had insisted on retaining the finance ministry in the new government and on naming all the Shiite Cabinet ministers. Adib, Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany, rejected those conditions and stepped down. Macron has been pressing Lebanese politicians to form a Cabinet made up of non-partisan specialists that can work on urgent reforms to extract Lebanon from the financial crisis. Macron has traveled twice to Beirut since the Beirut port explosion and has made it a personal mission to try to repair the damaged country, raising resentment from some who see it as a neo-colonial foray. Outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned six days after the Beirut blast on Aug. 4, when nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrates, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, exploded at Beirut’s port. The material had been stored at the facility for six years. What ignited the nitrates remains unknown. More than two dozen people, mostly port and customs officials, have been detained so far. The judge in charge of the investigation has questioned top security officials, former Cabinet ministers and port employees. It was not clear if Lebanon’s political groups have agreed on the future premier but former Prime Minister Najib Mikati has reportedly put forward a proposal for a 20-member Cabinet consisting of 14 experts and six politicians. The international community has said it will not help Lebanon financially before wide reforms in the tiny country are implemented to fight widespread corruption and mismanagement. By BASSEM MROUE A Lebanese army soldier passes in front of an anti-government protester holding a national flag and blocking a main highway that links Beirut with north Lebanon during a protest against rising prices and worsening economic and financial conditions, in Zalka, north of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, October 5, 2020. Lebanon is passing through its worst economic and financial crisis in decades made worse by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan of being the main instigator of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, speaking in an interview with Russia s RIA news agency published on Tuesday. The fighting between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians over the region began on Sept. 27 and has escalated to its deadliest level since the 1990s. The fighting has increased international concern that other regional powers could be dragged into the conflict - Turkey has expressed solidarity with Azerbaijan while Armenia has a defence pact with Russia.

A car bomb on Tuesday killed 14 people, mostly civilians, in the Turkish-controlled town of Al-Bab in northern Syria, a war monitor said. The explosion near a bus station in the town also wounded at least 40 people, some of them seriously, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

An explosives-laden truck ignited Tuesday on a busy street in a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens, Syrian opposition activists reported. The blast in the town of al-Bab took place near a bus station where people often gather to travel from one region to another, according to the opposition s Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets.