Sudan s prime minister survived an assassination attempt on Monday after a blast in the capital, Khartoum, Sudanese state media said. Abdalla Hamdok s family confined he was safe following the explosion, which targeted his convoy. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Hamdok was appointed prime minister last August, after pro-democracy protests led to the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in April and replace it with a civilian-led government. Hamdok has confirmed the government will cooperate with the International Criminal Court s efforts to prosecute those wanted for war crimes and genocide in connection with the Darfur conflict in Sudan in the 2000s. Transitional authorities announced in February that they agreed to hand over al-Bashir to the ICC along with other former officials wanted by the ICC. Nearly a year after al-Bashir s ouster, the country faces a dire economic crisis. Inflation stands at a staggering 60% and the unemployment rate was 22.1% in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund. The government has said that 30% of Sudan s young people, who make up more than half of the over 42 million population, are without jobs. *This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Italy announced a sweeping quarantine early Sunday for its northern regions, igniting travel chaos as it restricted the movements of a quarter of its people in a bid to halt the new coronavirus relentless march 15 across Europe. Shortly after midnight, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree affecting 16 million people in the country s prosperous north, including the Lombardy region and at least 14 provinces in neighboring regions. The extraordinary measures will be in place until April 3. ``For Lombardy and for the other northern provinces that I have listed, there will be a ban for everybody to move in and out of these territories and also within the same territory,`` Conte said. ``Exceptions will be allowed only for proven professional needs, exceptional cases and health issues. Around the world, other countries have been increasingly imitating China - where the virus first emerged late last year _ by imposing travel controls and shutting down public events. China has suffered about three-fourths of the world s 106,000 coronavirus infections and most of its nearly 3,600 deaths. There was chaos and confusion in the hours before Conte signed the decree, as word leaked to the news media about the planned quarantine. Students at the University of Padua in northern Italy who had been out at bars on a Saturday night saw the rumors on their cellphones and rushed back to their apartments to grab their belongings and head to the train station. Hundreds of passengers, some wearing face masks and rubber gloves, crammed onto the last local train leaving Padua at 11:30 p.m. Anxious students wrapped scarves around their heads, shared sanitizing gel, and sat on their suitcases in the aisles. No conductor came by to check tickets. ``I read two hours ago that they may be putting out an urgent decree putting Padua in the red zone. Because I would like to return down south to my relatives, I decided to go earlier,`` said one student, Roberto Pagliara, who moved up a planned Tuesday departure for his hometown of Puglia in southern Italy. Italy on Saturday reported its biggest daily increase in coronavirus cases since its outbreak began on Feb. 21. The number of infected people rose 1,247 in the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 5,883. Italy s death toll rose to 233. Regional politicians were taken aback by the lockdown. Stefano Bonaccini, president of the Emilia Romagna region, said parts of the decree were confusing. The mayor of Asti, in the Piedmont region, posted an irate video on his Facebook page slamming Rome for not keeping regional leaders in the loop. ``Nobody told me, Maurizio Rasero screamed, adding that he had hundreds of messages on his cell phone from alarmed citizens. ``It s incredible that information that is so delicate and important would come out in the newspaper first.`` The fate of foreign visitors stuck in red zones in northern Italy was not immediately clear. The move echoed China s lockdown of some 60 million people in central Hubei province in late January, which is now in its sixth week. China s harsh travel restrictions came too late to prevent infected people from seeding outbreaks elsewhere, but the World Health Organization has credited the lockdown with slowing the spread of the virus and ``buying the world time to handle the outbreak. With a nose-dive in tourist traffic and disruptions to supply chains, stocks got off to another rocky start Sunday as Mideast indexes opened down 6% to 8%. Around the world, more events and festivals were called off, including the women s world hockey championships in Canada. Bahrain said its Formula One race this month will take place without spectators over virus fears. Japan s time-honored grand sumo tournament opened Sunday in Osaka to no fans and wrestlers arrived wearing face masks. The virus outbreak has left the cruise ship industry in disarray. The Grand Princess cruise ship, where 21 people have tested positive for the virus, was headed to the port of Oakland, California, after idling off San Francisco for days. There is evidence the ship was the breeding ground for a deadly cluster of almost 20 cases during an earlier voyage. ``Those that will need to be quarantined will be quarantined,`` U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said. ``Those who will require medical help will receive it. The ship, which is carrying more than 3,500 people from 54 countries, is expected to reach Oakland on Monday. According to the ship s captain, guests who require acute medical treatment will be transported to health care facilities in California; healthy Californians will go into quarantine in state; other U.S. residents will go to quarantines elsewhere; the crew will be quarantined and treated aboard the ship. Grand Princess Capt. John Smith said he was not yet told what will happen to passengers from other countries. In Egypt, a cruise ship on the Nile carrying more than 150 people was under quarantine in the southern city of Luxor after 45 people on board tested positive for the virus. The port of Penang in Malaysia turned away the Costa Fortuna cruise ship because 64 of the 2,000 aboard are from Italy. The ship, which had already been rejected by Thailand, was heading to Singapore. And in Malta, which reported its first case of the virus Saturday, the MSC Opera ship agreed not to enter the Mediterranean country s port amid local worries _ even though there are no infections suspected on board. The ship continued to Messina, Sicily, where passengers were allowed to disembark. In the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged older adults and people with severe medical conditions to ``stay home as much as possible`` and avoid crowds. A federal official told The Associated Press that the W hite House had overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and sick Americans not fly on commercial airlines. The U.S. death toll from the virus climbed to 19, with all but three victims in Washington state. While many scientists said the world is clearly in the grips of a pandemic _ a serious global outbreak - the World Health Organization isn t calling it that yet, saying the word might spook the world further. ``I think it s pretty clear we re in a pandemic and I don t know why WHO is resisting that, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. As of Saturday, nearly 90,000 cases have been reported in Asia; more than 8,000 in Europe; 6,000 in the Mideast; about 450 in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and fewer than 50 cases reported so far in Africa. In Iran, fears over the virus and the government s waning credibility has become a major challenge to leaders already reeling from American sanctions. More than 1,000 infections were confirmed overnight, bringing the country s total to 5,823 cases, including 145 deaths. China on Sunday reported 44 new cases over the past 24 hours, the lowest level since it began publishing nationwide figures on Jan 20, and 27 new fatalities. South Korea reported 272 new cases, taking the total to 7,313, with 50 deaths overall. The virus has not even spared islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with the tiny archipelago nation of the Maldives reporting its two first cases.

The worsening coronavirus epidemic heaped fresh misery on the airlines sector on Thursday, as British regional carrier Flybe became the first big casualty of a slump in travel demand and Norwegian Air scrapped its profit guidance for this year. Airlines across the world are rushing to cut flights and costs, and warning of a hit to earnings, as a new virus that started in China spreads around the world, raising fears of a pandemic that could plunge the global economy into recession. In a sign of the difficulties this is creating for airlines, a Turkish Airlines jet was flown back to Istanbul without any passengers on board on Thursday on orders from Singapore after a passenger who had arrived on the same plane on Tuesday tested positive for the virus. Finnish national airline Finnair, meanwhile, said the impact of the new coronavirus, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and infected tens of thousands more in over 60 countries, would be worse than the SARS epidemic in 2003. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned on Feb. 20 of a potential $29 billion hit to airlines revenues this year, but that was before fresh travel restrictions put in place by several countries as the virus gained a stronger hold outside of China, in places such as Italy, Iran and South Korea. Among the latest events to be cancelled around this world due to the crisis is the world air traffic management congress in Madrid, which had been scheduled for March 10-12. GROUNDED The failure of British regional airline Flybe comes less than two months after a rescue due for the company was agreed by its owners and the UK government. Despite its commitment to improving regional transport links, the British government backed away from that deal due to the scale of the hit to demand from the virus outbreak. "All flights have been grounded and the UK business has ceased trading with immediate effect," Flybe said as it entered administration, a form of protection from creditors. The failure of the airline, which has long struggled with losses, not only puts around 2,400 jobs at risk but could also see some regional UK airports struggle and business travel hit. Flybe carried around eight million passengers a year between 81 airports and was owned by a consortium of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group and Cyrus Capital. Its collapse came a day after Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O Leary predicted that the coronavirus crisis would lead to bankruptcies. "It s inevitable in the next couple of weeks we ll see more failures," O Leary told Reuters - citing Flybe as among the most vulnerable. "Where you have a massive short-term decline in bookings you have a massive short-term decline in cash flow," he said on the sidelines of an industry event in Brussels on Tuesday. Norwegian, a pioneer of low-cost transatlantic travel, has also been struggling for years due to cut-throat competition and heavy debts built up during rapid expansion. The company, which has repeatedly raised cash from shareholders in order to stay in business, said on Thursday it was scrapping its 2020 earnings guidance, which had predicted a return to profit after three years of losses, due to the drop in travel demand and disruption caused by the virus. It also said it would cancel 22 long-haul flights between Europe and the United States from March 28 to May 5, with routes from Rome to Los Angeles, Boston and New York seeing a reduced number of departures. In addition, it will cut the number of flights between London and New York, flying twice, rather than three times, on some days. "At this stage, it is too early to assess the full impact on our business," it said in a statement. Norwegian shares, which have lost more than 50% of their value this year, were down more than 3% at 0820 GMT. Willie Walsh, the outgoing CEO of British Airways parent IAG , also warned governments this week against any temptation to prop up airlines that were already struggling. "I don t believe it s appropriate for governments to provide state aid to airlines that were not sustainable before the coronavirus," he said at the Brussels gathering. ($1 = 0.7770 pound)

Turkey said that two more of its soldiers were killed Wednesday in a Syrian government attack in northwestern Syria, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties. Turkey has sent thousands of troops into the area to support Syrian insurgents holed up there, but hasn t been able to stop the Russian-backed Syrian government offensive to retake the Idlib province. Near the Turkish border, the Idlib area is the last rebel stronghold after nine years of war in Syria. The Turkish Defense Ministry s statement said that the latest Syrian attack on its troops also wounded six soldiers. It did not provide further details. The assault came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to depart for Moscow where he says he aims to broker a cease-fire in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces in northwestern Syria have killed more than 50 Turkish troops in the past month, including 33 soldiers killed Thursday in a single airstrike. Moscow has laid the blame for the escalation on Ankara, ahead of the summit between the two main power brokers in Syria. Russian officials have said they hold Turkey responsible for the collapse of a cease-fire agreement reached in Sochi, Russia in 2018. They say Ankara has failed to honor the deal and rein in militants who continued attacking Syrian and Russian targets.

Syrian government shelling killed one Turkish soldier and wounded another in northwest Syria, Turkey s Defense Ministry announced, days after serious clashes between the two armies appeared to signal a new stage in the nine-year war. The soldier s death, announced late Monday, raises to 55 the number of Turkish losses this month in direct clashes between Turkish troops and Russian-backed Syrian forces. The death toll includes 33 Turkish soldiers killed Thursday in a single airstrike. The Syrian government s monthslong offensive into northwest Syria s Idlib province, the last rebel-held area in the country, has sparked one of the war s worst humanitarian crises. Almost one million Syrian civilians have fled north toward the sealed Turkish border. Turkey has sent thousands of troops into Idlib to support the opposition fighters holed up there, but hasn t been able to roll back the government s advance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes to broker a cease-fire in Syria later this week when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Tensions in Idlib rose following the Syrian strike that killed the 33 Turkish soldiers in Idlib. Turkey responded with drone attacks and shelling that killed more than 90 Syrian troops and allied gunmen. The Turkish air force also shot down two Syrian warplanes after Syria s air defenses shot down one of its drones. The Syrian pilots ejected safely. Outraged by the assault against its forces in Syria, Turkey has opened its western borders for thousands of migrants and refugees wanting to cross into Europe. It is Ankara s latest bid to pressure the European Union to help handle the fallout from the disastrous Syrian war. Thousands of migrants have since tried to cross into Greece by land and sea. Greek authorities have made clear their side of the border is shut and have turned to arresting dozens of those who managed to find a way through the frontier.

Syrian government forces and their allies retook early Monday a key northwestern town days after losing it to rebel forces, pro-government media and an opposition war monitor said. The town s recapture comes escalating and direct clashes between Syrian and Turkish forces that could signal a new stage in the war. Turkey backs fighters in Syria s Idlib province, where the last remaining rebel forces in the country are holed up, and has sent thousands of troops into the area. The fighting has also sparked one of the war s worst humanitarian crisis, with almost one million Syrian civilians fleeing toward the sealed Turkish border. Syrian activists said Turkish drone strikes killed more than 90 Syrian government forces and allied fighters. Turkey has lost 54 soldiers in February, including 33 killed Thursday in a single airstrike. Outraged, Turkey s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his country s European borders were open Saturday for thousands of migrants and refugees as he sought to pressure Europe to help Turkey handle the fallout from the war in Syria. The new gains at Saraqeb on the ground also bring the last segment of a highway that links the capital Damascus and the major northern city of Aleppo under government control. The highway was reopened late last month before insurgents seized Saraqeb, which sits on the highway, last week. On Sunday, Turkish troops shot down two Syrian warplanes after the Syrian military downed a Turkish drone, a major escalation in the direct conflict between Syrian and Turkish forces. The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said Syrian troops and their allies regained control of Saraqeb after fighting with al-Qaida-linked militants. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops captured the town under the cover of airstrikes by the Russian air force. Syrian government forces have captured dozens of villages since they launched a Russian-backed offensive in Idlib in early December leaving hundreds of civilians dead and displacing more than 950,000 triggering a humanitarian crisis. Amid the rising tensions bewteen Turkey and Russia s ally Syria, Turkish broadcasters reported that Erdogan would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 5. The trip was later confirmed in a message to journalists.

The United Nations migration organization said Sunday that at least 13,000 people were massed on Turkey s land border with Greece, after Turkey officially declared its western borders were open to migrants and refugees hoping to head into the European Union. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s decision to open his country s borders with Europe made good on a longstanding threat to let refugees into the continent. His announcement marked a dramatic departure from the current policy and an apparent attempt to pressure Europe. The U.N. s International Organization for Migration said Sunday that by the previous evening, its staff working along the land border ``had observed at least 13,000 people gathered at the formal border crossing points at Pazarkule and Ipsala and multiple informal border crossings, in groups of between several dozen and more than 3,000. Greek authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades through Saturday to prevent repeated attempts by a crowd of more than 4,000 people massed at the border crossing in Kastanies to cross, and fought a cat-and-mouse game with groups cutting holes in a border fence along the border to crawl through. Others were making the short but often perilous sea crossing from the Turkish coast to the Greek islands. At least three dinghies carrying migrants arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos Sunday morning. Turkey s decision to open the borders with Greece came amid a military escalation in northwestern Syria s Idlib province that has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians to flee fighting there, with many of them heading toward north toward Turkey.

Iran on Thursday confirmed three more deaths from novel coronavirus, taking the total to 22, the highest toll outside China, state media reported. Publishing a map showing the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran, the IRNA state news agency said that 141 people had been infected by the virus, without specifying whether that figure included the 22 dead.

Tunisia s parliament began debating on Wednesday and looked set to approve a new coalition government, after months of political wrangling that has slowed the north African country s efforts to tackle looming economic problems. Elyes Fakhfakh, who was designated prime minister last month by President Kais Saied, has brought parties from across the political spectrum into his cabinet - and they continue to disagree on several big policy areas. His government is expected to pass a confidence vote later on Wednesday, however, though it may prove fragile after struggling to reconcile the differences over policy and cabinet positions. If it were to lose the vote, another parliamentary election would be held. The last election, held in October, produced a deeply fragmented house in which no party won more than a quarter of the seats. An earlier attempt to form a government was defeated in a confidence vote in January. Introducing his proposed government s programme in parliament on Wednesday, Fakhfakh said its priorities would include fighting widespread corruption and reforming public services and the state phosphate producer. It would work to maintain the value of the currency, which has recovered in recent months after years of decline, he added. Central Bank governor Marwan Abbasi said this month that the International Monetary Fund had been in favour of the dinar losing some value to bolster exports. The new government would immediately face a major economic challenge after years of low growth, persistent unemployment, big government deficits, mounting debt, high inflation, a weak currency and deteriorating public services. It will need to find new external financing after an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme ends in April, with no new support yet agreed. Parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi said he would also start the process for voting judges onto the constitutional court, a body agreed in the 2014 constitution to arbitrate disputes between branches of government but not yet set up.

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday banned all flights to and from Iran over the outbreak of the new coronavirus, just a day after its spread from the Islamic Republic was announced across multiple Mideast nations. Iran meanwhile raised the official death toll from the virus to 15 killed amid 95 confirmed infections. The UAE, home to long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, remains a key international transit route for Iran s 80 million people. The flight ban, which will last at least a week, shows the growing concern over the spread of the virus in Iran amid worries the outbreak may be larger than what authorities there now acknowledge. The Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority made the announcement via the country s state-run WAM news agency, just hours after Dubai International Airport, the world s busiest for international travel, said there would be restrictions on flights there. ``All passenger and cargo aircraft traveling to and from Iran will be suspended for a period of one week, and could be up for extension, the authority said. ``The decision is a precautionary measure undertaken by the UAE to ensure strict monitoring and prevention of the spread of the new coronavirus. Emirates, the government-owned carrier based in Dubai, flies daily to Tehran. Its low-cost sister airline, FlyDubai, flies to multiple Iranian cities, as does the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia. The announcement came after Bahrain said it would suspend all flights from Dubai and Sharjah, a neighboring UAE emirate that is home to Air Arabia, for 48 hours. Bahrain s Health Ministry on Tuesday raised the number of infected cases from the new virus to eight, saying that all had traveled from Iran via Dubai. Four of them have been identified as Saudi nationals. The cases were confirmed upon arrival to Bahrain during screenings at the airport, and prior to the suspension on flights to Dubai and Sharjah, according to Bahrain s official news agency. Dubai has been screening passengers on incoming flights from China, where the outbreak began in December. Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad are among the few international airlines still flying to Beijing. However, the outbreak in Iran only became public in recent days. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 people globally, causing around 2,700 deaths, mainly in China. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it. Iran s government said Tuesday that 15 people had died nationwide from the new coronavirus, rejecting claims of a much higher death toll of 50 by a lawmaker from the city of Qom that has been at the epicenter of the virus in the country. The conflicting reports raised questions about the Iranian government s transparency concerning the scale of the outbreak. The new death toll came from Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour during an interview with Iranian state television. He said there were 95 confirmed cases of the virus in Iran, with many linked to Qom, a major Shiite religious center where other cases have emerged. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought to reassure the nation in a speech on Tuesday, calling the new coronavirus an ``uninvited and inauspicious passenger. ``We will get through corona,`` Rouhani said. ``We will get through the virus. Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and Oman also announced their first cases of the virus on Monday and connected them to travel with Iran. The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, has reported 13 cases of the new virus. Most of those were connected to Chinese travel. Meanwhile, Kuwait raised the number of its infected cases from three to five people. All five were passengers returning on a flight from the Iranian city of Mashhad, where Iran s government has not yet announced a single case of the virus. The state-run Kuwait News Agency reported the two latest cases on Monday evening in two women whose nationalities were not disclosed. Kuwait had halted over the weekend transport links with Iran and was evacuating its citizens from Iran. Meanwhile, Iraq s Health Ministry said four new cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the northern province of Kirkuk. It said the afflicted was an Iraqi family that had returned from a recent trip to Iran. Iraq announced the discovery of the first coronavirus case in the country on Monday in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf.

Iranian state TV says the death toll in the country from the new coronavirus has risen to 12, after four more people died. The TV quoted lawmaker Asadollah Abbasi as saying on Monday that the total number of confirmed cases stands at 47, including the deaths. Abbasi says the latest figures came from Health Minister Saeed Namaki at a closed session of the parliament. The report comes after the health ministry on Sunday raised the death toll from the new virus that first emerged in China in December to eight, amid concerns that clusters there as well as in Italy and South Korea could signal a serious new stage in its global spread. The outbreak in Iran has centered mostly on the city of Qom, but spread rapidly over the past few days to people in four other cities, including the capital, Tehran. Iranians also went to the polls on Friday for nationwide parliamentary elections, with many voters wearing masks and stocking up on hand sanitizer. Abbasi said people who illegally travelled to Iran from Pakistan, Afghanistan and China were the ``source of the infection. Travelers infected with the virus from Iran have been confirmed in Canada, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain. Countries bordering Iran have taken preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus from Iranian travelers, with some barring Iranians from entry.

Naval forces from the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen on Sunday foiled an "imminent terrorist" attack by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the southern Red Sea, a major commercial shipping channel, the Saudi-led coalition said. The forces destroyed an unmanned boat laden with explosives that was launched from Hodeidah province in western Yemen, coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA, without identifying the targets. There was no immediate confirmation from the Houthi movement which has been battling the Sunni Muslim military coalition since 2015 in a conflict that is largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and arch-foe Shi ite Iran. Yemen lies along the Bab al-Mandeb strait at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, one of the most important trade routes for oil tankers heading from the Middle East to Europe. Malki said the planned attack posed a threat to regional and international security and maritime trade. He said the use of Hodeidah for operations was a "glaring violation" of a U.N.-led peace deal in the disputed port city that was agreed between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and the Houthis in December 2018. Saudi Arabia paused oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb for more than a week in 2018 after the Houthis attacked two ships in the waterway. The Western-backed coalition intervened in Yemen to try to restore the internationally recognised government that was ousted from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014 by the Houthis, who now control most major urban centres.

Turkey s guarantees in Libya are dependent on a truce between warring sides being upheld, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday, adding that Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar was violating the ceasefire. Turkey backs Libya s Government of National Accord (GNA) and has signed a military cooperation agreement to help it repel an offensive by Haftar s forces in the country s east. World powers agreed at a summit last month to halt hostilities in Libya while a political process is underway. Speaking to state broadcaster TRT Haber, Cavusoglu said the "international system" had failed to stop clashes in Libya and that there was no determination. He said a political process in Libya could not move forward while Haftar s attacks continue.

Yemen s Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations aid delivery programs in the war-torn country _ a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance, according to aid officials and internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. The rebel group has made granting access to areas under their control contingent on a flurry of conditions that aid agencies reject, in part because it would give the Houthis greater sway over who receives aid, documents and interviews show. The Houthis obstruction has hindered several programs that feed the near-starving population and help those displaced by the nearly 6-year civil war, a senior U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation. ``Over 2 million beneficiaries ... are directly affected, the official said. The Houthis have been pushing back against U.N. efforts to tighten monitoring of some $370 million a year that its agencies already give to government institutions controlled mostly by the rebel group, documents show. That money is supposed to pay salaries and other administration costs, but more than a third of the money spent last year wasn t audited, according to an internal document leaked to the AP. The U.N. has largely kept quiet in public about the pressure, but behind the scenes the agency and international donors are digging in against the Houthi demands. The AP spoke to seven workers and officials from U.N. and independent agencies about the situation. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The AP also saw dozens of documents, including emails of aid officials. In October, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, sent a letter to the Houthi-appointed prime minister complaining about a long list of demands. The ``overwhelming majority of them impede or delay delivery of aid and many violate humanitarian principles, she said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP. For months, the Houthis demanded a 2% cut from the entire aid budget be given to them, a condition the U.N. and donors rejected. In an email to the AP, a spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development said Houthi attempts ``to implement a tax on humanitarian assistance are unacceptable and directly contradict international humanitarian principles. The United States donated $686 million to Yemen in 2019, according to USAID. Last week, the Houthis appeared to back off the 2% demand, but continue to press for other concessions, according to aid officials. During a meeting in Brussels last Thursday, aid agencies and international donors threatened to reduce aid if Houthis continue to impose restrictions on U.N. operations in Yemen. The situation ``has reached a breaking point, they said in a statement. At least one agency, the World Food Program, is currently considering cutting back the monthly food aid it delivers to 12 million Yemenis every other month, a U.N. official said. It s unfortunate that people will suffer but this is on the Houthis, the official said. ``They can t use people as hostages for too long. The Houthis demands have stoked longtime concerns among aid agencies over the rebels diverting of humanitarian funds and supplies into their own or their supporters pockets or toward their war effort. Delivering aid in a war zone has always poseda problem for U.N agencies. But officials said the situation in Yemen has been especially challenging. The Houthi have withheld visas and permissions for equipment and supplies and refused to grant clearances for U.N. missions to move through rebel-controlled areas. Aid workers said agency leaders past willingness to concede to some of the rebels demands has emboldened the Houthi leaders to push for more. Nearly 300,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and children under age 5 haven t received nutrition supplements for more than six months because the Houthis ``held beneficiaries hostage to the 2% demand, another U.N. official said. In another example, Houthi authorities for months delayed permission to distribute 2,000 tons of food _ enough to feed 160,000 people _ in the district of Aslam, where the AP previously found starving villagers reduced to eating boiled leaves. When approval came in November, the food had spoiled ``beyond the point of salvage,`` another aid official said. Houthi leaders have remained defiant in the face of U.N. pushback. ``Yemen will survive`` if agencies suspend aid, Abdul-Mohsen Tawoos, secretary-general of the Houthi agency coordinating international aid, told European donors during a Jan 20 Skype call. Minutes of the call were obtained by the AP. He said the Houthis wanted to reach an agreement with the U.N. and its donors, but ``won t be bullied. Tawoos accused Grande, the top U.N. official in Yemen, of sending false reports aboutHouthis restricting the movement of U.N. humanitarian operations. Houthi leaders have threatened to expel her from the country. The U.N. s massive aid program, totaling $8.35 billion dollars since 2015, is vital to keeping many Yemenis alive. The U.N. calls the situation in Yemen the world s worst humanitarian crisis. Ten million people in the country are on the brink of famine and 80 percent of the population of 29 million in need of aid, according to the U.N. More than 3 million people have been displaced, cholera epidemics have killed hundreds, and at least 2.2 million children under 5 suffer from severe malnutrition, the agency said. The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels control the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country s north, where most of the population lives and the need for aid is greatest. They are at war with a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the internationally recognized government. With the economy in freefall, the U.N. aid effort is a major source of foreign currency into the country. The U.N received around $3 billion in 2019 in international donations for its campaign, short of its $4.2 billion goal. The Houthi demand for 2% of that budget would funnel $60-$80 million into the coffers of their aid-coordination agency, the Supreme Council for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation, known as SCMCHA. Qassim Hussein al-Houthi, the head of the international agencies department in theHouthi presidency, said the money was necessary for SCMCHA `s operating expenses. ``It carries heavy financial burden. It s in charge of facilitating, distributing, security, and organizing the work of the agencies, he said. Al-Houthi argued that it s the U.N. agenciesthat spend a much larger percentage of their budgets on administration without ``real oversight. He said the U.N. aid delivery programs blocked by the Houthis ``are not a priority for the Yemen people. Harassment, intimidation and suspected embezzling of funds by Houthis have been going on for years, aid workers said, and have gotten worse since the rebels created their aid coordination agency in early 2018. Since then, Houthi-led security agencies have arrested local workers, blocked aid missions or held up supplies, according to internal emails and documents seen by the AP. ``Not even a simple project can be carried out in northern Yemen without the consent and supervision of this body, said a Yemeni chief of a local aid organization. The U.N. rarely pushed back, calculating that aid had to be delivered at any cost. U.N. agencies continued to put hundreds of millions of dollars into Houthi accounts for ``capacity building, a common practice in humanitarian programs to ensure government bodies function. Some of the money went to salaries for doctors, teachers and other vital employees who have otherwise gone without pay amid the war. Millions more went to the Houthi aid agency for administrative costs and salaries. Aid workers privately expressed concerns about the funds from U.N. aid agencies being diverted into the coffers of Houthi leaders or their supporters. UNICEF told the AP in a statement that its funds were strictly monitored and no instances of diversions were found. The World Health Organization said all its spending was ``subject to internal and external audit, as well as frequent internal reviews on multiple levels. WHO also said it found no evidence that its funds have been diverted. Still, last summer, the U.N. requested all agencies report how much they were giving in direct cash transfers. In 2019, the total reached $370 million, around 10 percent of the entire international aid budget for Yemen, according to a U.N. spreadsheet obtained by the AP. Around $133 million was marked in the spreadsheet as ``not audited. Some officials in the Houthi aid body, SCMCHA, appear to be receiving multiple salaries, the data shows. For a time, three U.N. agencies were each giving salaries to the body s president, his deputy and general managers. Each of the officials received a total of $10,000 a month from the agencies, the spreadsheet shows. The U.N. refugee agency also gave SCMCHA $1 million every three months for office rental and administrative costs, while the U.N. migration agency gave the office another $200,000 for furniture and fiber optics. U.N. officials said Grande was ``genuinely shocked when she learned about the arrangements. ``She had no idea about the scale of it, said one senior U.N. official. ``Her reaction after that was, we have to fix the situation. Over the past year, U.N. agencies, lead by Grande, began pushing back against Houthi demands. First, the World Food Program suspended aid for a couple of months in some areas around Sanaa and demanded biometric registering of beneficiaries to ensure deliveries go to those truly in need. The Houthis initially agreed but later refused to follow through with the biometric registering. The U.N. then moved to prevent double-paying of salaries, and its agencies tightened auditing of the funds it provided. UNICEF, for example, said it decided in November to re-assess all 243 partners it works with, including government ones, and cut down dramatically on funds put into Houthi coffers. The agency said it would start paying suppliers and contractors directly. The moves by the U.N. have prompted the Houthis to launch a media campaign denouncing the humanitarian agency as corrupt and wasteful. Further escalation came after the Houthi aid body in November was put under the leadership of the Houthi president s chief of staff, making it more powerful, several aid officials said. An already difficult environment to work in ``became extremely suffocating with threats (and) directives, one of the officials said. SCMCHA s new leadership imposed more than 200 new directives on humanitarian agencies, six aid officials told the AP. Some directives _ such as requiring agencies to disclose the identities of aid recipients and involving Houthi authorities in assessments of need _ would give the rebels even greater power to steer aid to their supporters, aid workers fear. Other demands seemed aimed at monitoring and intimidating, such as ordering local Yemeni staffers to get Houthi permission to take U.N. training courses abroad and then to report back the content of those workshops. Houthis officials also require the segregation of women and men in U.N.-run programs in some areas. The Houthis also demanded a new agreement giving them a hand in assigning U.N. contracts with suppliers and picking local partners to implement programs, according to a draft of their proposal seen by the AP. It also gives them the right to screen U.N. hires in Yemen and take over the budget of monitoring programs. Aid agencies have refused to sign the agreement. Several humanitarian workers said the Houthis are also trying to force the U.N. to work with NGOs they favor, particularly an organization known as Bonyan, which is filled with Houthi affiliates. The brother of Houthi leader Abdel Malek al Houthi, Ibrahim al-Houthi, was a board member until his death last summer. Houthi leaders stopped the U.N. agencies from delivering food in Yemen s Hodeida province, unless they used Bonyan for the distribution. Despite the disputes between the Houthis and the U.N, aid officials continue to appeal to international donors for money to address the crisis in Yemen. Over the summer, Grande pleaded to donor countries for more funds to meet the $4.2 billion goal. ``When money doesn t come, people die, she said. But one international aid official said more money isn t the issue. ``I don t want more funds. I want the space to spend what I have, he said.

A high turnout in a parliamentary election will display unity in Iran against “enemies”, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted on Tuesday, days before the vote seen as a referendum on the clerical establishment’s popularity. “America will fail to create divisions between the authorities and Iranians ... a high turnout will display our unity against the enemies,” Khamenei tweeted. The Guardian Council, a hardline vetting body, has rejected around 6,850 moderate or conservative hopefuls in favour of hardliners from among the 14,000 applicants seeking to contest the Feb. 21 vote. About a third of lawmakers have also been barred from standing again. Khamenei, the final authority in Iran’s complex system of clerical rule and limited democracy, backed the Guardian Council, saying the next parliament was no place for those scared of speaking out against foreign enemies. “The election will neutralise American’s ill intentions ... the vote is the Islamic Republic’s prestige,” state TV reported Khamenei as saying. Tensions have been high between Iran and the United States since 2018, when President Donald Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and reimposed sanctions that have hit the country’s economy hard. In retaliation, Iran has gradually rolled back its commitments under the deal. Tehran says its steps are reversible if European parties to the agreement fulfil their promises of shielding Iran’s economy from U.S. penalties. “We need a strong parliament to neutralise plots of our enemies,” said Khamenei.

An Israeli aircraft has flown through Sudanese airspace for the first time, in what Prime Minister Benjamin called another example of warming ties with formally hostile states. Israel remains technically at war with Sudan, which supported hardline Islamists -- including, for a period, Al-Qaeda -- during the rule of president Omar al-Bashir. Bashir was ousted last April following months of mass anti-government demonstrations. "The first Israeli airplane passed yesterday over the skies of Sudan. This is quite a change," Netanyahu told American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Sunday evening, without offering further details. Israeli daily Haaretz quoted an Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, saying that the plane was "a private Israeli executive jet". Netanyahu met Sudan s leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan two weeks ago for what the Israeli premier s office described talks aimed at normalising ties. A Sudanese government spokesman said later that Burhan "did not give a promise of normalising or having diplomatic relations". Sudan has been part of a decades-old Arab boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians and its occupation of Arab lands. In the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967 in which Israel occupied the Palestinian territories and seized the Golan Heights from Syria, Arab leaders gathered in Khartoum to announce what became known as the "three nos": no peace, no recognition and no negotiations with Israel. Netanyahu said Sunday that visible signs of a thaw in relations with Sudan and other Muslim-majority countries were only the tip of the diplomatic iceberg. "How much is above the surface in an iceberg? It s about 10 percent, he said. "What you re seeing is about 10 percent. Vast changes are coming." Gulf Arab countries have made a number of recent moves hinting at warmer ties with the Jewish state, prompted largely by a shared enmity towards Iran. Netanyahu visited Oman in 2018 and he frequently says the boycott of his country is ending, despite the absence of a peace deal with the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan are so far the only Arab states to have full diplomatic relations with Israel. Netanyahu was speaking two weeks ahead of a March general election, the third in 12 months. He has twice failed to form a government after inconclusive polls.

Rockets hit a U.S.-led military coalition s Baghdad headquarters early on Sunday but caused no casualties, a coalition spokesman said, in the latest attack to target U.S. facilities in Iraq. Washington has blamed Iran-backed paramilitary groups for increasingly regular rocketing and shelling of bases hosting U.S. forces in Iraq and of the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. An attack last month hit the U.S. Embassy compound itself, and a rocket attack on a military base in the north in December killed a U.S. civilian contractor. There have been no claims for the attacks. Tension between Iran and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months. The United States killed top Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a drone strike in Baghdad last month, after which the region braced for full-scale conflict. Iran launched its first direct missile attack on two bases hosting U.S. forces in response. Sunday s attack, before dawn, was carried out with "small rockets" and caused no casualties, the coalition spokesman said in a statement on Twitter. He provided no further details. An Iraqi military statement said three Katyusha rockets had hit the fortified Green Zone which hosts the U.S. Embassy, other foreign missions and Iraqi government buildings. It said a fourth hit a nearby logistics base for Iraqi paramilitary groups. Iraq, caught between its two allies Washington and Tehran, also faces an unprecedented domestic crisis as months of anti-government unrest continues. Protesters, whose numbers have reduced from the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets in October, are still demanding the overhaul of Iraq s political system and ruling elite which they say are corrupt. Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi said on Saturday that the formation of a new government would take place in the coming week. He said his appointments would consist of independent ministers free from the influence of parties, including Iran-backed Shi ite groups, that have controlled cabinet posts and state institutions since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

The UN Security Council endorsed a 55-point road map for ending the war in Libya on Wednesday and condemned the recent increase in violence in the oil-rich North African country. The vote on the British-drafted resolution was 14-0, with Russia abstaining even though Russian President Vladimir Putin was one of the 12 leaders who agreed to the plan at a conference in Berlin on Jan. 19. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he abstained because the government has ``serious doubts about whether the resolution can be implemented and end the war between rival governments ``in the way we d like to see it.`` He said the Berlin plan ``has one defect ... and that is a lack of clearly expressed consent from the Libyan sides themselves. ``Events will show us who was right, Nebenzia said. ``And if the resolution will have a positive impact in resolving the conflict, I will be the first to acknowledge I was wrong.`` British Ambassador Karen Pierce countered that ``the resolution is viable, saying all it does ``is give concrete expression to the commitments that leaders adopted at Berlin _ and that included adoption by President Putin. ``We all want to see it implemented, she said. ``But it will be up to the parties on the ground and their foreign backers as to whether or not it gets implemented. So to the Russians and the others who have very close interests in Libya, I would think the remedy is in their hands. Libya has been in turmoil since 2011, when a civil war toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. In the chaos that followed the country was divided A weak administration that holds the capital of Tripoli and parts of the country s west is backed by Turkey, which recently sent thousands of soldiers to Libya, and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy. On the other side is a rival government in the east that supports the National Libyan Army s commander Khalifa Hafter, whose forces launched an offensive to capture the capital last April and are backed by the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as well as France and Russia. Acting US deputy ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet told the council after the vote that it s ``very unfortunate that foreign mercenaries, including from the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, are making an inclusive political solution harder to achieve and making it harder for the two sides to get together. The resolution demands that all countries refrain from interfering in Libya s conflict and its internal affairs and observe a UN arms embargo, ``including by ceasing all support for and withdrawing all armed mercenary personnel. Russia sought unsuccessfully to change references to growing involvement of mercenaries in the initial draft to ``foreign terrorist fighters. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that the Berlin agreement has been repeatedly violated by continuing arms deliveries to the warring parties and escalating fighting. He called the current offensives by rival forces ``a scandal, saying the commitments ``apparently were made without a true intention of respecting them. The resolution welcomes last week s cease-fire talks between Libya s warring sides in Geneva and calls for their continuation ``without further delay in order to agree a permanent cease-fire. It asks Guterres to submit his views on conditions for a cease-fire and proposals for effective monitoring of a truce, with a view to making detailed recommendations when a cease-fire is announced. The African Union, European Union and Arab League have been mentioned as possible participants in cease-fire monitoring along with the UN. Germany s deputy ambassador, Juergen Schulz, said the council was sending ``an important signal for peace in Libya, reaffirming the concrete commitments of all the participants of the Berlin conference. He welcomed the timing _ ahead of a Feb. 16 follow-up ministerial meeting of Berlin conference participants on the sidelines of the Munich security conference. ``The swift implementation of the Berlin conclusions is now crucial in light of the ongoing violations of international humanitarian law and reports of mounting civilian casualties, Schulz said. The resolution threatens sanctions against those supporting acts that threaten peace which Schulz said demonstrates the council s ``resolve to hold violators accountable. South African Ambassador Jerry Matjila, whose country chairs the African Union, stressed Libya s roots in Africa, saying the arms embargo must be observed to prevent the conflict spilling into the Sahel. ``The African Union has been very ready to play a central role, including the issue of monitoring of peace, he said. ``The road ahead is going to be very, very difficult, long. So it really needs all hands on deck, and you couldn t do that without African hands.

Government forces seized control of a highway in northwest Syria for the first time since 2012 on Tuesday as they pressed their campaign to eradicate the last rebel strongholds in Idlib province and the Aleppo countryside, a war monitor said. In Ankara, talks between Turkey and Russia ended without agreement on stopping clashes in which 13 Turkish soldiers have been killed in Syria in one week. Relief agencies meanwhile said an exodus of hundreds of thousands of civilians from the afflicted areas was the largest such movement in nine years of war and a new humanitarian crisis was unfolding. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces had seized the entire length of the M5 highway after driving rebels from their last foothold on the road. The M5 runs from Aleppo in the north to the capital Damascus then on to southern Deraa. They took control of the highway after capturing a western suburb of Aleppo from insurgents. The latest advances by President Bashar al-Assad s Russian and Iranian-backed troops came after 13 Turkish soldiers were killed in the Idlib region in the past week, prompting some of the most serious confrontations between Ankara and Damascus of the war. Ankara deployed thousands of soldiers to stem the Syrian offensive. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels downed a helicopter believed to belong to the Syrian government in the town of Nairab, Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber reported on Tuesday. Since the new push began, government forces have recaptured more than 600 square km of territory and in recent days have taken control of dozens of towns and villages. Last week they recaptured the crossroads town of Saraqeb, on the M5. Turkey has several military personnel stationed there to prevent further Syrian advances after eight of its soldiers were killed by Syrian shelling. A Russian delegation arrived in Ankara on Saturday days after the attack to hold talks aimed at stopping clashes. On their final day of talks, a second Syrian attack on Turkish troops in the Taftanaz area killed five more troops. Ankara has said that it retaliated to both attacks, destroying several Syrian targets. It said would drive back Assad s forces unless they withdraw by the end of the month. It also told the Russian team that attacks against Turkish posts must stop immediately. The Russians left Turkey after talks ended on Monday, a Turkish diplomatic source said, with no apparent agreement. The Kremlin said on Tuesday all attacks on Russian and Syrian forces in Idlib had to stop. AIR RAIDS Rescue teams in the region said Russian and Syrian war planes bombed several towns in Idlib, with most air raids on towns in western Aleppo, including a residential area in the city of Daraat Izza. At least 13 civilians were killed overnight in the air strikes, they said. The rapid advances by Assad s forces in Idlib have driven nearly 700,000 people from their homes towards the closed-off Turkish border in the past 10 weeks. Most of those displaced are women and children. "This is, from our initial analysis, the largest number of people in a single period since the Syrian crisis began almost nine years ago," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations OCHA humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva. "So it s the fastest growing displacement we have ever seen in the country. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Andrej Mahecic said the harsh winter weather was making their suffering worse and shelter was hard to find. "Even finding a place in an unfinished building is becoming nearly impossible," he said, adding that mosques were full. Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says it cannot absorb any more. It said it will halt new migrant waves from Idlib and its military will remain there. One Turkish politician urged President Tayyip Erdogan to go further. "There will be no peace in Turkey until Assad is brought down from his throne. Turkey must start plans to enter Damascus now, and annihilate the cruel ones," said Devlet Bahceli, chairman of Erdogan s nationalist partner party. Witnesses and rebels said on Tuesday a new column of Turkish reinforcements, including tanks, rocket launchers and armoured vehicles, crossed the border into Idlib overnight. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have also begun an new offensive against the government forces near army-controlled Saraqeb and Nairab to push troops away from Idlib city, where more than one million people live. The battle for Idlib is a crucial stage of a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians, made millions refugees in their own country or overseas, and fractured the wider Middle East since it broke out amid the Arab Spring in 2011. Forces arrayed against Assad, Syria s ruler for nearly 20 years, have failed to dislodge him but he now presides over a devastated country. Moscow s military intervention in 2015 helped swing the war decisively in Assad s favour. Despite being on opposing sides, Turkey and Russia collaborate for a political solution to the conflict.

Clashes broke out Tuesday between Lebanese protesters and security forces near the parliament building in central Beirut, where the new Cabinet is scheduled to submit its policy statement ahead of a vote of confidence. The meeting is being held amid a crippling economic and financial crisis, Lebanon s worst in decades. Police threw a tight security dragnet around the area, and special forces and riot policemen quickly opened roads that were closed by protesters trying to prevent Cabinet ministers and legislators from reaching parliament. ``No confidence,`` chanted some of the protesters. The meeting is scheduled to begin before noon and last until Wednesday. Lebanon has been gripped by anti-government protests since October. Demonstrators are calling for sweeping reforms and an end to a political class they deem as corrupt and incompetent, blaming it for the rapidly worsening financial crisis. The protests forced the resignation of the former prime minister, Saad Hariri. New Prime Minister Hassan Diab is expected to read new government s policy statement, which includes a rescue plan to try get Lebanon out of its economic and financial crisis, the worst since the end of the country s 1975-90 civil war. A group of protesters surrounded the car of one Cabinet minister, Demianos Kattar, as he was on his way to the nearby government headquarters, pelting it with eggs pounding it with their fists before an army and police force pushed them away. Security forces fired tear gas in another street leading to parliament, where protesters were able to remove part of a giant concrete wall. In other streets, troops forced protesters from the middle of the street to allow traffic to flow. According to a copy of the government policy statement published by local media, it includes an ``emergency rescue plan`` and reforms in the judicial, financial and administrative fields, as well as fighting corruption and fixing the country s finances. Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, standing at more than 150 of the GDP and worsening over the past years with no economic growth and high unemployment.

Chancellor Angela Merkel s center-right party plunged deeper into crisis Monday following a debacle in a regional election, as the long-time German leader s successor unexpectedly announced that she wouldn t stand for the chancellorship. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer informed leading members of Merkel s Christian Democratic Union that she will begin the process of organizing a leadership contest in the summer. Germany is scheduled to hold its next general election in the fall of 2021 and the 65-year-old Merkel, who has led Germany for 15 years, said two years ago that she won t run for a fifth term as chancellor. The move throws German politics into further turmoil, days after Merkel s party was heavily criticized for its handling of a vote for governor in the state of Thuringia that saw both the Christian Democrats and the far-right Alternative for Germany party back a centrist candidate. The vote broke what is widely regarded as a taboo around German political parties cooperating with extremist parties. Kramp-Karrenbauer, often referred to by the acronym AKK, took over the leadership of the Christian Democrats in December 2018 after beating out Health Minister Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz, a former party veteran sidelined by Merkel before she became chancellor in 2005. Yet Kramp-Karrenbauer, 57, who is also Germany s defense minister, has struggled to boost the party s declining election results amid a stiff challenge from the far-right. The fiasco in Thuringia state further highlighted tensions in the center-right Christian Democrats after the party s regional lawmakers ignored a recommendation from Berlin not to back a centrist candidate against the left-wing incumbent. It was unclear how the latest development would affect Merkel s earlier plans for her succession. Among the names currently being bandied around as possible party leaders are Spahn, Merz and Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany s most populous state. Spahn and Laschet are considered centrists in the Merkel tradition, whereas Merz has tried to appeal to the conservative wing of the party that has flirted with the far-right Alternative for Germany.