ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A car bomb killed a dozen people and injured 30 on Saturday in a market of a Syrian border town that Turkish-backed forces seized last month, prompting Ankara to blame the Kurdish YPG militia it had targeted in its incursion. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said pro-Turkey fighters and civilians were among the dead and injured in Tel Abyad. Turkey s state-owned Anadolu Agency said 13 were killed after a “bomb-laden vehicle” exploded. Tel Abyad is one of two major border towns that saw the heaviest fighting when Ankara launched the incursion on Oct. 9 against the Syrian Kurdish YPG that drew international condemnation. The YPG had for years been allied to the United States in the fight against Islamic State. The explosion comes after two weeks of relative calm in northeastern Syria, and a day after Turkish and Russian troops began joint ground patrols under a deal between the two countries that pushed the YPG from Turkey s border. While Moscow has said the YPG have withdrawn to at least 30 km (18 miles) from the border under the deal, Ankara has been skeptical and held out the possibility of new attacks if members of what it sees as a terrorist group remain. “We condemn this inhuman attack of the bloody PKK/YPG terrorists who attacked the innocent civilians of Tel Abyad who returned to their homes and lands as a result of the Operation Peace Spring,” Turkey s defense ministry said on Twitter. Turkey s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also pointed the finger at the YPG. A spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the YPG, was not immediately available for comment. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), based in Turkey, is designated a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its ties to PKK Kurdish militants in southeast Turkey. Days after President Donald Trump s abrupt decision on Oct. 6 to pull out U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, Turkey and allied Syrian rebels launched a cross-border offensive and seized control of Tel Abyad and some 120 km (75 miles) of land along the frontier. Ceasefire deals Ankara struck first with Washington and then with Moscow halted fighting in recent weeks. The UK-based Observatory has said some 300,000 people have been displaced by the offensive and 120 civilians killed. The incursion, which was condemned by scores of countries in the West and the Middle East, left the Turkey-backed rebel Syrian National Army largely in control of Tel Abyad. Turkey s defense ministry published photographs of concrete and debris piled on a street in the town. Anadolu said some of those wounded in the blast were being treated in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa 55 km to the north. On Wednesday, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had information that the YPG had not completed its pullout from the border region. He has warned that Turkey reserves the right to resume attacks. Russia is the Syrian government s most powerful ally and helped it turn the tables in the country s eight-and-half-year civil war by retaking much of the country from rebels since 2015. The Turkish-Russian deal last week allowed Syrian government forces to move back into border regions from which they had been absent for years.

BEIRUT (AP) — A car bomb killed at least eight people on Thursday in a vegetable market in a northern region of Syria held by Turkish-led forces. Turkey s official Anadolu news agency said another 14 people were wounded in the attack. It said the explosives were packed into a refrigerator truck. Turkish-led forces captured Afrin from Syrian Kurdish fighters early last year. The area is controlled by Syrian fighters allied with Turkey, who have been accused by rights groups of seizing land and property. The area sees sporadic attacks and other violence. Syria s state-run SANA news agency also reported the attack, saying nine people were killed and 20 wounded. It said the blast ignited a nearby patrol station and caused damage to surrounding homes and shops. No one has claimed the attack. Turkey launched another cross-border operation earlier this month, invading northeastern Syria to push out Syrian Kurdish fighters who had partnered with U.S. forces against the Islamic State group. The invasion came after President Donald Trump ordered American forces to step aside. Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an extension of the decades-long Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

BEIRUT (AP) — The resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday meets a key demand of Lebanon s anti-government protesters but will also plunge the country into even greater uncertainty, with no clear path to resolving its growing economic and political crisis. THE BACKGROUND The political settlement that ended Lebanon s 1975-1990 civil war distributes power and top offices among the country s Shiites, Sunnis and Christians. The complex sectarian system has mostly kept the peace, but it has made major decisions extremely difficult and contributed to long periods of political gridlock. The Western-backed Hariri had served in a national unity government dominated by rival factions allied with the militant Hezbollah group, whose supporters attacked the main protest camp on Tuesday. He had proposed the creation of an emergency Cabinet made up of a small group of technocrats to steer the country toward necessary reforms, but his governing partners refused. A point of dispute emerged over Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, the son-in-law of President Michel Aoun. The protesters have trained much of their vitriol on the two men, who are allied with Hezbollah, but Aoun has reportedly insisted on remaining in office and keeping Bassil in his post. Hezbollah, which has three ministers in the government, has stuck by its allies and was opposed to Hariri s decision to resign. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT If he accepts his resignation, Aoun will task the now-resigned government to continue in a caretaker capacity. Under the constitution, he then has to hold binding consultations with the heads of parliamentary blocs to ask them for their choice of a new prime minister. He could then appoint Hariri or another individual from the Sunni community to form a government. In Lebanon s system, the presidency is reserved for a Christian, the prime minister is Sunni and the parliament speaker is Shiite. Aoun has the right in principle to reject Hariri s resignation, but he could then refuse to call for Cabinet meetings. The process of forming a new Lebanese government typically takes several months. It took Lebanon s factions 2 ½ years to agree on the current president, and it took nine months to form Hariri s now-embattled government. This time, however, the country is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has only worsened since the protests began, with banks, schools and businesses having been closed for two weeks. ROCKY PATH AHEAD Political tensions also are rising after Tuesday s clashes. “In this context, it is incredibly difficult to see them agreeing on any one new name,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. That would leave Hariri in place as head of a caretaker government. “His capacity to address the economic crisis and possible economic and financial collapse will be curtailed even more,” Yahya said. “A devaluation of the Lebanese pound will likely lead to even more social unrest and turbulence on the street.” The protesters have adamantly rejected the entire political class, calling for overthrow of the postwar regime. Acquiescing to those demands would essentially require those who have led the country for three decades to legislate themselves out of existence. The leaders reject that.

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of Lebanese supporters of the militant Hezbollah group, some wielding sticks, attacked a protest camp set up by anti-government demonstrators in central Beirut, burning some of its tents and dismantling others Tuesday. The violence came shortly after dozens of other Hezbollah supporters, also wielding sticks, attacked a roadblock set up by the protesters on a main thoroughfare in the capital. The violence comes on the 13th day of Lebanon s anti-government protests, which have been an unprecedented expression of anger that s united millions of Lebanese against what demonstrators say is a corrupt and inefficient political class in power for decades since the 1975-1990 civil war. But in recent days, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah grew critical of the protests, claiming they have been backed and financed by foreign powers and rival political groups. He called on his supporters to leave the rallies, and urged the protesters on Friday to remove the roadblocks. The mass rallies have paralyzed a country already grappling with a severe fiscal crisis. Hezbollah and its allies dominate the current government and is the country s most powerful organization, building its credibility on its resistance to Israel s years-long occupation of parts of Lebanon. The riot police and military first moved in Tuesday trying to separate the rival groups, but the security forces failed to stop the storming of Martyrs square, where anti-government protesters have held their ground since Oct. 17. The protesters are calling on the government to step down, holding rallies in public squares and promoting a civil disobedience campaign that include blocking main roads. At the Beirut roadblock, the angry crowd swelled by early afternoon, some using sticks to chase protesters away. Some of the men also attacked journalists, kicking them and attempting to smash their cameras. Many among the angry mob chanted: “God, Nasrallah, and the whole Dahiyeh,” in reference to the southern suburb that is a stronghold of the Iranian-backed militant group. Others told TV crews that they were upset at the roadblocks and insults to their leader. Then they marched to the central square, tearing down tents, smashing plastic chairs and using metal poles to poke holes in the tents, which they later burned. They also beat some anti-government protesters. One TV presenter described it as “a war scene.” In his speech on Friday, Nasrallah evoked the specter of new civil war like the one that ended in 1990, saying “someone is trying to pull it … toward a civil war.” It was seen a precursor to the confrontation Tuesday.

Egypt welcomed on Monday the announcement that the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was killed in a US military operation‎, saying that this "represents an ‎important step in the quest to eradicate terrorism.‎" ‎ On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced that Al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US Special Forces in northwest Syria, ‎in a major blow to the jihadist group.‎ Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said in an official statement ‎that "this development should be followed up with continued concerted international efforts ‎and unified action to counter terrorism in all its forms and manifestations with no ‎discrimination, since all takfiri terrorist organisations like the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and the Muslim ‎Brotherhood emanate from the same extremist ideological source.” Hafez also stressed that the world needs to tackle terrorism “from a ‎comprehensive perspective that takes into account the security and development facets, ‎as well as ideological confrontation in order to refute the misinterpretations of religious texts ‎promoted by terrorist groups.”‎ The spokesman also stressed that Egypt continues to urge the international community to hold accountable the countries ‎that play a negative role in inciting and supporting terrorism through financing, providing ‎safe havens, and facilitating the mobility of terrorist elements, and which provide various ‎platforms for spreading terrorist and extremist ideologies, which leads to destabilising the ‎region and the world. ‎ Baghdadi had been a target of US and regional security forces since he declared the formation of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in July 2014.

Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, inaugurated on Saturday the Church of St Demiana and Martyr Abanoub in the Austrian capital Vienna. The church is located in the 21st district of Vienna. The inauguration came during the Pope s pastoral visits to the dioceses of St Mark in Europe. On Wednesday, Pope Tawadros met with the Egyptian Ambassador to Austria Amr Amer. The Pope started his European tour on 9 October by visiting the French capital where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The Pope inaugurated another Coptic church, Saint Mary and Mar Youhanna Church, in Antwerp, Belgium, on 17 October.

Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria left several positions along the long border with Turkey Thursday, complying with a deal that sees Damascus, Ankara and Moscow carve up their now-defunct autonomous region. Russian forces have started patrols along the flashpoint border, filling the vacuum left by a US troop withdrawal that effectively handed back a third of the country to the Moscow-backed regime of President Bashar al-Assad. US President Donald Trump has praised the agreement reached in Sochi by Turkey and Russia and rejoiced that US personnel were leaving the “long blood-stained sand” of Syria, leaving just a residual contingent behind “where they have the oil”. The deal signed in the Black Sea resort by Syria s two main foreign brokers gives Kurdish forces until Tuesday to withdraw to a line 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces had pulled out of some areas at the eastern end of the border on Thursday. “The SDF have withdrawn from positions between Derbasiyeh and Amuda in the Hasakeh countryside,” Britain-based war monitor s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said. Fighters of the Kurdish People s Protection Units (YPG) — the main component of the SDF — remained in many positions along the 440 kilometer (275 mile) border, he added. The Observatory also reported clashes near the town of Tal Tamr between SDF fighters and some of the Syrian former rebels paid by Turkey to fight ground battles. Displacement Russian and Syrian government forces were deploying across the Kurdish heartland where they are tasked with assisting “the removal of YPG elements and their weapons”. Kurdish forces had already vacated a 120-kilometer segment of the border strip — an Arab-majority area between the towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad. The SDF withdrawal from that area came after Turkey and its Syrian proxies launched their deadly cross-border offensive on October 9. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is embattled on the domestic political front, hopes to use the pocket to resettle at least half of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees his country hosts. Under the Sochi deal, the area will remain under the full control of Turkey, unlike the rest of the projected buffer zone which will eventually be jointly patrolled by Turkey and Russia. Some 300,000 people have fled their homes since the start of the Turkish offensive and the Kurds among them seem unlikely to return. US forces pulled back from the border area earlier this month, in a move the Kurds saw as a betrayal but which Trump had announced last year. The autonomous Kurdish administration in Syria had hoped that the sacrifices made in the name of the international community to help crush the Islamic State group s “caliphate” would pay off. But Trump has been keen to keep a promise to remove his troops from Syria, where IS s “caliphate” was eliminated in March but where conflict continues. “Let someone else fight over this long blood-stained sand,” he said in a White House speech on Wednesday. Oil wells That “someone” is undoubtedly Russia, whose status as the main foreign power in Syria is now undisputed, to Assad s great benefit. “Assad is getting back a third of Syria s territory without firing a shot,” geographer and Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche said. Some US forces remain in eastern districts of Syria, where government forces have been deploying but have not yet re-established full control. “We have secured the oil and, therefore, a small number of US troops will remain in the area where they have the oil,” Trump said on Wednesday. The government is keen to reclaim the northeast, which is home to the country s main oilfields and some of its most fertile farmland. Left in the lurch by the US redeployment, the Kurdish forces seemed to retain some faith in Washington, which still has a huge military presence elsewhere in the Middle East. Trump said SDF chief Mazloum Abdi was “extremely thankful” but the Kurds now have to negotiate their future with the area s new Russian masters.

More than 100 prisoners of the Islamic State extremist movement have escaped in Syria in the chaos since Turkey s incursion, a senior US official said Wednesday. "We would say the number is now over 100. We do not know where they are," James Jeffrey, the State Department pointman on Syria, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee when asked about the detainees

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the situation in Syria following the Turkish invasion earlier this month into the country s north (all times local): 3:10 p.m. Syrian President Bashar Assad says he is ready to support any “popular resistance” against Turkey s invasion of northeastern Syria. The Syrian government has agreed, after Russia mediation, to deploy in areas Kurdish-led forces control in northeastern Syria after U.S troops withdrew. The U.S. withdrawal had opened the door for Turkey s offensive earlier this month. Syria s troop deployment sets up a potential wider conflict between Turkey and Syrian government forces. But Russia, Assad s ally, is currently hosting negotiations with Turkey about arrangements along the border. Assad says he has offered clemency to those who had joined the Kurdish-led forces, which his government considers secessionists. Assad spoke Tuesday while visiting troops in another part of Syria. This is his first tour of areas in the northwestern province of Idlib that were recaptured from opposition fighters. The majority of Idlib remains in the hands of Turkey-backed opposition fighters and jihadi groups. 2 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sat down in Sochi with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks on Syria. Putin welcomed the Turkish leader in the Black Sea resort on Tuesday, saying their meeting is very important in the current tense situation in Syria. He noted that a high level of Russia-Turkey cooperation should help find solutions for the complex issues. Turkey invaded northeastern Syria earlier his month in an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters following the U.S. decision to pull out its troops from the area. Seeking protection, the Kurds have reached out to the Syrian government and its main ally Russia. The Syrian army has advanced closer to the border and Russia also deployed its troops in some areas to act as a buffer force. Erdogan said the meeting with Putin will “create the opportunity to discuss peace in a strong manner.” 1:25 p.m. The Kremlin says Turkey needs the Syrian government s permission for the deployment of its forces on Syrian territory, indicating Moscow is hoping for Ankara-Damascus talks amid the Turkish invasion into northeastern Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized that only Damascus could authorize a legitimate presence of Turkish troops on the territory of Syria. Ankara has so far rejected any notion of direct Turkey-Syria talks about its actions. Peskov spoke just ahead of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s visit to Russia on Tuesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He wouldn t say if Putin-Erdogan talks in Sochi could lead to an extension of the 120-hour cease-fire that ends Tuesday, saying it would be up to Turkey to decide. He noted that Russia acknowledges Turkey s right to secure its border but added that it expects the Turkish offensive in Syria to be “proportionate” to that goal. 1:10 p.m. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he may meet with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in London in December, to discuss Turkey s incursion into northeast Syria. The comments on Tuesday came as Germany s defense minister proposed the establishment of an internationally controlled security zone in Syria and European Council President Donald Tusk called on Erdogan to pull his troops out of the region. Erdogan did not respond to those statements but renewed a call on European nations to support Turkey s efforts to help resettle up to 2 million Syrian refugees in a proposed “safe zone” in Syria s northeast. Erdogan also slammed Iran after officials there denounced as “unacceptable” Turkey s plans to establish military observation posts in Syria. He recalled the strong support Turkey gave Iran during its standoff with the United States over its nuclear program, as well as Turkey s partnership with Iran and Russia to end the conflict in Syria. Erdogan says what Iran “did is wrong” and that he condemns it “strongly.” 12:20 p.m. Syrian president Bashar Assad has slammed Turkey s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a “thief” as he made his first visit to areas in Idlib province recently retaken by Syrian government forces from Turkey-backed rebels. Syrian state media showed images of Assad on Tuesday standing among Syrian soldiers in what the report said was strategic southern Idlib territory. The media quoted Assad as calling Erdogan a “thief who robbed factories, wheat and fuel and is today stealing territory” — apparently referring to Turkey s invasion this month into northeastern Syria to push out Syrian Kurdish fighters. Turkey has also carried out other incursions into Syria and controls territory east of Idlib. It also has observation points inside Idlib, negotiated with Russia, to monitor a cease-fire there between the government and opposition fighters and jihadi groups. 11:40 a.m. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says up to 1,300 Syrian Kurdish fighters have yet to vacate areas in northeastern Syria as a Turkish-U.S. cease-fire agreement is running out. Erdogan spoke to reporters before traveling to Russia on Tuesday. He says up to 800 Syrian Kurdish fighters have already left under the deal that brought a five-day pause in fighting following Turkey s incursion into northeast Syrian to drive the Kurdish militiamen away from its border areas. Erdogan renewed threats to resume fighting “with more determination” if the Syrian Kurds don t depart before the deadline runs out at 10:00 p.m. Erdogan is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, for talks expected to focus on border areas that are currently held by Syrian government forces. 11:30 a.m. European Council President Donald Tusk is condemning Turkey s invasion of northern Syria and is calling on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pull his troops out of the region. Tusk told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, on Tuesday that “no one is fooled by the so-called cease-fire” agreement made last week by the U.S. and Turkey. Turkey expects the Syrian Kurdish fighters to pull back from a border area. Tusk says that Turkey, which is a candidate for EU membership, “needs to end its military action permanently, withdraw its forces and respect international humanitarian law.” He says that “any other course means unacceptable suffering, a victory for Daesh, and a serious threat to European security.” 11:10 a.m. Iraq s military says U.S. troops leaving Syria and heading to neighboring Iraq do not have permission to stay in the country. Tuesday s statement says that American troops currently withdrawing from Syria have acquired permission from the Iraqi Kurdish regional government to enter Iraq to later be transferred out of the country. It added that these troops do not have any approval to stay in Iraq. The statement appears to contradict U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper who has said that under the current plan, all U.S. troops leaving Syria will go to western Iraq and the military will continue to conduct operations against the Islamic State group to prevent its resurgence. Esper said he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more than 700 troops leaving Syria into western Iraq. 10:40 a.m. Germany s defense minister has proposed the establishment of an internationally controlled security zone in Syria. The proposal comes as Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters invaded northern Syria earlier this month, after President Donald Trump pulled back American troops who had partnered with Syrian Kurdish forces in the years-long war against the Islamic State group. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told German news agency dpa on Tuesday that “the creation of an internationally controlled security zone with the inclusion of Turkey and Russia” would have the goal of deescalating the situation in northern Syria. Kramp-Karrenbauer said the German parliament would need to decide on whether German troops could participate in such a zone. She also told broadcaster Deutsche Welle that Chancellor Angela Merkel had been informed of the proposal.

BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on Lebanon s anti-government protests (all times local): 4:10 p.m. Lebanon s Cabinet has approved sweeping reforms that it hopes will appease hundreds of thousands of people who have been protesting for days, calling on Prime Minister Saad Hariri s government to resign. Hariri told reporters after an emergency government meeting Monday that Cabinet approved the 2020 budget with a deficit of 0.6% with no new taxes. He said that the salaries of top officials, including legislators and members of parliament, will be cut in half as part of an economic reform package. Hariri added that the country s central bank and the banking sector, which are flush with cash, will help in reducing the deficit by about 3.4 billion. The Cabinet also approved abolishing several state institutions, including the Ministry of Information. The government will also give millions of dollars to families living in poverty as well as $160 million as housing loans. Hariri described the measures as a “financial coup.” 10:25 a.m. Protesters have closed major roads around Lebanon ahead of an emergency Cabinet meeting to discuss a rescue plan for the country s crumbling economy. On Monday morning, demonstrators placed barriers on major intersections in Beirut as well as other cities and towns marking the fifth day of protests triggered by proposed new taxes. Hundreds of thousands participated in Sunday s mass protests that were the largest since 2005. Prime Minister Saad Hariri will put forward a reform plan during the morning government meeting at the presidential palace in Beirut s southeastern suburb of Baabda. Many protesters say they don t trust any plan by the current government. They ve called on the 30-member Cabinet to resign and be replaced by a smaller one made up of technocrats instead of members of political factions.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Protesters in Lebanon returned to the streets early on Sunday, keeping pressure on Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri as a self-imposed deadline to deliver a package of badly needed reforms for the country s crumbling economy drew near. Anti-government protests that have swept the country since Thursday have pulled together all segments of Lebanese society in an unusually unified call for the downfall of a political elite that protesters blame for plunging the economy into crisis. Young protesters carrying rubbish bags arrived early in central Beirut on Sunday to clean debris left from festive demonstrations the day before, while groups of marchers with drums and loudspeakers returned to keep momentum. “I didn t expect people from the country s north, south and Beirut to join hands and like each other. The protests have brought together everyone and this has never happened before,” said Sahar Younis, a 32-year-old worker with a non-governmental organization. Hariri gave his feuding coalition partners a 72-hour deadline on Friday to agree to reforms that could ward off economic crisis, hinting he may otherwise resign. He accused his rivals of obstructing budget measures that could unlock US$11 billion in Western donor pledges and help avert economic collapse. If Hariri, a Sunni Muslim who is traditionally backed by the West and Sunni Gulf Arab allies, resigns it would be harder for the various parties that make up the ruling coalition to form a new cabinet. A new cabinet would also likely see the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies more in control, a shift that would make it nearly impossible for international donors or Gulf Arab countries at odds with Iran to offer aid or investments. Government sources said Hariri was waiting for his coalition to get on board with the economic proposals, which include taxes on banks and a plan to overhaul the country s costly and crumbling state electricity utility. Late on Saturday the Maronite Christian Lebanese Forces party announced it would withdraw its four ministers from the government, piling further pressure on Hariri as he seeks to pass a budget that his government has pledged would include no new taxes. The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced that all banks would be closed on Monday because of the unrest. “We want to stay in Lebanon to build our future but if these corrupt politicians stay here what future will be left for us?” said 17-year-old student Cherbel Anton. HEZBOLLAH SUPPORT Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has thrown his powerful Shia group s weight behind the current government, saying the country s deep economic crisis means precious time should not be wasted forming a new one. Nasrallah said on Saturday that imposing more taxes on people could lead to an “explosion” of unrest. “If we don t work toward a solution we re heading toward a collapse of the country, it will be bankrupt and our currency will not have any value,” he said. “The second danger is a popular explosion as a result of wrong handling of the situation.” The budget could help one of the world s most indebted countries unlock some $11 billion that was pledged by international donors last year but is conditional on long-delayed reforms to curb waste and corruption. The mounting unrest was triggered in part by a proposed fee on WhatsApp calls, a measure which was quickly scrapped but that was seen by many as the latest government attempt to squeeze citizens receiving little in return from the state.

The embattled Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria on Thursday accused Turkey of resorting to banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus munitions. The use of such weapons since the start of the cross-border assault by Turkey and its Syrian proxies could not immediately be confirmed independently.

Egyptian Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, began a multi-day visit to Belgium on Tuesday, where he is due to open a Coptic church. This is the second stop for the pope in a weeks-long euro trip of pastoral duties that he began last week with a visit to Paris. During his visit, which lasts for three days, the pontiff is due to open two churches including a Coptic Orthodox church in the port city of Antwerp and another church in the eastern city of Leuven, a statement by Egypt s foreign ministry said. The pope is scheduled to meet with a number of Belgian government officials to express thanks for the country s recognition of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church among its authorised churches. On Tuesday, Pope Tawadros II visited the European Parliament in the Belgian capital Brussels, where he met with the head of the European People s Party (EPP) Manfred Weber and leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats parliamentary group Iratxe Garcia. He also met with the EPP Working Group on Intercultural and Religious Dialogue.

Kurdish forces held out in a key border town Tuesday seven days into a deadly Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria that has caused mass displacement and reshaped the political map. The United States slapped sanctions on its NATO ally in a bid to stop an assault that its own troop withdrawal from the area triggered but Ankara showed no sign of relenting. Using a dense network of tunnels, berms and trenches, Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been mounting a desperate defence of Ras al-Ain. They launched “a large counterattack against Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies near Ras al-Ain,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Since launching their assault on October 9, Turkish-backed forces have secured more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) of border, but Ras al-Ain, which the Kurds call Siri Kani, has held out. An AFP correspondent in the area said clashes around the town continued on Tuesday, despite repeated claims by Ankara in recent days that it had captured the area. Further west, SDF fighters have been battling Turkey s Syrian proxies — mostly former rebels paid and equipped by Ankara — around the flashpoint town of Manbij. US President Donald Trump announced a pullback from the border last week, a move which was widely interpreted as green-lighting a long-planned Turkish invasion. Politically embattled at home, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to create a 30 kilometre (20 mile) deep buffer zone on the Syrian side of the long border. Sanctions He wants to keep the SDF at bay — Ankara considers them a terrorist group because of their links with the main Kurdish insurgency in Turkey — and create a resettlement area for some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently on Turkish soil. The offensive has left dozens of civilians dead, mostly on the Kurdish side, and displaced at least 160,000 people. Trump, who is campaigning for re-election but faces impeachment, is keen to deliver on a promise of pulling US troops out of the Syria quagmire. More than 1,000 troops are now being withdrawn from northern Syria and the United States will keep only a residual contingent of some 150 troops in the south at the Al-Tanf base near the borders with Jordan and Iraq. US Vice President Mike Pence said Monday he would travel to Turkey soon and added that Trump had asked Erdogan to stop the offensive. In a bid to force Turkey s hand, Washington slapped sanctions on its defence, interior and energy ministers, freezing their US assets and making US transactions with them a crime. “I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey s economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path,” said Trump, who until recently had touted his friendship with Erdogan. Abandoned by the US, their chief ally in years of battles against the Islamic State group that cost the lives of 11,000 of their fighters, the Kurds turned to Damascus. Syrian government forces rushed north on Monday as part of a Russian-brokered deal aimed at preventing Turkish-backed forces from moving any deeper into the country. Transfers to Iraq? European governments in particular are worried that the chaos in the area could lead to mass breakouts by thousands of IS fighters detained by Kurdish forces. They have warned this would lead to a resurgence of the jihadist organization, only months after the demise of its so-called “caliphate”. It would also increase the risk that some of them might find their way back to Europe to plan and conduct high-profile terror attacks. “The United States decision to withdraw from Syria has emboldened jihadists worldwide. The return of the Islamic State is now a given,” the Institute for the Study of War said in a brief. The SDF have warned that their fighters were mobilized to defend against the Turkish advance and not available to fully guard IS prisoners. That has already resulted in the escape of hundreds of foreign fighters relatives, although Trump suggested the SDF may have deliberately let them go to gain leverage. Human Rights Watch warned European countries against attempts to have their detained nationals transferred en masse to Iraq for prosecution. The watchdog warned it would be illegal for these countries to send nationals to stand trial in a country where they risk execution and where due process is consistently violated. A European diplomatic source said France was discussing a transfer with Iraqi officials on Tuesday.

Egypt s civil defence forces have managed to contain a huge blaze that broke out on Sunday night at a Coptic church in South Cairo, with no casualties reported. The fire broke out Sunday evening at the Mar Guirgis Orthodox Church in Helwan. The civil defence forces deployed 13 fire engines to contain the blaze that engulfed the old church, which is built largely of wood. A source at the Cairo security directorate told Al-Ahram Arabic news website that investigations are underway to determine the cause of the fire. Originally built and owned by Armenian Orthodox Church , it was bought by the Coptic Orthodox Church in the 1970s.

South Sinai governorate organised the fifth St Catherine forum on religious tolerance, "Here We Pray Together," on 10-12 October. Governor of South Sinai Khaled Fouda received the ministers of tourism, antiquities, culture, religious endowments, immigration, supply, local development, youth who attended the forum. Thirty-two ambassadors attended the forum, including the ambassadors of Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Finland, Switzerland, EU, Georgia, Colombia, Japan, Poland, Austria, Serbia, France, Belgium, Armenia, Malta, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, Oman, Czech Republic and Tajikistan. this year. He added that St Catherine has seen remarkable development in its infrastructure lately, as well as development in the tourism sector, especially religious tourism. Endowments Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa delivered the Friday sermon at El-Wadi El-Moqaddas Mosque in South Sinai, while Christians held mass at Saint Catherine s Monastery at the same time. Later on the same day, Gomaa participated with the other ministers in laying the foundation stone for El-Wadi El-Muqaddas Great Mosque. Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat said the forum s slogan "Here We Pray Together" aimed at building bridges between people, and that it was one of the key elements in the promotional programme of Egypt tourism, "People 2 People," which invited the world to get to know the Egyptian people, and to fully live the Egyptian experience. Minister of Culture Ines Abdel-Dayem also opened on Friday the rest house of the former president Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat s in Wadi Al-Raha in Saint Catherine city after it was renovated by the South Sinai governorate in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and adding a number of Sadat s photos and belongings to it.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Ankara will send the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to Europe if European countries label the country s military incursion in Syria as an occupation. "We will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way," Erdogan said in speech to lawmakers from his AK Party.

Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria on Wednesday, with air strikes hitting the border town of Ras al Ain. President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the action, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a "terror corridor" on Turkey s southern border. Turkey had been poised to advance into northeast Syria since U.S. troops began vacating the area in an abrupt policy shift by U.S. President Donald Trump, widely criticised in Washington as a betrayal of America s Kurdish militia allies.

Education minister Tarek Shawki said on Monday that 1,070 teachers were fired due to their ties with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood group. Speaking at a press conference, Shawky said the move aimed at "purging the ministry off any [extremist] thought that could affect students." The minister noted that a press conference would be held on Tuesday to announce the new criteria of appointing teachers. He said an e-portal would be launched on Wednesday for those seeking jobs at public and private schools. The ministry will hire 120,000 teachers on a contractual basis for a year, the minister said, adding that the contracts could then be renewed every three years and will cost the ministry EGP 1.6 billion.

Egypt s Court of Cassation accepted on Monday the appeal of 11 police officers and policemen against a 2012 court ruling of one-year suspended sentence for killing protesters during the 25 January 2011 Revolution, ordering their retrial. In March 2012, a Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 11 police officer and policemen to a suspended year in prison and acquitted three others for killing 22 and injuring 44 protesters who gathered in front of Hadaeq El-Qobba Police station in Cairo during the early days of the January Revolution in 2011. The general prosecution accused the defendants of intentionally killing protesters to spread fear among the protesters to disperse them. The prosecution also accused the defendants of using firearms in violation of the rules of using them. According to official numbers, 846 people died during the 18-day uprising.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 18 people were killed in clashes between anti-government protesters and police in Baghdad overnight, according to police and medical sources, as the cabinet tried to appease public anger over corruption and unemployment with a new reform plan. The scale of the protests, in which nearly 100 people have died since Tuesday, has taken the authorities by surprise. Two years after the defeat of Islamic State, security is better than it has been in years, but corruption is rampant, wrecked infrastructure has not been rebuilt and jobs remain scarce. Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi s 17-point plan was the result of an emergency cabinet meeting on Saturday night and comes after days of offering only vague reform promises. It includes increased subsidized housing for the poor, stipends for the unemployed as well as training programs and small loans initiatives for unemployed youth. The families of those killed during demonstrations this week will also get payouts and care usually granted to members of the security forces killed during war. “Amid all of this, I swear to God that my only concern is for the casualties,” Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said during the cabinet meeting, according to state TV. The streets of the capital were quiet so far on Sunday. Protests have tended to gather steam later in the day. The clashes shattered a day of relative calm on Saturday after authorities lifted a curfew and traffic moved normally in the center of Baghdad. Hundreds of security personnel were deployed in the streets. The demonstrations began in Baghdad on Tuesday but have spread quickly spread to other cities mainly in the south. In the city of Nasiriya, where at least 18 people were killed during the week, police fired live rounds at demonstrators on Saturday. Twenty-four people were wounded in the clashes overnight, including seven policemen, according to security, hospital and morgue sources. Protesters also torched the headquarters of several political parties in Nasiriya, police said. These included the headquarters of the powerful Dawa party that dominated Iraq s government from 2003 until 2018 elections. Violence also broke out again in Diwaniya, another city south of Baghdad killing at least one person, police said. FEARS AHEAD OF PILGRIMAGE The cabinet s new plan may not be enough to placate protesters and the politicians who ve sided with them. Opposition to the government among parliamentary blocs who have begun boycotting legislative meetings is already brewing, adding pressure on Abdul Mahdi and his cabinet to step down. Influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has a mass popular following and controls a large chunk of parliament, demanded on Friday that the government resign and snap elections be held. At least one other major parliamentary grouping allied itself with Sadr against the government. But powerful political parties which have dominated Iraqi politics since the 2003 US-led invasion and toppling of dictator Saddam Hussein have not indicated they are willing to relinquish the institutions they control. In eastern Baghdad on Friday and Saturday, police snipers shot at demonstrators and several people were wounded, Reuters reporters said. Security services said the violence killed 8 members of the security forces and wounded more than 1,000, state television reported. At least 95 demonstrators have died across Iraq, according to a Reuters tally based on police and medical sources. Iraq s semi-official High Commission for Human Rights had put the toll at 99 dead since protests broke out on Tuesday. The unrest is the deadliest Iraq has seen since the declared defeat of Islamic State in 2017 and has shaken Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi s year-old government. Iraqis fear the violence will continue to escalate. The violence continued as people began journeying across southern Iraq for the Shi ite pilgrimage of Arbaeen, which is expected to attract 20 million worshipers. Reporting by John Davison and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra and Reuters Pictures and Reuters TV; writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky