Middle East & North Africa

CAIRO, June 13 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian-German archaeological mission unearthed granite stone blocks dating back to the era of King Khufu (2589-2566 BC) in eastern Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said Monday.

This is "the first time that artifacts belonging to King Khufu were found in Ain Shams area," Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, was quoted as saying in a ministry statement.

Ain Shams, meaning Eye of the Sun in Arabic, is one of the oldest districts in the capital Cairo.

JERUSALEM, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Israel's National Security Council raised its travel warning for Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, to the highest level, citing possible attacks by Iran, said a statement from the council on Monday.

The warning comes amid the latest surge in tensions between Iran and Israel.

"Given the continuing nature of the threat and in light of the increased Iranian intentions to attack Israelis in Turkey, especially Istanbul, the National Security Council has raised the travel warning for Istanbul to the highest level, Level 4," said the statement.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli legislator came under fire on Tuesday for saying that if he could push a button to make all Palestinians disappear, he would.

Deputy Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana made the remarks to high school students in a West Bank settlement. In his comments, which were caught on video, he was explaining his view that clashing narratives between Israelis and Palestinians were a major obstacle to peace. He appeared to be making the point that Israelis and Palestinians had no choice but to find a way to live together.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official increasingly seen as a successor to the 86-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas, says relations with Israel have gotten so bad that Palestinian leaders cannot go on with business as usual.

But even if they are serious this time around, they have few options. And they appear unlikely to do anything that undermines their own limited power in parts of the occupied West Bank, which largely stems from their willingness to cooperate with Israel.

DAMASCUS, June 10 (Reuters) - Syria halted flights to and from Damascus International Airport on Friday, the transport ministry said, a few hours after Israeli air strikes hit south of the capital.

A Syrian military official quoted by the state news agency said Syrian air defences intercepted the Israeli missiles, downing most of them, but that the early morning attack caused one civilian injury and some material damage.

Cham Wings Airline, a private Syrian carrier, said it was rerouting all its flights to Aleppo International Airport.

ADDIS ABABA, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has announced its plan to repatriate 900 Ethiopian migrants from conflict-torn Yemen's Marib province aboard "voluntary humanitarian flights."

In a press statement late Thursday, the IOM said the first 150 of the Ethiopian migrants were returned on Thursday.

Several more such flights are planned to return the remaining 750 Ethiopian migrants home, it said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank may soon get a taste of the military rule that Palestinians have been living under for 55 years.

If Israel’s parliament does not act, a special legal status accorded to the settlers will expire at the end of the month, with wide-ranging consequences. Lawyers who live in the settlements, including two members of Israel’s Supreme Court, will no longer be allowed to practice law. Settlers would be subject to military courts usually reserved for Palestinians and would lose access to some public services.

BAGHDAD, Jun 9 (NNN-NINA) – An unidentified drone crashed yesterday, in the north of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, wounding three people, the regional Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said, in a statement.

The drone exploded at 9:35 p.m. local time (1835 GMT), after it crashed in a restaurant in Erbil, some 375 km north of the capital, Baghdad, the CTS statement said.

The explosion also caused damage to the restaurant building and several nearby civilian cars, it added.

ANKARA, June 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Turkiye’s foreign minister has said a United Nations plan to restart Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor was “reasonable” during talks with his Russian counterpart in Ankara.

“Various ideas have been put out for the export of Ukrainian grains to the market, most recently is the UN plan [including] a mechanism that can be created between the UN, Ukraine, Russia, and Turkiye,” Turkiye’s Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, speaking alongside Russia’s Sergey Lavrov.

ANKARA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday pledged to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

"There is a wide cooperation potential between Venezuela and Turkey, especially in trade, energy, mining, construction business, health, agriculture and tourism," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Maduro in the capital Ankara.

The two economies are complementary, holding various opportunities for new cooperation and mutual investments, he added.