ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey is voting Sunday in landmark parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has faced in his two decades in power.

The vote will either grant the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan a new five-year term in office or set the NATO member country on what his opposition contender calls a more democratic path.

London/New Delhi, May 13 (PTI) India is planning a repatriation campaign for artefacts dating back to the colonial era, including the controversial Kohinoor diamond and other idols and sculptures in museums across the UK, according to a British media report on Saturday.

“The Daily Telegraph” newspaper claims the issue is among the priorities of the Narendra Modi-led government, with it likely to spill over into diplomatic and trade talks between the two countries.

Tehran, IRNA – Iran’s Economy Minister, Ehsan Khandouzi has said that expanded trade ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia's would a win-win situation for the two countries while it will benefit the entire West Asia region.

Khandouzi made the remarks on the sidelines of the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, saying that Iran's policy is to strengthen bilateral ties with neighboring countries.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A showdown with Congress that has the nation’s creditworthiness at stake; a frenzied scene at the border as pandemic restrictions ease; a pivotal foreign trip meant to sustain support for Ukraine and contain a more assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.

GENEVA (AP) — He’s European. She’s American. He runs the U.N. migration agency. She wants his job.

International Organization for Migration director-general Antonio Vitorino of Portugal faces what could be a tight race against his Biden administration-backed deputy, Amy Pope, as member countries of the Geneva-based agency choose its chief for the next five years on Monday.

The election comes as migrants have been on the move like never before, driven from their homes by factors including conflict, economic distress and the growing impacts of climate change.

13 May 2023; MEMO: Israel's military has apologised for its killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after a year of denial of its responsibility for the shooting.

Shireen Abu Akleh, the correspondent who covered the West Bank for Al Jazeera for two decades, was shot in the back of the head while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank city of Jenin last May.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has an ambitious agenda when he sets off this week on an eight-day trip to the Indo-Pacific.

He’s looking to tighten bonds with longtime allies, make history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit the tiny island state of Papua New Guinea and spotlight his administration’s commitment to the Pacific. The three-country trip also presents the 80-year-old Biden, who recently announced he’s running for reelection, with the opportunity to demonstrate that he still has enough in the tank to handle the grueling pace of the presidency.

12 May 2023; AA: A group of activists and journalists held a candlelight vigil Thursday outside the White House in Washington, D.C. to honor Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead on May 11 last year while reporting on an Israeli military raid. 

The vigil, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement and the Museum of the Palestinian People, was attended by many activists and Abu Akleh's friends as well as colleagues from Al Jazeera, who demanded justice and accountability for her.

13 May 2023; AA: The Ukrainian armed forces attacked the city of Luhansk with UK-supplied cruise missiles Storm Shadow Friday, injuring a Russian lawmaker, according to Russian media.


Two Storm Shadow and one US ADM-160B MALD missiles were fired at residential buildings in the city of Luhansk, an administrative center of the Luhansk region, state news agency TASS claimed.

Russian lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky was injured in one of the attacks, it added.

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/: Colonel Vyacheslav Makarov, the commander of the 4th motorized infantry brigade, was killed in the fighting in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.

13 May 2023; MEMO: The Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani met Taliban officials in the Afghan city of Kandahar, in the south of the country on Friday.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid posted pictures on social media on Friday of a visit by a high-ranking Qatari delegation.

13 May 2023; AA: South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said late Friday that US Ambassador Reuben Brigety apologized to the government and people of South Africa for his comments made a day earlier. 

Brigety told reporters Thursday that the US was convinced South Africa had supplied arms to Russia despite claims to be neutral.