ANKARA 

Turkey on Friday called on the EU to stop threatening the country and adopt a tangible and impartial approach to ongoing tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement that Turkey sought to reduce tensions with the bloc and that Ankara displayed its goodwill by responding positively to calls for dialogue, citing an earlier statement this month following an EU summit where it said Turkey expected tangible steps from the union.

Arguing that the EU ignored Turkey's theses and took a biased attitude on the issue, Aksoy went on to say that his country was determined to defend its rights, along with those of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), in the region.

According to the official, Turkey was not surprised that the EU viewed its determination as provocative, adding that the bloc's attitude did not encourage a positivity between Turkey and the EU and that its language was far from sincere and constructive.

He called on the body to work towards resolving the outstanding issues by respecting the rights of Turkey and the TRNC in line with common interests and stop yielding to the "spoiled" and "irrational" demands of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration.

The EU leaders summit had issued a declaration claiming Turkey was acting unilaterally in the Eastern Mediterranean and that the EU regretted provocative moves by the Turkish government.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for her part, called for de-escalation in the region and closer dialogue between Ankara and Brussels.

Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration in the region and stressed that these excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

Ankara has sent several drill ships and seismic research vessels in the past weeks to explore for energy on its continental shelf, asserting its own rights in the region, as well as those of the TRNC.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara is in favor of resolving all outstanding problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue, and negotiation./aa

ANKARA

A total of 107 terrorists have been neutralized as part of Turkey’s domestic and cross-border counter-terrorism operations in the past 30 days, the National Defense Ministry said on Friday.

Nadide Sebnem Aktop, the ministry spokeswoman, said at a briefing that the Turkish Armed Forces continued its operations against terror groups including PKK, YPG -- the Syrian branch of PKK -- and Daesh/ISIS, saying a total of 21 operations were held.

“The operations resulted in the neutralization of 107 terrorists,” Aktop said, adding 46 were eliminated within Turkey whereas the remaining 61 were neutralized outside of the country.

The military activities included two cross-border and five domestic large-scale operations, she said, and noted that dozens of shelters, storages, caves and gun positions used by terrorists were destroyed.

The spokeswoman welcomed the agreement between the Iraqi central administration and the Kurdish Regional Government signed on Oct. 9 -- seeking elimination of PKK in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq.

The Turkish army this year destroyed a total of 14 tunnels near the Syrian borderline and established 971 kilometers (603 miles) of modular concrete wall across the borderline with Syria and Iran.

The military spokeswomen also said Turkey was committed to ensuring peace and stability in northern Syria where terrorists were cleared of following Turkish military campaigns -- namely the Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, Peace Spring, and Spring Shield operations.

Commenting on the developments regarding Azerbaijan, the spokeswoman said the escalation was triggered by Armenia which targeted civilian settlements in violation of the recently made temporary humanitarian cease-fire.

"Armenia's use of banned ammunition and weapons in its attacks targeting innocent civilians are clearly war crimes and crimes against humanity," she said, noting that so far nearly 50 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed.

She also said Turkey's Oruc Reis seismic research vessel was operating in the Eastern Mediterranean within the country's continental shelf area, and the Turkish navy escorted all vessels operation in the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.

The Turkish Armed Forces would never accept the isolation of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the region, the spokeswoman added./aa

BAGHDAD

Iraq reported more than 3,500 cases of the novel coronavirus and 56 more deaths on Friday.

The nationwide death toll now stands at 10,142, according to the Health Ministry.

A total of 3,501 more infections raised the overall case count to 420,303, while the number of recoveries has reached 353,962, the ministry said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 1.1 million lives in 188 countries and regions since last December.

The US, India, Brazil, and Russia are currently the worst-hit countries.

More than 39.06 million cases have been reported worldwide, while over 26.95 million patients have recovered, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University./aa

Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria have freed hundreds of imprisoned Islamic State militants, saying they have "no blood on their hands" and have repented joining the terrorist group.

A first batch of 631 Syrian IS prisoners was released on Thursday, while 253 had their sentences halved, according to Syrian Democratic Council co-chair Amina Omar.

The released were Syrian nationals accused of low-level membership in IS who were not thought to have been commanders or involved in attacks.

"This includes those convicted of terror charges whose hands are not stained with the blood of Syrians,” Ms Omar said at a press conference in the northeast city of Qamishli.

Following the territorial defeat of IS last March, the western-backed Syrian Democratic Forces were left holding some 19,000 ISIS-affiliated men and boys in detention in some two dozen detention facilities spread across northeast Syria.

Among the prisoners were about 12,000 Syrians, 5,000 Iraqis and 2,000 third country nationals, including about 800 Europeans, whose governments have failed to bring them home.

Under a new amnesty for prisoners announced by authorities on Monday, “low-ranking members will be released, subject to good behaviour”.

Only Syrians will be included in the amnesty, with authorities saying they are still committed to holding trials for foreign IS-affiliates in northeast Syria, which they hope the international coalition against IS will support by establishing an international court.

The amnesty was aimed at relieving overcrowding in prisons and improving relations with Syrian Arab communities, who have demanded the release of relatives.

“We saw the need for a general amnesty,” Ms Omar said, adding that authorities hoped it would “build bridges of trust and enhance participation in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria".

The amnesty follows an announcement earlier this month that authorities would free Syrian women and children from al-Hol camp, which holds nearly 70,000 people in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

SENEKAL, South Africa (AP) —

A tense standoff between white farmers and Black activists gripped the South African town of Senekal Friday, as two men accused of killing a white farm manager were to appear in court.

More than 100 police patrolled the area in front of the courthouse in the Free State province and used barbed wire to separate the rival groups.

Sekwetjie Mahlamba and Sekola Matlaletsa were to appear in the court on charges of killing Brendin Horner, 21, on Oct. 1.

About 250 white farmers gathered to protest the killing, charging that police do not adequately protect white farmers. In an earlier court hearing last week, a group of white farmers stormed the court and burned a police vehicle.

The country’s leftist opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, mobilized about 1,000 of its supporters to challenge the white farmers in front of the court. They sang songs and shouted slogans calling for South Africa's land to be returned to Black residents. Many were dressed in the EFF party's red uniforms and berets.

EFF leader Julius Malema came to Senekal Friday was expected to speak to his supporters after the court hearing.

While most white farmers and organizations representing them have called for farm killings to be made a priority crime, the government insists that white farmers are not being targeted, saying the violence is a result of South Africa's relatively high crime rate. South Africa has one of the highest crime statistics in the world, with a murder rate of just over 58 deaths a day.

The country’s official crime statistics indicate there were 49 farm killings in the 2019/2020 financial year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his weekly letter to the nation Monday, condemned Horner’s killing, but said the farm killings were part of the bigger crime problem.

“Those people who think that farm attacks affect just a small part of our population are wrong. The farming community is an integral part of our economy,” wrote Ramaphosa.

The Senekal murder has also raised the controversial issue of land ownership in the country.

A great deal of South Africa's best farmland is owned by white farmers, as a result of the eviction of Black farmers when the country was ruled by a white minority. Although South Africa now has majority rule, land ownership remains a contentious issue, with parties like the EFF urging the government to seize white-owned land without compensation and return it to Black families.

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan security forces said they have arrested one of the country’s most wanted human traffickers in the capital, Tripoli, more than two years after the United Nations’ Security Council imposed sanctions against him.

The arrest of Abdel-Rahman Milad, who also commanded a Coast Guard unit in the western town of Zawiya, was announced in a statement late Wednesday by the Interior Ministry of the U.N-supported government in Tripoli.

The ministry said Milad, better known as Bija, is wanted on charges of human trafficking and smuggling of fuel. France's Embassy in Libya welcomed the arrest as a key development in fighting human trafficking in the war-torn nation.

Libya has been plagued by corruption and turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. It is split into two administrations. The one in the west, including Tripoli, is ruled by the U.N.-supported government, while the east-based government is supported by powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter.

Oil-rich Libya has emerged as a major conduit for people from Africa and the Middle East fleeing wars and poverty and hoping to reach Europe.

In June 2018, the Security Council imposed sanctions on Milad and five other leaders of criminal networks engaged in trafficking of people and migrants from Libya. At the time, Milad was described as the head of the Coast Guard unit in Zawiya “that is consistently linked with violence against migrants and other human smugglers.”

U.N. experts monitoring sanctions claimed Milad and other Coast Guard members “are directly involved in the sinking of migrant boats using firearms.” Milad denied any links to human smuggling and said traffickers wear uniforms similar to those of his men.

The timing of his arrest raises questions, given that he moved freely in western Libya over the past two years and fought alongside Tripoli-allied militias to repel a yearlong attack on the capital by Hifter's forces. Milad appeared in a video footage in June threatening to uncover alleged corruption of ruling bodies in Tripoli.

His arrest could threaten the western Libya militia alliance and give their rivals — Hifter's forces — a window to rally support. This could also explain why Tripoli authorities have not dared arrest Milad or other militia leaders in the past years.

Later, hundreds of Milad's supporters rallied against his arrest in Zawiya and elsewhere in western Libya, accusing Interior Minister Fathi Bashaga of cracking down on certain armed group in Tripoli while sparing others, such as militias from the city of Misrat, from where the minister is from.

A spokesman for Libya's Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to phone calls and messages seeking comment.

Jalel Harchaoui, a research fellow specializing in Libyan affairs at the Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations, said Bashaga has an interest in showing strength to his multiple audiences, including the international one.

“Bija had become somewhat a celebrity outside Libya over recent years,” he said, adding that there is a tendency to focus on individuals, blaming them for the migrant situation in Libya, rather than a structurally dysfunctional system involving many foreign governments and international players.

BEIJING (AP) — Following scathing political attacks from the Trump administration, China on Friday defended its Confucius Institutes as apolitical facilitators of cultural and language exchange.

The administration last week urged U.S. schools and colleges to rethink their ties to the institutes that bring Chinese language classes to America but, according to federal officials, also invite a “malign influence” from China.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian disputed that characterization and accused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. politicians of acting out of “ideological prejudice and personal political interests” and having “deliberately undermined the cultural and educational exchanges and cooperation between China and the U.S.”

The U.S. politicians should “abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum thinking ... and stop politicizing related programs of educational exchange, obstructing normal cultural exchanges between the two sides, and damaging mutual trust and cooperation between China and the U.S.," Zhao said at a daily briefing.

Patterned after the British Council and Alliance Francaise, the Confucius Institutes are unique in that they set up operations directly on U.S. campuses and schools, drawing mounting scrutiny from U.S. officials amid increased tensions with China.

In letters to universities and state education officials, the State Department and Education Department said the program gives China's ruling Communist Party a foothold on U.S. soil and threatens free speech. Schools are being advised to examine the program’s activities and “take action to safeguard your educational environments.”

More than 60 U.S. universities host Confucius Institutes through partnerships with an affiliate of China’s Ministry of Education, though the number has lately been dropping. China provides teachers and textbooks and typically splits the cost with the university. The program also brings Chinese language classes to about 500 elementary and secondary classrooms.

In last week's letters, U.S. officials drew attention to China’s new national security law in Hong Kong, which critics say curtails free expression and other liberties. The letters cite recent reports that some U.S. college professors are allowing students to opt out of discussions on Chinese politics amid fears that students from Hong Kong or China could be prosecuted at home.

Such fears are “well justified,” officials said, adding that at least one student from China was recently jailed by Chinese authorities over tweets he posted while studying at a U.S. university.

At least 39 universities have announced plans to shutter Confucius Institute programs since the start of 2019, according to a log published by the National Association of Scholars, a conservative nonprofit group.

Other nations have also sought to curb China’s influence in their schools, with regional educational departments in Canada and Australia cutting ties with the institutes.

The British countryside is racist, a Countryfile presenter has said, revealing that Black Lives Matter has led her to re-evaluate her own behaviour.

There was debate over an episode of the BBC show earlier this year when Scout Ambassador Dwayne Fields presented a section about perceptions by ethnic minorities of the countryside.

The report focused on research from the Government's Environment Department, published last year, which said that some ethnic groups felt UK national parks were a "white environment".

Ellie Harrison, a presenter on the show, has spoken up on the issue and said that ethnic minority people do face discrimination in the countryside, and there is "work to do".

She said the huge reaction on social media to the programme had taken the show's producers a week to read and sort.

Ms Harrison wrote in Countryfile magazine: "I spooled through the comments, which broadly came in three flavours: 'I'm not racist so there is no racism in the countryside'; 'I'm black and I've never experienced racism in the countryside'; and importantly, 'I have experienced racism in the countryside'.

"So there's work to do. Even a single racist event means there is work to do. In asking whether the countryside is racist, then yes it is; but asking if it's more racist than anywhere else - maybe, maybe not."

The presenter also said she felt she needed to change her behaviour in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, doing more to confront racism instead of simply listening to people of colour.

"Until this point, I believed ignorantly, that me being not racist was enough," she explained. "I believed that I should keep quiet and listen to black people.

"That because I read and loved every Alice Walker book as a teenager, have watched Oprah every day since I was a youngster...it wasn't my problem."

Ms Harrison added that she is sometimes too polite to those close to her who say racist things.

She said: "There is a big and crucial difference between being not racist and being anti-racist. At times in the past I have given measured and polite replies to people - sometimes close to me - who have said racist things.

"But being anti-racist means being much clearer that it isn't acceptable...Let the knife and fork squeak uncomfortably over supper."

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has vowed to remove barriers to the countryside for non-white people.

It has said in a mission statement: "The countryside is for everyone. We will only achieve a countryside that’s rich in nature, accessible to everyone and playing a crucial role in responding to the climate emergency if we end the racial inequalities that exist in engagement with the countryside, confirmed by powerful testimony from individuals and communities and solid data."