Two more PKK terrorists surrendered in Turkey as a result of persuasion efforts by security forces, the country’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

The terrorists left the terror group and turned themselves in thanks to the efforts of gendarmerie teams and police, the ministry said in a statement.

They had joined the terror group in 2014 and 2015 and were active in Iraq and Syria.

With the latest addition, the number of terrorists who have laid down their arms through persuasion efforts this year rose to 31.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people including women, children, and infants./aa

A new indigenous heavy machine gun has successfully passed all test stages and is now ready for mass production, a defense industry expert said on Saturday.

SAR 762 MT-type 12.7 mm heavy machine guns by Sarsilmaz, a leading Turkish small-arms manufacturer, with a 1,200-meter range will contribute to Turkey’s anti-terror efforts.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Nuri Kiziltan, a senior executive at Sarsilmaz, remarked that the first batch of SART 762 MTs would soon be delivered to Turkish armed forces.

Underlining that the machine gun is indigenously made, Kiziltan praised the Turkish Presidency of Defense Industries’ contributions to improving the capabilities of the national defense
 sector.

He said the machine gun can be used by infantry teams and can be mounted on various armored vehicles, including main battle tanks.

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Turkish security forces rescued 29 irregular migrants beaten and deprived of their belongings by Greek soldiers, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“In the most recent event, 29 irregular migrants were brutally beaten by Greek soldiers. Their money, phones and even their shoes were confiscated,” the statement said.

The migrants were stranded on a small islet near the banks of the (Maritsa) River.

“In their testimonial, the migrants reported that they were beaten and all their belongings were taken by force by the Greek authorities who then tried to forcibly send them to Turkey,” the statement said.

Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers who want to cross to Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

The country hosts nearly 4 million refugees, including over 3.6 million Syrians, more than any other country in the world./aa

Former Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane said that the Arab Spring was not over yet.

Speaking at the second conference of the Arab Council via video conference late Friday, Benkirane called on Arab leaders to reconcile with their people.

“A day will come when authoritarian rulers in the Arab world will be searching for a shelter to hide in and will not find it,” he told the event, themed The Arab Spring: Lessons and Future Challenges.

"The best thing for them is to reconcile with their people,” Benkirane said.

While admitting that Morocco has still a long way to go to completely achieve the goals of the Arab Spring revolutions, Benkirane believes the North African country "was successful in dealing with the Arab Spring” and can serve as a “model” for other countries in the region.

The Arab Spring was a series of demonstrations in 2011 that started in Tunisia after a Tunisian street vendor self-immolated to protest the regime's human rights abuse.

The demonstrations spread across several Arab countries with people demanding the ousting of authoritarians, calling for employment, better living standards, as well as democracy and freedom among others./aa

US President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill was passed in the House of Representatives early on Saturday.

The much-anticipated bill was approved in a close 219-212 vote, as two Democrats joined all Republicans in the chamber to oppose it.

It will now be up to the Senate, where the measure is expected to face strong opposition from Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris has a tie-breaking vote in the upper chamber in the case of a 50-50 split.

If the Senate passes a different version of the bill, the House will have to vote on that version as well, or both chambers would need to pen a final proposal in a committee.

The House bill currently includes $1,400 stimulus checks to most individuals to revive the American economy, unemployment support of $400 per week through Aug. 29, and an expansion of the child tax credit for families up to $3,600 per child.

On the pandemic front, the bill allocates $20 billion for COVID-19 vaccine distribution, $50 billion for testing and tracing, $350 billion in state and local government aid, $25 billion aid for renters, and $170 billion for the reopening of K-12 schools and higher education./aa

Turkey's Treasury will repay debts worth 157 billion Turkish liras (around $21.2 billion) in March-May.

It will repay 40.6 billion Turkish liras ($5.5 billion) in external debts with 11.1 billion lira ($1.5 billion) in interest payments, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Friday.

In the next three months, 116.5 billion Turkish liras (around $15.7 billion) of domestic debt redemption is also projected -- 20% of this amount will be interest payments, while the rest will be the principal payment.

According to the ministry's borrowing strategy, the Treasury will borrow 128.2 billion Turkish liras ($17.3 billion) from domestic markets from March to May.

The Treasury has projected to hold 23 bond auctions and a direct sale of lease certificates -- no planned external borrowing -- during this period./aa

The Azerbaijani capital Baku on Friday commemorated the anniversary of the Khojaly massacre, in which hundreds of Azerbaijani citizens were killed by Armenian forces 29 years ago.

On Feb. 26, 1992, as many as 613 innocent Azerbaijani citizens, including 106 women, 63 children, and 70 elderly people, were indiscriminately killed, with hundreds more wounded by Armenian troops in their attack on the town of Khojaly in Azerbaijan's Upper Karabakh region.

On Friday an official commemoration ceremony was held at the Cry of the Mother Monument with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and then the monument was opened to the public.

People came to the monument with Azerbaijani flags and posters and left carnations.

Survivors of the massacre and the relatives of those who lost their lives also visited the monument.

Some of the relatives of the martyrs read out prayers, and some could not hold back their tears, recalling the painful events of 29 years ago.

Chingiz Bayramov told Anadolu Agency that they commemorate the victims of Khojaly every year.

"Our heroic army saved our land. Now this year, as a victorious people, we commemorate our martyrs," he said, referring to the liberation last fall of Karabakh from Armenian occupation.

"We will never forget this bloody disaster. The Khojaly victims were avenged. But we are working to make this disaster known to the world," he added.

Nagorno-Karabakh

On Feb. 26, 1992, with the Soviet Union just dissolved, Armenian forces took over the town of Khojaly in occupied Karabakh after battering it using heavy artillery and tanks, assisted by infantry.

The massacre is seen as one of the bloodiest atrocities by Armenian forces against Azerbaijani civilians in the Upper Karabakh region, which was liberated by Azerbaijan forces last fall after decades of occupation.

The two-hour Armenian offensive on Khojaly killed 613 Azerbaijani citizens – including 106 women, 63 children and 70 elderly people – and seriously injured 487 others, according to Azerbaijani figures.

Some 150 of the 1,275 Azerbaijanis that the Armenians captured during the massacre remain missing. In the massacre, eight families were completely wiped out, while 130 children lost one parent and 25 children lost both parents.

Relations between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia have been tense since 1991, when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Upper Karabakh, a territory recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.

New clashes erupted on Sept. 27, 2020, and ended with a Russian-brokered truce six weeks later.

Baku liberated several strategic cities and nearly 300 of its settlements and villages from Armenian occupation during this time.

Before this, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory had been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades./aa

The Turkish Red Crescent has donated 10 ventilators to the Somali Health Ministry, the Turkish embassy in the capital Mogadishu said on Friday.

“The machines that have been handed over to the Somali authorities will be used in intensive care units and contribute to the fight against COVID-19,” the embassy said in a statement.

Dr. Abdirizak Yusuf Ahmed, a Health Ministry official, told Anadolu Agency by phone that the ventilators will help the country fight against COVID-19. He thanked the Turkish government for its support in the fight against the pandemic.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Mogadishu hospitals have run out of oxygen.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency by phone, doctors in various hospitals said the lack of an oxygen plant in the country is really challenging.

The government earlier announced Turkey will support the establishment of a medical oxygen plant in the country.

“The situation of Martini Hospital in Mogadishu is good after the Hormuud Salaam Foundation delivered the promised oxygen cylinders. But the situation could deteriorate again unless we put in place a proper oxygen supply plan,” Abdullahi Osman, executive officer of the Hormuud Foundation, said on Friday.

Somalia on Thursday recorded five new deaths and 128 more COVID-19 infections, according to the country's Health Ministry.

The Horn of Africa country has so far recorded 6,687 confirmed coronavirus cases, with 3,784 recoveries and 223 deaths./aa

UN agencies on Friday expressed alarm at intensified clashes in Yemen's Marib region and said the increasing number of displaced people are on the verge of food insecurity.

"The International Organization for Migration is watching with growing alarm increasing numbers of people are displaced in Yemen adding to the already worrisome few food security concerns there," IOM spokesman Paul Dillon said.

"Hostilities in Yemen's Marib governate have led to the displacement of at least 9,000 people in recent weeks, bringing the total number of displacements in that part of the country to more than 117,000 people," he said at a UN briefing hosted in Geneva.

Dillon said that humanitarian partners estimate that 385,000 people are at risk of further displacement if frontlines shift.

The fighting could impact hundreds of thousands of Marib city's estimated 3 million people.

The latest epicenter of violence is Sirwah, a mountainous district in Marib governorate.

"Sirwah district alone hosts around 30,000 displaced people in 14 displacement sites, three of which were directly impacted by fighting in recent weeks," said Dillon.

- Insecurity hinders aid delivery

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said it is calling for a safe passage for the fleeing civilians, adding fighting parties must spare no effort to protect the population caught in the conflict and ease its impact on civilians.

"Insecurity is increasingly hindering the delivery of aid to civilians in Marib, with dire consequences for the most vulnerable among them," UNHCR spokesman Boris Cheshirkov said.

"The latest clashes are just a few kilometers from Marib city, and people had little choice but to flee to relative safety in the urban areas."

The existing sites for internally displaced people are already overcrowded, and the humanitarian response is overstretched.

"More than 800,000 displaced Yemenis have been taking refuge in this part of the country. Most of them have been sheltering there since the start of the conflict in 2015," said Cheshirkov.

He said "unimpeded access" to affected areas must be granted to aid agencies so lifesaving assistance can be delivered in Marib and elsewhere in the county where the needs are dire.

The UNHCR official said that out of 4 million internally displaced people in Yemen, nearly 2.6 million "are just a step away from famine."

Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation, causing one of the world's worst man-made humanitarian crises with 233,000 people killed, nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starving to death, according to UN estimates./aa

Several people were injured and dozens arrested on Friday in major cities in Myanmar when police tear-gassed and fired live bullets at anti-coup protests.

Warning shots, tear gas, and stun grenades were fired at two major street junctions in Yangon as police used much tougher means of cracking down on anti-coup demonstrators, witnesses said.

Unlike previous days, without advance warning the police clamped down on the demonstrators, said Lynn Myaing, a resident of Yangon's Hlaing Township. “They seemed to want to make people afraid,” he added.

"Police also went to the residential area in search of the demonstrators," he told Anadolu Agency, adding that he saw seven protesters being dragged by the police.

A similar incident also occurred in Myaynigone, a street junction in the Sanchaung township of Yangon.

"The police never spared the journalists. A Japanese freelance journalist was arrested by the police," said a local reporter covering the protest, adding that he also witnessed the arrest of a young boy on a bicycle passing through the police line.

The Japanese journalist was released almost four hours later, local media reports said.

In Mandalay, the country's second largest city, police arrested at least 30 people during a crackdown on protesters and injured several others, including a child.

“Police fired both rubber bullets and live rounds of ammunition in dispersing the crowd in Mandalay. Police and soldiers on vehicles then indiscriminately fired slingshots at houses on the way back to their bases,” said a member of a volunteer rescue team providing the injured with medical assistance.

“Six people were injured by a soldier’s slingshots, including two boys under the age of 10, who were playing in front of their homes,” he told Anadolu Agency by phone. "The children were wounded in the head and the face," he added.

Local media outlets reported that security forces also used slingshots, water cannons, and tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the administrative capital Nay Pyi Taw. They say dozens of protesters were also detained in the city during the crackdown.

However, Anadolu Agency has so far been unable to independently confirm these media reports./aa