BAGHDAD: Iraq’s oil minister and his Turkish counterpart did not reach an agreement to immediately resume Iraq’s northern oil exports but agreed to hold more talks in the future, said two energy sources with knowledge of the ministers’ meeting in Ankara on Tuesday.

Turkiye halted flows on March 25 after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages of $1.5 billion for unauthorized exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government between 2014 and 2018.

CAIRO: About 500 children have died from hunger in Sudan — including two dozen babies in a government-run orphanage in the capital of Khartoum — since fighting erupted in the East African country in April, a leading aid group said on Tuesday.

Save the Children also said that at least 31,000 children lack access to treatment for malnutrition and related illnesses since the charity was forced to close 57 of its nutrition centers in Sudan.

KUWAIT: Kuwait is seeking to boost its collaborative efforts with the World Health Organization across various services, Health Minister Dr. Ahmed Al-Awadhi said on Monday.

Al-Awadhi met Dr. Hanan Balkhy, assistant director for antimicrobial resistance at the WHO, to discuss numerous areas of cooperation, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

He emphasized Kuwait’s capabilities in effectively addressing health challenges and implementing comprehensive strategies to handle medical emergencies.

BEIRUT: The Syrian state television channel said late on Monday that Israel had attacked targets on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

State TV did not give any more details about the targets of the attack but the semi-official newspaper, Al Watan, said on its website that “Damascus international airport was unaffected.

Israel has for years carried out attacks on what it has described as Iran-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran’s influence has grown since it began supporting President Bashar Assad in a civil war that started in 2011.

 

JERUSALEM: Arab local councils in Israel held a strike on Monday in protest at the finance minister’s freeze earlier this month on hundreds of millions of shekels to their municipalities, a decision that has prompted accusations of racism.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious government, suspended at least 200 million shekels ($52.75 million) of Arab municipal funds, saying that these could end up in the hands of what he called “criminal and terrorist elements.”