NEW YORK: Sudan’s ruling military general, who mounted a coup nearly a year ago, said he will not run in future elections for a civilian-led government, but offered no timeline on when a vote might happen in order for him to relinquish power.
Gen. Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan spoke with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Thursday. It marked nearly one year after he mounted a coup that upended the Arabic-speaking African nation’s short-lived transition to democracy after three decades of repressive rule by strongman Omar Bashir.

NEW YORK CITY: Britain is bringing back VAT-free shopping for overseas visitors — including British expats — to boost its flagging retail sector, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng said on Friday.

Kwarteng told Parliament the government would also replace the previous paper-based system with a digital one as soon as possible.

It is welcome news for British expats living in the Gulf who, along with foreign visitors, will be able to claim the value added tax they pay during visits home before they leave the country — as long as they can prove they live abroad.

TEHRAN: Thousands demonstrated across Iran on Friday at government-backed pro-hijab counter rallies, after a week of bloody protests over the death of a woman arrested for wearing the Islamic headscarf “improperly.”
At least 50 people have been killed by security forces in the anti-government protests, Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based organization, said on Friday — more than three times the official death toll of 17, which includes five security personnel.

BEIRUT: At least 77 people drowned when an illegal migrant boat traveling from Lebanon sank off Syria’s coast in the eastern Mediterranean.
Around 150 people, mostly Lebanese and Syrians, were on board the small vessel that went down on Thursday off the Syrian city of Tartous.
“Seventy-seven people have died,” Syria’s Health Minister Hassan Al-Ghabash told Agence France-Presse.
Lebanon has become a starting point for illegal migration, with its citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamoring to leave their homeland.

JEDDAH: The regime in Tehran is braced for Iran’s biggest protests in three years on Friday amid mounting anger over the death of a young Kurdish woman in police custody.

Activist groups say Mahsa Amini, 22, was beaten to death after being arrested by the country’s morality police for wearing a hijab in an “improper way’.