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ANKARA — The Central Bank of Turkey on Thursday hiked interest rates to 46% from 42.5%, marking a return to monetary tightening after a year-long pause. The move comes amid economic turmoil triggered by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Thursday’s meeting was the first since Imamoglu, a presidential contender from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was detained on March 19 and subsequently jailed on March 23 on corruption charges, which he denies. Government…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Thursday that a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 37 people, most of them in encampments for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its unrelenting military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment, but said it was looking into reports of the strikes, which came as Hamas officials said internal deliberations on the latest Israeli truce offer were nearly complete.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal…

A Palestinian man has been arrested in Gaza for spying for Israel, a resistance movement security officer revealed on Wednesday. According to Al-Hares website, the officer said that the Israeli army “collaborator” was tasked with searching in piles of rubbish for evidence related to Israeli captives in Gaza.

The 33-year-old identified by his initials “TT” was found several months ago while searching through “garbage containers” in the Gaza Strip,…

US President Donald Trump halted a planned Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in favour of reopening diplomatic talks with Tehran, according to the New York Times. The decision followed months of internal debate within the Trump administration, as Israeli officials pushed for a military campaign to delay Iran’s nuclear ambitions by at least a year.

The report drew on conversations with numerous US and Israeli officials, many speaking on condition of…

Algeria and Mauritania yesterday discussed security developments in Africa and signed a defence cooperation agreement, Anadolu reported.

This came during a visit by Mauritanian Defence Minister Hanena Ould Sidi Ould Hane to Algeria, according to a statement from the Algerian Ministry of Defence.

The statement said Algerian Defence Minister Said Chengriha met with his Mauritanian counterpart to discuss “security developments in North Africa and the African…