Decades

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Feb. 18 offered an olive branch to the Taliban, shortly after winning a second term in office.

An evidently confident Ghani embraced his supporters at the highly guarded Arg palace in the capital Kabul after the long-awaited results of last September's election were announced.

Istanbul prosecutors have issued a new detention warrant for businessman Osman Kavala, shortly after he was acquitted on terrorism charges in a trial pertaining to the 2013 Gezi Park protests.

Turkish police have detained a suspected former executioner for the ISIL in Syria, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Feb. 17.

Until now, it was considered that Russia should be held responsible for the downing of the plane, which killed all passengers and crew members (a total of 283 passengers, including 80 children, and 15 crew members), as the aircraft was shot down over the territory of Ukraine controlled by rebels supported by Russia.

Cypriot Interior Minister Nicos Nouris says the government is determined to cut down on asylum and residence permit applications by blocking economic migrants from filing non-legitimate petitions.

The interior minister said in an interview with Kathimerini published on Sunday that a number of colleges in the Republic of Cyprus are a "breeding ground" for asylum applicants.

Two YPG/PKK terrorists surrendered to Turkish security forces in southeastern Turkey, the defense ministry announced on Feb. 17.

The ministry said that two YPG/PKK terrorists fleeing from northwestern Syria turned themselves into Turkish security forces in border posts in southeastern Kilis and Şanlıurfa provinces.

The UN has condemned recent airstrikes that killed dozens of civilians in the northern Yemeni province of Al-Jawf.

Houthi rebels said 31 people were killed and 12 others injured in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Al-Jawf.

The group said the attacks targeted civilians checking the wreckage of a Tornado fighter jet downed by Houthis a day earlier in the province.

Turkish jets have neutralized eight PKK militants in an operation in northern Iraq, the country's Defense Ministry announced on Feb. 15.
The militants were neutralized in the Hakurk region, with a senior member of the terror group among them, the ministry said on Twitter.

Yemen's Houthi rebels said on Feb. 15 that dozens were killed in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in northern Yemen.

The attacks targeted a group of people checking the wreckage of a Tornado fighter jet downed by Houthis in Al-Jawf province on Feb. 14, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah television said.

The television, however, did not give an exact toll of the fatalities.

The United States and the Taliban have agreed to a temporary truce that, if successful, would open the way for a deal that would bring American troops home from Afghanistan and end 18 years of war.