Western Asia

Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan's opponents faced an uphill struggle to end his two-decade rule on Monday after he performed better than expected in a first round of voting on Sunday, but fell short of an outright majority, leaving the contest to a runoff.

MARKET REACTION:

Turkey's lira hit a two-month low on Monday and the country's credit default swaps jumped as a tightly-contested presidential election headed towards a runoff vote, while broader emerging market equities snapped a four-day losing streak.

Omer Easa is watching the violence roiling his native Sudan with deep trepidation. The further Sudan sinks into chaos and violence, he fears, the longer he is likely to remain an unrecognized asylum-seeker in Israel, where he has few protections.

Prof. Gabriel Haritos joins Thanos Davelis to discuss the significance of President Nikos Christodoulides' recent trip to Israel and message it sends about the importance of this bilateral relationship, and look at the issues discussed - from energy to the question of Israeli investments and tourists in the occupied northern part of Cyprus.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a speech on Sunday broadcast on all national TV channels.

Iraqi officials on May 11 said Mosul's once-celebrated museum had entered the final stages of restorations ahead of a planned 2026 reopening after being closed to the public for 20 years.

The museum closed its doors in 2003, amid the chaos following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, and was later ransacked by Islamic State group jihadists after they seized the city in 2014.

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar expressed "hope" on Wednesday that "the Greeks will find the right path and come to the right place" during an interview where he proposed the joint exploitation of the natural wealth of the Aegean and the possibility of extending the moratorium between Greece and Turkey.

Stanford University has offered an 18-year-old Turkish student a scholarship of approximately 10 million Turkish Liras ($500,000).

Efe Zaladin, who graduated from a private high school in the Central Anatolian province of Konya last year, discovered his interest in science as a child.

The allegation that three hotels in Turkish Cyprus' Varosha city have been sold to a Turkish businessman by their Greek owners has sparked concerns in the Greek administration as the sale or transfer of real estate in the area opened to civilian visits three years ago after a 46-year hiatus is under the control of a commission.

Italy on Friday returned to Turkish authorities a funerary stele, dating from the second century and carrying a loving inscription to the dead woman's spouse, after investigation determined that it was illegally excavated from southeastern Türkiye.