APRNEWS - Sudanese Professionals Association, the lead group for protests in the country have rejected the military’s move to employ Islamic law as the basis for a new constitution.

Sudan’s Transitional Military Council had earlier this week made the proposal amid the country’s ongoing political transition. The SPA were not at the said meeting where the proposal was made.

AFP - Turkey on Thursday said it planned to host in Istanbul a new three-way summit on Syria with the presidents of Russia and Iran aimed at reviving a drive to bring peace to the country.

REUTERS - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday a military operation in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled Afrin region had begun after cross-border shelling by the Turkish army.

AFP - Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for the first visit by an Israeli leader to India in 15 years, promising closer ties with the regional power.

Netanyahu and his wife Sara were welcomed at the international airport in New Delhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who made history in July when he became the first Indian leader to visit Israel.

AFP - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that he had suspended peace talks with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels in response to what he said were guerrilla attacks earlier Wednesday.

"I have talked with the head of the government delegation in Quito to tell him to return immediately to assess the future of the process," Santos said in a televised address.

 AFP - The Israeli army overnight carried out air strikes and fired rockets at targets in Syria, causing damage near a "military position", the Syrian army said in a statement on Tuesday.

AFP - Egyptians will head to the polls on March 26-28 in the first round of a presidential election, National Elections Authority chief Lasheen Ibrahim said on Monday.

A second round would be held on April 24-26 if required, he told a news conference in Cairo.

AFP - Regime forces upped the pressure on two of the last rebel bastions in Syria, with air strikes in Idlib province and a move to break a siege near Damascus Monday.

Syrian and Russian aircraft pounded targets in the northwestern region of Idlib, pressing a week-old operation targeting the last province in the country to escape government control.

Reuters - North Korea agreed on Friday to hold official talks with the South next week, the first in more than two years, hours after the United States and South Korea delayed a military exercise amid a standoff over the North’s nuclear and missile programmes.