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Sudan army quits truce talks with paramilitary foes

The Sudanese army suspended its participation in US- and Saudi-brokered ceasefire talks Wednesday accusing its paramilitary foes of failing to honour their commitments.

The mediators of the talks in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah have acknowledged repeated violations of the truce by both sides but have so far held off imposing any sanctions in the hope of keeping the warring parties at the negotiating table.

Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rallies his troops battling rival paramilitaries in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday

Sudan army suspends truce talks with paramilitary foes: official

The Sudanese army has suspended its participation in US- and Saudi-brokered ceasefire talks with its paramilitary foes, a government official told AFP on Wednesday.

The army took the decision "because the rebels have never implemented a single one of the provisions of a short-term ceasefire which required their withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings, and have repeatedly violated the truce", the Sudanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan rallies his troops battling rival paramilitaries in the capital Khartoum on Tuesday

Royal fever sweeps Jordan ahead of crown prince's wedding

Jordan is gearing up for Crown Prince Hussein's wedding on Thursday, an event already greeted with fireworks, concerts and social media frenzy in the usually quiet desert kingdom.

The eldest son of King Abdullah II will marry Saudi fiancee Rajwa Al Saif at the grand royal wedding with regional monarchs, US First Lady Jill Biden and the king of the Netherlands among the guests.

Jordan has been gripped by royal fever ahead of the wedding

Iraq's Christians fight to save threatened ancient language

Iraq's shrunken and conflict-scarred Christian community is launching a new television channel as part of efforts to save their dying language, spoken for more than 2,000 years.

Syriac, an ancient dialect of Aramaic, has traditionally been the language spoken by Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, mostly in homes but also in some schools and during church services.

Syriac, an ancient dialect of Aramaic, has been the language spoken by Christians in Iraq and neighbouring Syria for centuries

Salvage of oil tanker stranded off Yemen can begin: UN

The United Nations said Tuesday it is ready to start salvage work on an oil tanker stranded off Yemen's coast with more than one million barrels of crude that pose an acute risk to the environment.

"We're very happy to be on site where we can start the work," David Gressly, the UN coordinator for Yemen, said by videoconference from aboard a support vessel that has arrived at the stricken ship, the FSO Safer.

Crew from the support vessel Ndeavor spy the abandoned oil tanker FSO Safer near the coast of Yemen in a handout photo from Dutch company Boskalis

Iran journalist who covered Amini death denies charges at trial: husband

An Iranian reporter detained since September after she exposed the case of Mahsa Amini that sparked nationwide protests Tuesday denied all charges against her as her trial on national security charges opened in Tehran, her husband said.

Niloufar Hamedi, 30, told the court "she had performed her work as a journalist within the framework of the law and did not take any action against Iran's security," her husband Mohammad Hossein Ajorlou wrote on Twitter.

Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi were detained in the initial phase of protests that erupted after Mahsa Amini died following her arrest by Iran's morality police

In war-torn Sudan, volunteers turn schools into hospitals

In a Sudanese school turned makeshift hospital, a volunteer doctor hooks up a patient lying on a desk to an intravenous drip while nurses hand out medicines donated by neighbours.

As war has raged for six weeks and shuttered or destroyed many clinics, this school building in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city across the Nile, has become an emergency healthcare centre.

A chalk message written on a blackboard outside says the volunteer-run field hospital provides free general medical care, minor operations and other services.

Smoke billows over buildings in southern Khartoum on May 29, 2023, amid ongoing fighting between the forces of two rival generals

Sudan truce extension brings renewed fighting, little aid

Fighting flared again in Sudan on Tuesday despite the latest ceasefire pledges of the two warring generals, meant to allow desperately needed aid to reach besieged civilians.

US and Saudi mediators said late Monday that the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had agreed to extend by five days the humanitarian truce they frequently violated over the past week.

Since the announcement, residents reported "clashes with various kinds of weapons in southern Khartoum", and fighting in Nyala, South Darfur's state capital.

Almost 700,000 people have fled Khartoum, according to the UN

Iran 'resolves' one of UN nuclear watchdog's concerns: media

Iran has "resolved" one of three cases raised by the UN watchdog as possible evidence it had not declared all its past nuclear activities, Iranian media reported Tuesday.

The reports came just days before the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is due to meet to review progress in addressing the watchdog's remaining concerns.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (R) hosts talks with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in early March

Sudan army chief under pressure from Islamist backers: analysts

Before Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan got locked into a brutal war with his former deputy, he was propelled to power by powerful Islamists -- a tide now turning against him, according to analysts.

Burhan "does not represent a political current in his own right. He's a chess piece in Sudanese politics," said Othman al-Mirghani, editor-in-chief of independent daily Al-Tayar.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan after the signing of a deal in late 2022 aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by a 2021 military coup