Middle East & North Africa

ANTAKYA, Turkey/JANDARIS, Syria, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Rescuers in Turkey pulled more people from the rubble early on Saturday, five days after the country's most devastating earthquake since 1939, but hopes were fading in Turkey and Syria that many more survivors would be found.

In Kahramanmaras, close to the quake's epicentre in southern Turkey, there were fewer visible rescue operations amid the smashed concrete mounds of fallen houses and apartment blocks, while ever more trucks rumbled through the streets shipping out debris.

ISTANBUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) - A border gate between long-feuding Turkey and Armenia has been opened for the first time in 35 years to allow aid for victims of the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey, state-owned Anadolu news agency and a diplomat said.

Turkey's special envoy for Armenia, Serdar Kilic, tweeted photos of trucks passing through the Alican checkpoint at the Turkish side of the Aras river separating the two countries.

Feb 11 (Reuters) - The Islamic Republic marked the 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Saturday with state-organised rallies, as anti-government hackers briefly interrupted a televised speech by President Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi, whose hardline government faces one of the boldest challenges from young protesters calling for its ouster, appealed to the “deceived youth” to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran's supreme leader.

In that case, he told a crowd congregated at Tehran's expansive Azadi Square: “the Iranian people will embrace them with open arms”.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power 20 years ago riding a wave of public outrage toward the previous government’s handling of a deadly earthquake.

Now, three months away from an election, Erdogan’s political future could hinge on how the public perceives his government’s response to a similarly devastating natural disaster.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Rescue teams in Turkey on Saturday pulled to safety a family of five who survived inside their collapsed home for five days following a major earthquake in a sprawling border region of Turkey and Syria. The death toll, however, was approaching 25,000.

They first extricated mother and daughter Havva and Fatmagul Aslan from among a mound of debris in the hard-hit town of Nurdagi, in Gaziantep province, HaberTurk reported. The teams later reached the father, Hasan Aslan, but he insisted that his other daughter, Zeynep, and son Saltik Bugra be saved first.

10 Feb 2023; MEMO: The administration of President Joe Biden has warned the Israeli government that it would consider any transfer of civilian authorities in the occupied West Bank to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a step toward annexation, Axios has reported citing two Israeli and US officials.

10 Feb 2023; MEMO: A radar system developed by the Turkish state-run Defence company, STM, is saving lives in the earthquake-ravaged areas of Turkiye, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The through-the-wall DAR radar system can locate people through the mounds of debris.

STM lead technician, Yusuf Hayirli, told Anadolu the DAR radar system designed for the defence industry was used out of its field for the first time in an earthquake zone.

10 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Algerian government on Friday decided to provide $45 million in financial aid to Turkiye and Syria after the devastating earthquake that struck the two countries on Monday, killing more than 22,000 people, according to a government statement.

10 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkish footballer Merih Demiral announced on Friday that the shirt of Argentinian star Lionel Messi would be auctioned online to collect donations for victims of the devastating earthquake in Turkiye.

Demiral, who plays for the Italian team Atalanta B.C., tweeted: "Messi's shirt worn in one of the matches and was personally signed by him, is being auctioned off."

He added: "All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Turkish NGO AHBAP for use in the areas hit by the earthquake."

10 Feb 2023; MEMO: Drone footage in southern Turkiye showed fissures slicing and cracking across fields, roads, streams and hillsides, caused by a massive earthquake that struck the region at the start of the week, Reuters reports.

One jagged scar of bare and cracked earth, opened up by Monday's quake, cut deep into embankments and ran along expanses of open land up to the horizon near the town of Tevekkeli, in Turkiye's southern province of Kahramanmaras.