Diary

ANKARA (AA) - Here are the main topics Anadolu Agency's English Desk plans to cover on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 (coverage may change depending on developing/breaking stories):

TURKEY

ANKARA - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to meet his Uzbek counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

ANKARA - Erdogan to participate in inauguration of landmark Presidential Library in presidential complex.

ANKARA - Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop to meet his Montenegrin counterpart Ivan Brajovic.

US

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump to hold election rally in Colorado.

BELGIUM

BRUSSELS - EU leaders to hold special summit on budget.

GERMANY

BERLIN - Police to hold new conference after eleven people were killed in shootings in western town of Hanau.

RUSSIA

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin to answer questions of state-run TASS agency in video interview, also to hold meeting with Federal Security Service board.

MOSCOW - Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to hold news conference.

CHINA

WUHAN - Following global spread of coronavirus outbreak, efforts to fight it.

SYRIA

IDLIB - Monitoring humanitarian crisis in Idlib and attacks of Assad regime, Iranian-backed terrorist groups, Russia in region.

LIBYA / RUSSIA / TURKEY

TRIPOLI / MOSCOW / ANKARA - Monitoring initiatives to solve Libya crisis after UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) leaves cease-fire talks in wake of warlord Khalifa Haftar's forces' attack on port of Tripoli.

THE ECONOMY

ANKARA - Turkish Statistical Institute to release Consumer Confidence Index for February.

ANKARA - Turkish Central Bank to reveal short-term external debt statistics for December 2019.

ANKARA - Treasury and Finance Ministry to announce central government's debt statistics for January.

SPORTS

LISBON - Medipol Basaksehir to face Sporting Lisbon in first leg of Round 32 in UEFA Europa League.

ISTANBUL - Fenerbahce Beko to face Real Madrid in week 25 in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season.

ANTALYA - Third edition of Tour of Antalya to get underway.

SPECIAL REPORT

'South Sudanese opposition leader appears to be playing politics'

By Benjamin Takpiny

JUBA, South Sudan (AA) - As parties to South Sudan's peace agreement are expected to form a transitional government of national unity on Feb. 22, they still have some differences which seem to block its formation, as opposition leader Riek Machar has rejected the president's offer to reduce the number of states to 10 and create three administrative areas in the country.

SPECIAL REPORT

Turkey's state-run lenders see $1.82B net profit in 2019

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Three conventional state-run banks in Turkey -- Ziraat, VakifBank and Halkbank -- posted 10.85 billion Turkish liras ($1.82 billion) in net profit last year.

SPECIAL REPORT

Turkey, Kenya set to ink new cooperation agreements in March

By Hassan Isilow

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Turkey and Kenya are set to sign new cooperation agreements aimed to avoid double taxation and improve cooperation in the field of agriculture next month, said the Turkish envoy in Nairobi.

ANALYSIS

Israel conducts new Africa policy through UAE

By Osman Kagan Yucel

ISTANBUL (AA) - On his visit to Uganda on Feb. 3, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met head of Sudan's Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. This development symbols the emergence of a new approach in terms of Israel’s policies in the African continent.