The first United Arab Emirates ambassador to Damascus in nearly 13 years has taken up his post as Syria has been reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance.

Syrian state media said Tuesday the country's Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad received Ambassador Hassan Ahmad al-Shihi's credentials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected two key demands Hamas has made during indirect cease-fire talks, saying Israel will not withdraw from the Gaza Strip or release thousands of jailed militants.

During an event Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu again vowed that the war would not end without Israel's "absolute victory" over Hamas.

U.S. and Mideast mediators appeared optimistic in recent days that they were closing in on a deal for a two-month cease-fire in Gaza and the release of over 100 hostages held by Hamas.

But on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the militant group's two main demands — that Israel withdraw its forces from Gaza and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners — indicating that the gap between the two sides remains wide.

Dozens of Palestinians gathered Tuesday in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters in Beirut after several countries decided to suspend funding for the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency.

A number of key donors -- including the United States, Germany and Japan -- had announced they are suspending funding to the agency over Israel's accusations that some of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas attack.

Europe's economy failed to expand at the end of 2023, with the stagnation now lasting for more than a year amid higher energy prices, costlier credit and lagging growth in powerhouse Germany.

Zero economic growth for the October-to-December period of last year follows a 0.1% contraction in the three months before that, according to figures released Tuesday by EU statistics agency Eurostat.

Erling Haaland is available again for Manchester City after nearly two months out with a foot injury, manager Pep Guardiola said Tuesday.

The Norway striker will return to the squad for City's English Premier League game at home to Burnley on Wednesday.

With protesting farmers camped out at barricades around Paris, France's government hoped to calm their anger with more concessions Tuesday to their complaints that growing and rearing food has become too difficult and not sufficiently lucrative.

Attention was focusing on an address that new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was to give in the afternoon to France's lower house of parliament, laying out his government's priorities.

The highest court in sports sanctioned Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva for doping violations at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. The ruling means U.S. skaters will receive gold medals after they finished second behind Valieva and her teammates in the team competition.

The case rocked the Olympics when, about 24 hours after she led Russia to the victory in the team event, details about a sample taken six weeks earlier at Russia's national championships revealed there was a banned heart medication in her system.

As the U.S. presidential campaign moves closer to a Donald Trump-Joe Biden rematch, China is watching uneasily.

First, there are concerns about the campaign itself, where candidates are likely to talk tough on China. That could threaten the fragile improvements in U.S.-China relations seen in recent months.

Aymen Hussein was sent off moments after putting Iraq within sight of the Asian Cup quarterfinals and Jordan fought back to win 3-2 on Monday.

The striker was shown a second yellow card for excessive celebrations after firing Iraq 2-1 ahead at Khalifa International Stadium.