Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who ruled Algeria for two decades before resigning in 2019 as huge protests engulfed the country, has died aged 84, public television announced.

Tunisia and Libya are to reopen their shared border on Friday, the presidency in Tunis said, two months after they were closed as the country's coronavirus caseload soared.

"The president of (Tunisia) issued orders to reopen border crossings with the state of Libya from Friday" at 7:00 am local time (0600 GMT), the office of President Kais Saied said in a statement.

The European Union's first ever election observation mission in Iraq will deploy 80 people to follow early parliamentary polls next month, the group's head Viola von Cramon has said.

"I strongly encourage everyone to make sure this is a peaceful process," von Cramon told reporters in Baghdad, adding that "violence and intimidation have no place in elections".

Forces loyal to a powerful Libyan commander say they are now battling their former allies, Chadian rebels who have sought refuge in southern Libya as they fight the government in Chad's capital, N'Djamena.

The self-styled Libyan army led by commander Khalifa Haftar said it launched an operation against the Chadian fighters in the Libyan towns of Tamsah and Tarbo, on the border with Chad.

Civil society groups in Tunisia have warned that freedoms were being rolled back after President Kais Saied imposed a string of emergency measures.

The humble spoon has taken its place alongside traditional flags and banners as a Palestinian resistance symbol, after prisoners were said to have carried out one of Israel's most spectacular jail breaks with the utensil.

When the six Palestinian militants escaped through a tunnel on September 6 from the high security Gilboa prison, social networks shared images of a tunnel at the foot of a sink, and a hole dug outside.

A global human rights group Thursday accused Egypt's main domestic security agency of harassing and intimidating rights advocates and activists to silence them.

The Amnesty International report was the latest rebuke to Egypt's government, which faces increasing pressure from the U.S. to improve its human rights record.

Yemen's southern separatists have resorted to emergency measures in a bid to put down growing protests over dire living conditions in areas under their control.

Aydarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the separatists' Southern Transitional Council, declared a state of emergency across Yemen's southern provinces, including the port city of Aden. The city serves an interim capital for the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Lawyers for two Palestinians who were captured after escaping from an Israeli prison last week have said their clients were badly beaten during their arrest, with the most well-known of the prisoners suffering a broken jaw and two broken ribs while in handcuffs.

Six Palestinian prisoners, five of whom have been accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, tunneled out of a maximum-security prison in northern Israel on Sept. 6 in the first mass prison break in decades. Four were recaptured around five days later, apparently while hiding outdoors.

Qatar resumed its distribution of aid to Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since the May war between Israel and the territory's militant Hamas rulers, this time through a new mechanism that does not involve suitcases full of cash.

The Hamas-run government's official news agency said the money is being disbursed through supermarkets, money exchange shops and other retail stores in a process that will continue over the coming days. The U.N. has said the funding amounts to $40 million.