The United Nations mission in Libya has expressed its concern over "continued abductions, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances of citizens and public figures by various security actors" in the war-ravaged country.

Among those who have gone missing is Faraj Abderrahmane Boumtari, a former finance minister.

Israel's defense minister has visited Azerbaijan, seeking to strengthen ties between countries with shared opposition to Iran.

Defense Minster Yoav Gallant and Azerbaijani officials agreed to work together to deter threats from Iran, the Israeli Defense Ministry said. Israel views Iran as its archenemy, while Azerbaijan, which borders Iran to the north, also has a rocky relationship with Iran.

The Syrian government gave a green light Thursday for the United Nations to use a key crossing from Turkey to the country's rebel-held northwest that was closed earlier this week, but it wants to take away U.N. control over aid deliveries to the region.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, said the government is granting the U.N. and its agencies "permission" to use the Bab al-Hawa crossing for six months starting Thursday, but he said it must be done "in full cooperation and coordination with the government."

Iraqi officials have defended a deal inked this week to barter oil for gas with Iran, saying that the deal does not violate U.S. sanctions on Tehran and that it will help alleviate a worsening electricity crisis in Iraq.

The remarks come as the government in Baghdad struggles to maintain a balance between its two key allies, Washington and Tehran. A previous arrangement in which Iraq was buying gas from Iran and paying dollars for it was held up because Washington declined to approve sanctions waivers. That in turn led Iran to cut the gas supply, triggering severe power shortages in Iraq.

Thousands of protesters have gathered outside the main U.S. diplomatic office in Tel Aviv, calling upon the U.S. to condemn Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the country's judiciary.

The gathering came days after President Joe Biden called members of Netanyahu's far-right government "extreme" and said that supporters of Israel's West Bank settlements were "part of the problem."

Mohammed Hamid Nour is only 23, but he is already nostalgic for how Iraq's Mesopotamian marshes once were before drought dried them up, decimating his herd of water buffaloes.

Even at their centre in Chibayish, only a few expanses of the ancient waterways -- home to a Marsh Arab culture that goes back millennia -- survive, linked by channels that snake through the reeds.

As much of the world swelters in record temperatures, spare a thought for Issam Genedi, who ekes out a living washing cars in one of the planet's hottest regions, the Gulf.

Pausing from his work at an outdoor carpark in Dubai, the Egyptian migrant says the United Arab Emirates' furnace-like summer feels even hotter this year.

A German court convicted a Syrian man Tuesday of torturing captives while he was a member of the Islamic State group in Syria.

The Berlin regional court found Raed E. guilty of war crimes, membership of a foreign terrorist organization and other offences. It sentenced the defendant, whose surname wasn't released in line with German privacy rules, to 11 years in prison.

Egypt has invited war-torn Sudan's neighbours for a summit Thursday to "stop the bloodshed", the presidency said, with Ethiopia's premier Abiy Ahmed in Cairo despite tensions over a massive Nile river project.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed "discussed ways to settle the crisis in Sudan", Sisi's spokesman announced late Wednesday ahead of a larger regional meeting.

An online influencer has been arrested in Dubai over a satirical TikTok video in which he portrays a brash Emirati on a spending spree inside a luxury car showroom.

The comedic sketch, in which he tosses stacks of bills at bewildered employees and offers to buy the most expensive car — a $600,000 Ferrari SF90 — poked fun at the lavish lifestyles on display in the city, known for its gleaming skyscrapers and over-the-top tourism attractions.