People in Morocco slept in the streets of Marrakech for a third straight night as soldiers and international aid teams in trucks and helicopters began to fan into remote mountain towns hit hardest by a historic earthquake.

The disaster killed more than 2,100 people — a number that is expected to rise — and the United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night's magnitude 6.8 quake.

The United Nations special envoy for Syria Sunday urged donors not to reduce their funding as the war-torn country's economic crisis spirals.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's decision last month to double public sector wages and pensions further skyrocketed inflation and fueled ongoing protests that shook the southern Druze-majority province of Sweida and nearby Daraa.

A draft media law in Kuwait that threatens to outlaw criticism of top officials is causing anger in the country long considered to have the highest level of free expression in the Gulf.

The bill, proposed by the information ministry, has been condemned by lawmakers as a "violation of democracy" and an attempt to "silence and intimidate" the public.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held face-to-face talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi on Sunday, following a decade-long rift between the two countries.

Moroccans on Sunday mourned the victims of a devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people, as rescue teams raced to find survivors trapped in the rubble of flattened villages.

The strongest-ever quake to hit the country has killed at least 2,012 people and injured over 2,059, many of them critically, according to the latest official figures.

U.S. President Joe Biden and his allies on Saturday were to outline plans for a rail and shipping corridor that would connect India with the Middle East and ultimately Europe — a possible game changer for global trade to be announced at the Group of 20 summit.

The project would include the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and other countries in the G20, said Jon Finer, Biden's principal deputy national security adviser.

Morocco's deadliest earthquake in decades has killed at least 820 people, officials said Saturday, causing widespread damage and sending terrified residents and tourists scrambling to safety in the middle of the night.

Several thousand protesters supporting the Israeli government's judicial overhaul have rallied in front of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, before a pivotal hearing next week on the legality of the first major bill of the overhaul.

The bill, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right coalition passed in July, bans the Supreme Court from striking down government decisions it deems unreasonable.

A helicopter crashed off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, with two pilots now missing, authorities said Friday.

The crash happened offshore, though the UAE's General Civil Aviation Authorities did not specify where. It identified the aircraft involved as a Bell 212, which can carry 14 passengers and a pilot.

Israel closed the main commercial crossing in the Gaza Strip, effectively banning exports from the coastal territory after saying it had uncovered explosives in a shipment of clothes to the occupied West Bank. Gaza's fishermen, with their perishable exports, were among the first to feel the pain.

The new restrictions choke off the territory's already ailing economy. They come on top of the punishing 16-year blockade that Israel and Egypt have maintained since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the enclave in 2007.