Saudi Arabia's king and its powerful crown prince Sunday congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election, state media said, a day after TV networks declared him the victor.

King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent congratulatory messages to US president-elect Biden and vice-president-elect Kamala Harris, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Egypt Sunday hoping to ease tensions following the publishing of controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked ire in the Arab world.

Joe Biden's U.S. election win marks a setback for Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump -- but it could spur renewed engagement between Washington and the Palestinians, experts said.

The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday a major overhaul of the country's Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing so-called "honor killings."

The broadening of personal freedoms reflects the changing profile of a country that has sought to bill itself as a Westernized destination for tourists, fortune-seekers and businesses despite its Islamic legal code that has previously triggered court cases against foreigners and outrage in their home countries.

Egyptians began voting Saturday in the second phase of a parliamentary election in which supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi are expected to win.

A young demonstrator was shot dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Friday as gunmen killed a prominent activist in the capital, police and medics said.

They said Omar Fadhel was killed in the center of Basra, while at around the same time a key figure in anti-government protests launched in Baghdad in October 2019 was gunned down with a silencer as he drove through an eastern district.

Lakhdar Bouregaa, a highly respected veteran of Algeria's war of independence against France and a key figure in an anti-regime protest movement, has died at the age of 87.

The EU on Thursday called on Israel to cease demolishing Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and lift a threat to demolish Palestinian schools, calling them "an impediment towards the two-state solution".

Saudi Arabia said Wednesday it will ease key restrictions on millions of foreign workers, as part of plans to reform its long-criticised labour policy. 

A Palestinian who shot at Israeli troops near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday was killed by soldiers who returned fire, Israel's army said.