The UK on Monday announced new sanctions against Syria's defence minister and its head of the armed forces, as part of new curbs targeting conflict-related sexual violence.

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Ali Mahmoud Abbas and Abdel Karim Mahmoud Ibrahim would be subject to asset freezes and travel bans.

An attacker stabbed a security guard on Monday outside Brazil's embassy in Tunis before being shot and arrested, the Tunisian interior ministry said.

The guard "was wounded by a sharp object" wielded "by a person he was questioning over the reason for his presence in the perimeter of the embassy", the ministry said in a statement.

Kuwait's fifth government in less than one year took the oath of office Monday after elections returned an opposition-controlled parliament, setting the stage for further political turmoil in the oil-rich emirate.

Four royals are among the 15-strong cabinet, which is appointed by the ruling Al-Sabah family and has a history of clashes with the Gulf's only elected national assembly with powers to hold government to account.

The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have announced the reopening of their embassies on Monday following a yearslong rift over Qatar's support of Islamist groups.

The two countries issued statements saying the Qatari Embassy in Abu Dhabi and a Qatari Consulate in Dubai, as well as an Emirati Embassy in Qatar's capital, Doha, had resumed operations. The statements did not say if ambassadors were in place or if the missions were open to the public.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government intends to move ahead on contentious plans to change the country's judicial system after talks aimed at finding a compromise solution appeared to be crumbling.

The government's plans to overhaul the judiciary plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises ever earlier this year. Negotiations between the government and opposition parties somewhat alleviated the crisis with attempts to find a middle ground over proposed changes to the country's justice system.

A relentless wave of violent crime within Israel's Palestinian minority is turning cities and towns into bloody battlefields, exasperating a community feeling increasingly forsaken by Israeli authorities.

Anger over the mounting insecurity is directed at Israel's government and its ultranationalist minister in charge of police, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Critics say that with his history of anti-Arab rhetoric, he cannot be trusted to combat the rising scourge.

Israel's government has granted a pro-settlement firebrand authority over planning in the occupied West Bank and lifted red tape on the settlement housing approval process.

The changes make it easier for Israel to expand its settlements on land the Palestinians seek as the heartland of their future state, at a time when hopes for peace are more distant than ever.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he opposes any interim agreement reportedly being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program.

Netanyahu spoke after reports in Israeli media said understandings are being reached between Washington and Tehran that would seek to hold back Iran's nuclear program somewhat, in exchange for some sanctions relief. The reports could not be independently confirmed and the U.S. has publicly denied any such deal.

A Greek news website has published excerpts from the depositions of two survivors of Wednesday's deadly shipwreck off southwestern Greece, in which more than 500 people are feared drowned after an overcrowded boat carrying as many as 750 migrants went down in international waters.

Passengers on the ill-fated trawler had to subsist on meager supplies of food and water which ran out several hours before the disaster, two survivors have reportedly testified.

Israeli helicopter gunships struck targets Monday in the occupied West Bank as a gunbattle raged in the city of Jenin between Israeli troops and militants, killing four Palestinians, including a 15-year-old boy, officials said.

The violence marked a rare use of Israeli airpower in the territory. During the clashes, Palestinian militants detonated a roadside bomb next to an Israeli military vehicle. At least 45 Palestinians were wounded, five seriously. The Israeli military said seven members of the paramilitary border police and the army suffered light and moderate wounds.