Polls opened in Algeria Sunday for a vote on a revised constitution the regime hopes will neutralize a protest movement which at its peak last year swept long-time president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power.

A Saudi man rammed a car at high speed into the outer walls of Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, authorities said on Saturday.

An explosion targeting a gas pipeline in southern Iraq killed two children Saturday after a blast in the north this week forced the closure of another pipeline, authorities said.

Iraqi authorities reopened Baghdad's Tahrir Square and Al-Jumhuriyah bridge on Saturday, symbolically ending more than a year of demonstrations in epicentres of an anti-government protest movement.

Protester tents have been dismantled at the Tahrir roundabout, now again circled by cars, and the towering concrete walls used to close off the Al-Jumhuriyah bridge across the Tigris River have been removed.

The family of a man detained for killing three church-goers in France weeks after leaving his home in Tunisia has told AFP they are struggling to believe he carried out the attack.

Qatar said on Friday that those responsible for the invasive gynaecological searches of women passengers at Doha airport had been referred for prosecution over the "violations".

The United States has agreed to sell top-of-the-line F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates following its recognition of Israel, potentially shifting the regional power balance, a lawmaker said Thursday.

The United States said Thursday that its citizens born in Jerusalem will be able to list Israel as their place of birth, after President Donald Trump recognized the contested holy city as the Jewish state's capital.

Saudi Arabia "strongly condemned" deadly stabbings Thursday in the French city of Nice, which authorities are investigating as the latest terrorist attack in France.

A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah Thursday, officials said, as France faces growing anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.