Seven Iraqi fighters were killed north of Baghdad on Thursday when a suicide bomber attacked a base of an armed group led by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the army said.

Turkey's recent moves with Libya -- threatening troop deployments and signing a contentious maritime deal -- are aimed at shoring up a rare regional ally and preserving access to gas supplies, analysts say.

Ankara has been one of the staunchest supporters of the beleaguered Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, a relationship that has deepened in the face of an assault to seize the Libyan capital by military strongman Khalifa Haftar since April.

After almost 10 months of political turmoil, Algeria on Thursday held a presidential vote bitterly opposed by a protest movement that sees it as a regime ploy to cling on to power.

The tyres of approximately 20 cars were punctured and anti-Arab slogans scrawled on buildings in an Arab town in northern Israel, police said Thursday, in an apparent nationalistic hate crime.

Several international aid groups warned on Thursday that the flashpoint Yemeni city at the heart of last year's peace agreement signed in Sweden remains the most dangerous place in the war-torn, impoverished Arab country.

Fifteen aid agencies -- including the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, Medecins du Monde and Oxfam -- say that since the U.N.-brokered deal last December, the port city of Hodeida and the surrounding province has seen 799 civilians killed and wounded.

Israel's parliament began rushing through a bill on Wednesday to call a third general election within a year, as talks between embattled premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his centrist rival broke down ahead of a midnight deadline.

They hail from Basra's poorest slums and Baghdad's best universities and count among their ranks artists, tribal dignitaries and desperate young men. Iraq's "October Revolution" reflects a diverse society.

The UN has been unable to confirm Iranian involvement in a dramatic attack on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, secretary-general Antonio Guterres said Tuesday.  

Drones and cruise missiles were used in the September bombardment, which knocked out half of the kingdom's crude production and fueled a record surge in prices.

In Algeria's disaffected Kabylie region, the brick has become the symbol of the anti-vote campaign ahead of unpopular presidential elections set for Thursday.

"Last seen: Friday, 9:18pm." About an hour after gunmen began attacking a protest encampment in Iraq's capital at the weekend, Mustafa -- who had slept there for weeks -- went offline.