Fighting flared up this week between Yemen's Houthi rebels and pro-government forces in the country's southern province of Shabwa, killing 35 from both sides, tribal leaders and security officials said.

Clashes are now in their third day in several districts of the largely government-controlled province, including Bayhan and Usaylan, said the officials and the elders. Dozens have been wounded on both sides, they said.

The cinematic escape of six prisoners who tunneled out of an Israeli penitentiary earlier this month shone a light on Israel's mass incarceration of Palestinians, one of the many bitter fruits of the conflict.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have passed through a military justice system designed for what Israel still portrays as a temporary occupation, but that is now well into its sixth decade and critics say is firmly cemented.

Tunisian President Kaïs Saied issued presidential decrees bolstering the already near-total power he granted himself two months ago.

Wednesday's decrees include the continuing suspension of the Parliament's powers and the suspension of all lawmakers' immunity from prosecution. But the text published in the official gazette went even further — now freezing lawmakers' salaries.

The head of the U.N. food agency is warning that 16 million people in Yemen "are marching towards starvation" and says food rations for millions in the war-torn nation will be cut in October unless new funding arrives.

David Beasley said Wednesday at a high-level meeting on Yemen's humanitarian crisis that the United States, Germany, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other donors stepped up when the World Food Program was running out of money earlier this year and "because of that we averted famine and catastrophe."

Libya's powerful, east-based commander has announced he was suspending his role as leader of a self-styled Libyan army for the next three months — the clearest indication yet that he may be contemplating a run for president in December elections.

If he runs, commander Khalifa Hifter would be one of the frontrunners in the Dec. 24 vote but his candidacy is likely to stir controversy in western Libya and the capital of Tripoli, the stronghold of his opponents, mostly Islamists.

Two children die every week in Al-Hol, one of the overcrowded Syrian camps where families with suspected links to the Islamic State group are stranded, Save the Children said Thursday.

The charity said many countries, including EU states, were abandoning thousands of children in their desert limbo, vulnerable to violence, fires, malnutrition and illness.

Saudi Arabia's monarch expressed hope Wednesday that the kingdom's direct talks with Iran will lead to confidence building as the two bitter regional rivals take small steps toward dialogue following several years of heightened tensions.

King Salman made the remarks in a pre-recorded speech delivered to leaders gathered for the U.N. General Assembly. He said Iran is a neighbor of Saudi Arabia, and that the kingdom hopes talks between the two nations can lead to tangible results that pave the way to achieving the aspirations of the region's people.

There was a time not long ago when uprisings and wars in the Arab world topped the agenda at the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York.

With most of those conflicts in a stalemate, the world's focus has shifted to more daunting global challenges such as the still raging coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as new crises in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Iraq's association of cement manufacturers on Tuesday slammed a government decision to reduce subsidies on fuel for the sector, warning the move risks factory closures and cement price increases.

The oil ministry earlier this month raised the price of fuel sold to cement manufactures from 150 dinars per liter (around 10 cents) to 250, following on from a previous hike earlier in the year.

Oil-rich Libya, whose parliament on Tuesday passed a no-confidence vote in its unity government, has been mired in chaos since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011.

The unity government, only installed in March, was to rule until elections scheduled for December, replacing two rival governments who have battled for years in a bloody struggle for control of the country.