Clashes between forces loyal to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and dissident tribesmen in the country's second-largest city Taez killed eight people, five of them civilians, on Thursday, medics said.

"Eight people, including five civilians, were killed and 30 wounded," a medic from the city's al-Rawda neighborhoods told Agence France Presse.

Israel is to resume transferring millions of dollars in customs duties to the Palestinian Authority, public radio said Wednesday, but the prime minister's office said no decision had yet been taken.

Public radio reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's so-called Forum of Eight senior ministers had voted in favor of resuming the transfers, nearly a month after it froze them over Palestine's admission to UNESCO.

Robert Watkins, the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim, on Tuesday described the overnight rocket attack on Israel and the retaliation that ensued against Lebanese territory as a “very unfortunate incident.”

Watkins’ remarks were voiced during a meeting with Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, during which they discussed “the implementation of (U.N.) Security Council Resolution 1701 and the latest report on that resolution, which the Security Council is set to discuss at a meeting in New York” later on Tuesday.

A U.N. expert tasked with investigating alleged human rights abuses in Iran will talk to Iranian activists in France, Germany and Belgium this week after a request to visit the country itself was refused.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed will meet Iranians living in the three countries during a fact-finding mission from November 30 to December 8.

Syria's foreign minister will attend an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation aimed at finding ways to end the bloodshed in his country, an OIC official said Tuesday.

The meeting to be held on Wednesday comes just days after the Arab League imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Syria, including a ban on travel of Syrian officials to Arab countries.

Mexican mariachi music, Chinese shadow puppetry and poetic dueling from Cyprus were among the cultural traditions identified by the United Nations on Tuesday as in need of protection.

Also added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list — now in its second year and nearly 250 strong — were French-style horseback riding, which celebrates harmony between beast and man, the doleful fado songs of Portugal and Jultagi tightrope walking from Korea.

Syria's military and security forces have committed crimes against humanity in their deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters, U.N.-appointed investigators said on Monday.

State forces have murdered, raped and tortured demonstrators since the beginning of protests in March this year, according to evidence gathered by the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Israel is considering releasing tax money it has been withholding from the Palestinian Authority in response to their bid for UNESCO membership, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Israel on November 1 announced it was freezing the transfer of the tax and tariff funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians after they gained full UNESCO membership despite Israeli and U.S. objections.

Iran's Guardians Council on Monday approved a parliamentary bill demanding Britain's ambassador to Tehran be expelled within two weeks, making it law, the website for state television reported.

The confirmation by the council, whose jurists and clerics vet parliamentary texts to make sure they adhere to Islamic and constitutional rules, means Iran's foreign ministry now has to apply the measure.

Three people were wounded in a suspected bomb blast inside the main hospital in the war-torn Somali capital, officials and witnesses said Monday.

The explosion occurred late Sunday inside a room near one of the main meeting halls of Banadir hospital.