LONDON (Reuters) -The British government on Tuesday removed Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group which spearheaded the Syrian rebel alliance that helped oust President Bashar al-Assad, from its list of banned terrorist organisations.

HTS, a former al Qaeda affiliate, was proscribed in 2017, meaning that Britain designated it as a terrorist group, making it illegal to support or join it.

By Jennifer Rigby

LONDON (Reuters) -Eradicating polio is still possible despite significant funding cuts to the effort, global health officials said on Tuesday as they outlined how they will cope with the shortfall.

The budget of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership including the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation, will take a 30% cut in 2026 and has a $1.7 billion funding gap up to 2029, the organisation says.

The shortfall is largely driven by a pullback from foreign aid led by the United States and other wealthy donor governments.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday said it is sending a team of five investigators to Hong Kong to support the investigation into a cargo plane from Dubai that skidded off the runway and killed two airport security staff.

The Boeing 747 involved in the deadliest airport incident Monday in the financial hub in more than 25 years collided with their security patrol vehicle, fell into the water and was partially submerged, but all four crew members on board escaped.

By Nafisa Eltahir

(Reuters) -The Sudanese pound has shed nearly two-fifths of its value after a de facto embargo on flights from the army's wartime capital Port Sudan into the United Arab Emirates disrupted the vital gold trade, traders and Sudanese officials said.

The army relies on the UAE for hard currency from gold exports but also accuses it of backing the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in a two-and-a-half-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due in Doha late Tuesday as Ankara sought to acquire some of Qatar's used Eurofighter Typhoon jets, a Turkish security source told AFP.

Erdogan flew in from Kuwait and was expected to meet Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday, according to the Turkish leader's office.

"Turkey has been trying to negotiate to acquire some of Qatar's used Eurofighters," the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Numerous U.S. allies have said they would welcome the opportunity to go into Gaza and straighten out Hamas with "heavy force," but there is no need for that yet, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday.

"I told these countries, and Israel, “NOT YET!” There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL! I would like to thank all of those countries that called to help," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey)

LONDON (Reuters) -The Israeli government urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honour the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the country.

"We believe that Prime Minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada," Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)

Workers in the southern Tunisian city of Gabes launched a general strike on Tuesday following weeks of protest over a chemical factory residents blame for a spike in serious health issues.

Thousands have recently rallied in the city of some 400,000 inhabitants to demand the closure of a state-run phosphate processing plant which they say is behind a rise in gas poisonings after it ramped up production.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Gaza mediators -- the United States, Egypt and Qatar -- stepped up their efforts this week to stabilise the early stages of the truce between Israel and Hamas and to push forward U.S. President Donald Trump's 20-point ceasefire plan.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF TALKS?

A Hamas delegation led by the group's exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, has been in Cairo for talks with Egypt since Saturday.

LONDON (Reuters) -Syria hopes that U.S. sanctions against the country will be formally lifted in the coming months, the country's Economy Minister Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar told Reuters on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered most sanctions lifted on the country in May after meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, but the Caesar Syria Civil Protection Act of 2019 authorising them remains U.S. law.