Hans Grundberg, the United Nation's special envoy for war-torn Yemen, arrived Monday in the rebel-held capital in a bid to breathe life into peace talks, his office said.

Grundberg last visited the capital Sanaa, controlled by the Iran-backed Huthis, in May 2023 for meetings with the rebels' leaders in an earlier effort to advance a roadmap for peace.

The envoy's current visit "is part of his ongoing efforts to urge for concrete and essential actions... for advancing the peace process", Grundberg's office said in a statement.

A month into a crackdown by Palestinian security forces on militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the streets of Jenin refugee camp are deserted, except for a few residents briefly checking on their homes.

Shops are closed, and militants have erected metal barricades to block Palestinian forces, in the area where Israeli army raids are more common.

Black military vehicles from the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited control over the West Bank, are stationed beyond roadblocks at the camp's entrances.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi remains out of jail after being allowed leave on medical grounds but could be re-arrested and sent back at any time, her family's lawyer said Monday.

Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her two-decade fight for human rights in the Islamic republic, was released from Tehran's Evin prison on December 4 after an operation to remove a benign tumour. She is also suffering from other ailments.

Syrian state media said a five-day security operation in Homs city ended Monday, with a war monitor reporting hundreds of arrests in sweeps mostly targeting neighbourhoods of ousted president Bashar al-Assad's Alawite community.

"We announce the end of the combing campaign in the neighbourhoods of Homs city after achieving the campaign's objectives," the SANA news agency said, quoting the head of Homs's General Security agency without naming the official.

French President Emmanuel Macron called on Ukraine Monday to have "realistic" expectations on territory as its fight against the Russian invasion heads into a fourth year, saying he saw no "quick and easy solution" to the conflict.

Outlining France's foreign policy for the coming year, Macron also took aim at Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X and close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, accusing him of supporting "a new international reactionary movement".

Iran in 2024 executed at least 31 women, an NGO said on Monday, warning that female prisoners were increasingly being caught in a surge in the use of capital punishment in the Islamic republic.

Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which closely tracks executions in Iran, said in a report that the figure for 2024 marked the highest number of women to be hanged in Iran since it started documenting the use of capital punishment in 2008.

Every night, Damascus residents stand guard outside shops and homes armed with light weapons often supplied by Syria's new rulers, eager to fill the security vacuum that followed the recent takeover.

After Islamist-led rebels ousted former president Bashar al-Assad in early December, thousands of soldiers, policemen and other security officials deserted their posts, leaving the door open to petty theft, looting and other crimes.

Carlos Sainz's defence of his Dakar Rally title ended prematurely on Monday when the Spaniard was forced to pull out after the marathon 48-hour stage won by Lithuanian driver Rokas Baciuska.

Four-time winner Sainz raised the white flag of surrender in the Saudi Arabian desert after limping in third, his Ford Raptor in no fit state to continue after being flipped on its head the day before.

The 62-year-old Sainz and his co-driver had tried in vain to repair their stricken car overnight at the midway point of the '48-hour Chrono.

Israel said Monday that Hamas had yet to clarify whether 34 hostages it said it was ready to free were dead or alive, throwing doubt on the group's assertion that it needed time to ascertain their fate.

The offer from Hamas came as Israel continued to pound the Gaza Strip, where rescuers said 16 people were killed Monday.

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since the Gaza war broke out, Israeli officials said three Israeli citizens were killed when gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy went on trial on Monday charged with accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Sarkozy's career has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 2012 presidential election.

He has been convicted in two other cases, charged in another and is being investigated in two more. But he remains an influential figure and is also known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.