Nearly a month after floods hit Derna in eastern Libya, survivors are struggling to overcome the psychological toll, with many grieving the loss -- or still without news -- of loved ones.

Extreme rainfall from hurricane-strength Storm Daniel caused two upstream dams to burst on September 10, sending flood waters that have been likened to a tsunami crashing through the middle of Derna.

The deluge razed entire neighbourhoods, dividing the port city and sweeping many people into the Mediterranean and to their deaths.

Weather disasters fueled by climate change -- from floods to droughts, storms to wildfires -- sparked 43.1 million child displacements from 2016 to 2021, the UN Children's Fund warned Thursday, slamming the lack of attention paid to victims.

In a sweeping report on the issue, the United Nations agency detailed the heart-wrenching stories of some of the children affected, and co-author Laura Healy told AFP the data only revealed the "tip of the iceberg," with many more likely affected.

A group of high-profile activists including Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai and Gloria Steinem have signed a call for the United Nations to criminalize gender apartheid, according to a letter sent to member states Thursday.

The letter, which is also signed by some of Afghanistan's most prominent rights activists, comes as the international community grapples with how to hold the Taliban government accountable for its grave abuses against Afghan women.

US warplanes on Thursday shot down a Turkish drone that was deemed a threat to American forces in Syria, the Pentagon said -- an incident likely to raise tensions between the NATO allies.

The shootdown came as Turkey targeted Kurdish forces in Syria following a suicide bombing in Ankara that was claimed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

An attack Thursday on a Syrian military academy killed 112 people, a war monitor said, with state media blaming "terrorist organisations" for the drone strike in government-held Homs.

Separately, Turkish air raids in the country's Kurdish-held northeast killed at least 11 people, according to Kurdish forces, after Ankara had threatened retaliation for a bomb attack.

In the central city of Homs, "armed terrorist organisations" targeted "the graduation ceremony for officers of the military academy", an army statement carried by official news agency SANA said.

Iranian campaigner Narges Mohammadi has for decades campaigned on the most sensitive issues in the Islamic republic, opposing pillars of the clerical system including capital punishment and the obligatory hijab, and defiantly refusing to give up her campaigning even behind bars.

She has not seen her children for eight years, has spent most of her recent life in prison and acknowledges there is no immediate prospect of release.

Nagorno-Karabakh has laid down its arms but Armenian Sergei Davidyan is having none of it.

The enclave taken over by Azerbaijan is the homeland of his ancestors, the place where he grew up and the land he was wounded fighting to defend during the 2020 war that Armenia lost.

In a small flat which he shares with his mother in the suburbs of Yerevan, the 39-year-old veteran struggled to find the right words to express his indignation.

"The loss of Karabakh... I can't accept it," he said, wearing a black polo shirt emblazoned with the self-proclaimed republic's flag.

An Israeli physicist who has become the face of a wave of anti-government protests warns that her country risks falling under "tyranny" as the hardline government pushes through its contentious judicial overhaul.

Shikma Bressler, 43, has led passionate weekly street rallies that have become Israel's biggest protest movement in years, ever since the divisive legal reform agenda was unveiled in January.

Iraqi gamers celebrated the release Thursday of the latest instalment of the "Assassin's Creed" action-adventure saga, set in ninth century Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate.

In the game, the hooded and stealthy hero fights his way through an ancient maze of alleyways, souks and rooftops, rendered in loving detail with what its creators say is the help of historical sources.

A drone strike Thursday on a Syrian military academy killed more than 60 people, a war monitor said, with state media blaming "terrorist organisations" for the attack in government-held Homs.

Separately, in the war-torn country's Kurdish-held northeast, Turkish strikes on military and infrastructure targets killed at least nine people, according to Kurdish forces, after Ankara had threatened raids in retaliation for a bomb attack.