Sixty years ago, a crisis hotline for the first time sent a message between the world's superpowers.

Communicated by Washington to Moscow, the message dated August 30, 1963 was more about testing every letter of the English keyboard than about addressing immediate conflict: "THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG'S BACK 1234567890."

But since then, the famed hotline has worked to manage tensions -- or to send warnings -- between Washington and Moscow, whose relations have plunged to new lows over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Cyprus police said Tuesday they have arrested 21 people after violent clashes between Cypriots and migrants near the resort city of Paphos, where authorities have started removing Syrians from a condemned apartment complex.

There has long been friction between asylum-seekers and residents of Chlorakas town.

Tensions flared on Sunday, police said, when a protest against the migrants escalated into splinter groups vandalising and damaging property belonging to the foreign residents, in racially motivated attacks.

The United States is racing to improve its messaging to the developing world as the BRICS group grows, although few in Washington view an immediate threat from the Chinese-backed club.

The BRICS -- Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa -- agreed at a summit last week to add six more members, in what Chinese President Xi Jinping billed as a historic moment among large emerging economies contesting the Western-led order.

Bahraini authorities have agreed to offer prisoners extra rights, including more visiting hours, following a hundreds-strong hunger strike that activists say is the largest in the country's history.

The interior ministry late Monday said it would "increase the duration of visitations" and was looking to increase the time inmates are allowed outdoors -- a step that has so far failed to quell the hunger strike at Jau prison that started in early August.

Sudan's army chief returned home Tuesday after visiting Egypt on his first trip abroad since the outbreak of war in April, with the latest violence killing dozens of civilians in battle-scarred Darfur.

As Abdel Fattah al-Burhan travelled for talks with key ally Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, medics and witnesses said 39 civilians were killed, most of them women and children, in shelling of Nyala, the South Darfur state capital where fighting between the army and paramilitary forces has intensified.

Air pollution is more dangerous to the health of the average person on planet Earth than smoking or alcohol, with the threat worsening in its global epicenter South Asia even as China fast improves, a study showed Tuesday.

Yet the level of funding set aside to confront the challenge is a fraction of the amount earmarked for fighting infectious diseases, said the research from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

Roberto Mancini said he hoped to lead Saudi Arabia to Asian Cup victory within months as he signed a multi-million dollar deal on Monday, just a fortnight after quitting as Italy coach.

The former Inter Milan and Manchester City boss held up a green shirt that read "Mancini 2027" after inking a contract to stay with the Green Falcons beyond the next World Cup.

Mancini, who has insisted that the oil-rich monarchy had "nothing to do" with his shock Italy exit, was reportedly offered more than $25 million to join the big-spending Saudis.

Iraq has hanged three people convicted for a 2016 bombing that killed more than 320 people in a Baghdad shopping district and was claimed by the Islamic State group, the prime minister's office said on Monday.

The bombing was one of the world's deadliest after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

At least 323 people were killed in the car bombing that sparked raging fires in Baghdad's Karrada shopping area early on July 3, 2016 as it teemed with people ahead of the Eid al-Fitr festival ending the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi inaugurated on Monday the last phase of the South Pars gas field, one of the world's largest natural gas condensate field and the country's biggest.

Iran shares the gas field with energy giant Qatar and there are 24 platforms on the side of the Islamic republic which has been developing it in the Gulf since the 1990s.

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told troops in Port Sudan on Monday time has come to "end the rebellion" by paramilitaries, promising victory four months into a brutal war.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led by Burhan's deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo had besieged the army chief inside military headquarters in Khartoum for the past four months.

But last week, Burhan made his first public foray outside the headquarters to review troops in parts of the war-scarred country.