The European Union and Tunisia on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding for a "strategic and comprehensive partnership" on irregular migration, economic development and renewable energy.

The deal, which includes financial assistance, came as Tunisia has been under fire over its treatment of migrants since February, after President Kais Saied accused "hordes" of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries of a "plot" to change the country's demographic makeup.

Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants who have been left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water and food, and their numbers are "rising", an officer said Sunday.

Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia's second-largest city.

Libyan border guards have rescued dozens of migrants they say had been left in the desert by Tunisian authorities without water, food or shelter, AFP correspondents reported Sunday.

Hundreds of migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were forcibly taken to desert and hostile areas bordering Libya and Algeria after racial unrest in early July in Sfax, Tunisia's second-largest city.

Iraq said Sunday it has found a site in a province bordering Saudi Arabia where captagon is produced, a rare discovery in a country that has become a transit route for the illicit drug.

"Today, and maybe for the first time, a laboratory where captagon is produced was found," interior ministry spokesman General Saad Maan said in a video posted online.

Iraq has long been a transit country for captagon, the amphetamine-like stimulant plaguing the Middle East, but officials say it has also become a consumer market for the drug.

Israel returned a boat to a Gaza fisherman it had seized for allegedly breaching the limits of the Palestinian enclave's fishing zone, an NGO said Sunday, following an Israeli court order.

Israeli authorities had called for the vessel, belonging to fisherman Mohammad al-Hissi, to be permanently confiscated, triggering fears of more such seizures off the Gaza Strip.

But a Haifa court last month ordered that the boat be returned to Hissi even as legal proceedings continued, according to Gisha, the Israeli group defending the Gazan.

A rusting tanker containing more than a million barrels of oil has lain abandoned off the coast of war-torn Yemen since 2015, threatening a major environmental disaster if it breaks up or explodes.

On Sunday, a United Nations-owned super-tanker arrived for a delicate operation to pump the oil from the abandoned ship, the FSO Safer.

Here are some key facts:

- Blast risk -

The Syrian government recently announced it would allow aid to cross into rebel-held areas after a United Nations mechanism expired, sparking concerns from humanitarian groups.

They worry over the fate of residents in Syria's last remaining rebel strongholds, in the north and northwest, after the Security Council failed on Wednesday to extend the mechanism.

Under a 2014 deal, aid had largely passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey without the authorisation of Damascus.

A UN-owned ship arrived off war-torn Yemen on Sunday for a risky operation to pump more than a million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker and prevent a catastrophic spill.

After years of tense diplomacy between the United Nations, Yemen's Huthi rebels and the internationally recognised government, the Nautica entered Yemeni waters at midday, and was expected to moor soon alongside the FSO Safer, a rusting super-tanker in the Red Sea.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from hospital Sunday in "excellent condition", a day after being admitted for dehydration, his office and the hospital said.

The 73-year-old was transferred to the Sheba medical centre near Tel Aviv on Saturday with dizziness after having spent the previous day in the scorching heat of the Sea of Galilee in Israel's north.

By late Sunday morning, Netanyahu had "completed a series of tests and is in excellent condition", said professor Amit Segev, Sheba's head of cardiology.

Scorching weather gripped three continents on Sunday, whipping up wildfires and threatening to topple temperature records as the dire consequences of global warming take shape.

Predictions of historic heat hung over swathes of Asia, Europe and the United States.

In the Vatican, 15,000 people braved sweltering temperatures to hear Pope Francis lead prayer, using parasols and fans to keep cool.

But in their black robes, priests like Francois Mbemba said they were "sweating like hell".