Iraq on Saturday presented an ambitious plan to turn itself into a regional transportation hub by developing its road and rail infrastructure, linking Europe with the Middle East.
Once completed, the $17 billion project known as the "Route of Development" would span the length of the country, stretching 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the northern border with Turkey to the Gulf in the south.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said he was "shocked" by a letter from Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, reportedly requesting the replacement of special envoy Volker Perthes amid a brutal war with paramilitaries.
Guterres "is proud of the work done by Volker Perthes and reaffirms his full confidence in his Special Representative", a statement from UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said late Friday.
Turkey reached the final stretch Friday of a bitter presidential campaign that has seen Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his secular rival exploit fears about migrants and Kurdish militants.
Erdogan appears on course to extend two decades of his Islamic style of rule until 2028 in Sunday's runoff.
His victory would preserve the key NATO member's reputation as a problem child that plays off rivalries between Moscow and Washington while pushing its own course in the Middle East.
Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who was detained for almost 15 months in Iran, landed in Belgium late Friday, according to images broadcast on television, after being freed in a prisoner exchange.
The 42-year-old Belgian was greeted by his parents, sister and other family members on the tarmac of the Melsbroek military base near Brussels following his release on Friday.
The military plane bringing him back from Oman landed shortly after 9:30pm (1930 GMT), according to the images shown on RTL-TVI channel.
Fierce fighting between rival Sudanese forces on Friday rocked the western region of Darfur, witnesses said, as US and Saudi observers noted "improved respect" for a fragile ceasefire now in its fourth day.
Within minutes of the ceasefire taking effect late Monday, witnesses in the capital Khartoum reported air strikes and gunshots.
The one-week truce is the latest in a series of agreements that have all been systematically violated, with the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) accusing each other of more breaches this week.
The return of Chinese tourists to destinations worldwide will top off a spectacular post-coronavirus global tourism revival this year, according to industry leaders.
Jet makers, airline executives and hotel tycoons at this week's Qatar Economic Forum spoke of an apparently insatiable demand for travel. Chinese tourists, now unshackled from Covid-19 restrictions, will complete the boom, they said.
Yemeni artist Alaa Rubil uses the shell-pocked buildings of his hometown as canvas, painting images of death and despair to shine a light on the horrors and victims of war.
Not long after the start of the bloody conflict between Yemen's internationally recognised government and Huthi rebel forces, the southern port city of Aden, where Rubil lives, became the scene of brutal fighting.
For several months in 2015, artillery rained down on Aden, and Huthi rockets and mortars fired into densely populated areas killed dozens of civilians, Human Rights Watch reported at the time.
Lebanon's gracious Sursock Museum is set to reopen on Friday, more than two years after a catastrophic explosion at Beirut port devastated the architectural gem and its modern and contemporary art collection.
One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions, the blast on August 4, 2020 destroyed much of Beirut port and surrounding areas, killing more than 215 people and injuring over 6,500.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club pressed Thursday for the release of a seriously ill detainee, held for decades by Israel.
Walid Daqqa, a Palestinian serving time for the kidnap and murder of an Israeli soldier, has cancer, the advocacy group said.
"He is now on artificial ventilation and his lungs and kidneys are in great distress," it said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service told AFP that Daqqa is currently at Shamir Medical Centre in central Israel.
In a dusty Syrian camp for earthquake survivors, school pupils line up and wait for a colourful bus to pull up. Since the disaster hit, they go to a classroom on wheels.
School bags on their backs and notebooks in hand, the children took off their shoes before entering the bus, then sat down along rows of desks fitted inside.
A teacher greeted them in the mobile classroom, decorated with curtains bearing children's designs, before they broke into a song for their English class.
