Child marriages are declining -- but at a rate that would not eliminate the practice for another 300 years, while a perfect storm of crises could yet reverse the trend, the United Nations childrens' agency said Tuesday.

"We definitely have made progress in the abandonment of the practice of child marriage, particularly in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, this progress was not enough," Claudia Cappa, lead author of the UNICEF report published Tuesday, told AFP.

Press freedom is under attack in every corner of the globe, with journalists continually harassed, jailed and killed, UN officials and media outlets warned Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a rallying cry for journalists and media worldwide.

"All our freedom depends on press freedom," he said in a video message, calling it the "foundation of democracy and justice" and the "lifeblood of human rights."

The UAE's Emirates airline does not feel threatened by ambitious expansion plans in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and welcomes increased competition, its president said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia has announced a new national carrier, Riyadh Air, and a big new airport in the capital to handle up to 120 million travellers per year.

But Emirates president Tim Clark, who put the cost of the plans at $2.5-3 trillion, said there was a long way to go for Saudi airlines and other competitors, including Air India which ordered 470 Airbus and Boeing planes in February.

UN chief Antonio Guterres made a new attack on the Taliban government's "unprecedented" curbs on Afghan women's rights Tuesday as he highlighted international fears over stability in the crisis-stricken state.

The United Nations is reviewing its Afghan operations after the Taliban authorities banned women working for aid agencies, but Guterres said leading powers at a two-day meeting in Doha wanted new efforts to try to change its policies.

The review will only be completed on Friday and the UN has said it faces an "appalling choice" over whether to stay in Afghanistan.

As fighting raged in Sudan's capital, Ayman Abu Arki and his uncle Hossam went out "to go buy some water" for the family, but then stopped answering their phones.

Their panicked family, desperate for news, kept dialling their numbers but then turned to social media, as many others have done to search for those missing amid the bloody chaos.

The numbing response finally came back from a Facebook user: a photo showed two lifeless bodies inside a bullet-riddled car, the licence plate matching that of the family vehicle.

The HMS Al Diriyah, a 102-metre-long Saudi warship, is typically used to escort oil tankers through the Red Sea and in training exercises with Western naval powers.

But this week the vessel carried out a different kind of mission: transporting shell-shocked civilians from conflict-hit Sudan to safety on Saudi soil.

It was part of a broader evacuation effort that has given Saudi Arabia a central role in Sudan's crisis, putting the Gulf kingdom's regional clout on display for a global audience.

Khader Adnan was no stranger to Israel's prisons. His Tuesday death came during his 13th stint in Israeli custody, with nearly eight years of his life spent behind bars.

Born in the town of Arraba, near Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank in 1978, Adnan, become involved with Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad while studying mathematics at Birzeit University in the late 1990s.

Warring generals in Sudan have agreed "in principle" to a seven-day ceasefire, the government of neighbouring South Sudan said Tuesday, after regional envoys denounced repeated violations of previous truces.

Diplomatic efforts have intensified to end more than two weeks of war in Africa's third-largest country as warnings multiply about a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis.

More than 430,000 people have already been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations said.

The Israeli military conducted air strikes and traded fire with Gaza militants on Tuesday in a flare-up of violence following the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike.

The army said it hit Gaza with "tank fire" in response to rockets from the Palestinian enclave, sparking a renewed volley from Gaza witnessed by AFP journalists.

Israel has undergone major societal transformations during its 75 years of existence, which have left the nation confronting deepening divisions.

The northern Yiron kibbutz highlights how the country has evolved since its creation on May 14, 1948, as the socialist ideals of some of the founding fathers have given way to greater economic liberalism, and a more multicultural society.