A supertanker bought by the United Nations to remove oil from a ship abandoned off war-ravaged Yemen's coast departed China on Thursday, the UN announced, calling it a "significant" step in efforts to prevent a major spill.

The UN Development Program (UNDP) had in March purchased the crude carrier Nautica to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the beleaguered FSO Safer.

It was an unusual move for the agency, and was hailed as a breakthrough in efforts to avert a potentially catastrophic oil spill.

Two astronauts from Saudi Arabia, including the first Saudi woman, will blast off from Florida on May 8 on a private mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Axiom Space and NASA officials said Thursday.

Rayyanah Barnawi, a breast cancer researcher, will become the first Saudi woman to voyage into space and will be joined on the mission by fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni, a fighter pilot.

Also on board will be Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who will be making her fourth flight to the ISS, and John Shoffner, a businessman from Tennessee who will serve as pilot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mobilised police and army reserves Friday after separate attacks killed three people, including an Italian tourist, in the West Bank and Tel Aviv, in the latest escalation of deadly violence.

Despite appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police clashed with Palestinians Wednesday inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, with Israel bombarding both Gaza and Lebanon following rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

Two Russian vessels left Jeddah on Thursday after making the first port call by the Russian navy in a Saudi port for a decade, Russian officials said.

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the tanker Kama arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday and left less than 24 hours later after a "long arranged" visit, a Russian embassy official in Riyadh told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Russia's defence ministry said on its website that the port call was the first by a Russian warship for about 10 years.

A rapper arrested in October on capital charges in Iran's crackdown on nationwide protests needs urgent medical treatment, a rights group said Thursday, urging an international campaign for his release.

The New-York based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) also said Toomaj Salehi was being deprived of his right to a fair defence in his trial, for which a date has yet to be set.

Salehi, 33, faces charges related to the protests that could see him sentenced to death. He is being held in solitary confinement in Dastgerd prison in central Iran, the rights group said.

Pro-democracy activists in Sudan marched against the army and paramilitaries Thursday as the civilian opposition marked a key anniversary in the decades-old struggle against military rule with new protests.

April 6 is a symbolic date for Sudan's civilian opposition -- the anniversary of uprisings in 1985 and 2019 that ended up ousting two leaders who had seized power in coups.

Top diplomats from Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday, resuming diplomatic relations and pledging to work together to bring "security and stability" to their turbulent region.

In a joint statement released after talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the two sides vowed to continue to work together to improve ties.

In a Tripoli arcade, players banter amid the bleeping and music of video games. Isolated by decades of dictatorship and post-revolution chaos, Libyan gamers are finally taking on the world.

It's late at night in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and in the suburb of Tajoura, teenagers with headphones clamped to their ears gaze into state-of-the-art screens in the ultra-modern gaming complex.

One sits behind a steering wheel, racing a car. Others make their way through virtual worlds, huge 3D glasses covering their faces.

The families of women murdered by men demonstrated Wednesday in defence of a prominent Turkish anti-femicide campaign group accused of activity against law and morals.

Prosecutors had filed a lawsuit in April against We Will Stop Femicide Platform, one of the country's leading feminist organisations. If convicted, it could be shut down.

The group has been campaigning against the murder and abuse of women since its foundation in 2010.

French energy firm TotalEnergies announced Wednesday an agreement with Iraq on a long-delayed $10 billion project to improve the country's rundown electricity grid after resolving disputes over the terms of the deal.

The contract -- which includes investments in oil, gas and solar production -- was signed in September 2021 but a new government took office in Iraq last year and its demands did not please TotalEnergies.