Only a bold and ambitious UN treaty with sweeping reforms of the entire plastic life cycle can stem the world's waste crisis, experts said Monday.

Even if measures thought to have the greatest potential for reducing plastic consumption are implemented, they would still fail to prevent a substantial rise in plastics production and use, they warned in a report.

A year ago 175 nations agreed to end plastic pollution by crafting a binding UN treaty, which could come into being as soon as the end of 2024.

Fifteen EU states on the migration front line on Friday called for stronger borders and agreements to be struck with third-party countries to accept migrants.

"It is worthwhile exploring the possibility of, and where relevant legally enabling, safe third-country arrangements with relevant countries along the EU's external borders and beyond," they said after a two-day conference in Athens on border management.

The EU is currently exploring ways for its border agency, Frontex, to operate in third-party states to dissuade migration.

White Helmets rescuers in rebel-held northwest Syria called on international help Friday to save people with quake-related crush injuries after a boy they rescued died from the condition.

The group had spearheaded rescue efforts in rebel-held areas with virtually no outside help after a 7.8-magnitude quake that struck war-torn Syria and Turkey on February 6 killed more than 46,000 people.

"Unfortunately Arslan Berri, one of the children we had saved, has passed away," White Helmets chief Raed Saleh told AFP.

Palestinians posed for photos Friday at a new landmark -- the rubble of a house that was the site of Israel's deadliest raid in the occupied West Bank for nearly two decades.

Eleven Palestinians were killed and more than 80 wounded by gunfire as Israeli soldiers raided Nablus in the broad daylight of Wednesday morning, in what the army said was an operation based on intelligence of an imminent threat from Palestinian militants.

The United Arab Emirates splashed out billions on arms from home-grown firms at a defence fair in Abu Dhabi this week, underlining a shift away from Western suppliers.

By the end of the five-day show on Friday, the Gulf state had signed more than 50 deals worth $6.3 billion, the official WAM news agency said.

They include at least $5.9 billion signed with local firms at the International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) and the Naval Defence and Maritime Security Exhibition (NAVDEX).

Tombstones stretch as far as the eye can see across Iraq's Wadi-al-Salam cemetery, often described as the world's biggest, which bears silent witness to life and death over 14 centuries.

Flowers, photographs and religious banners honour many of the millions buried in the ochre desert sands of the "Valley of Peace" -- victims of war and disease, accidents and old age.

"Oh my father!" laments one mourner, Jamil Abdelhassan, prostrating on a grave at the vast necropolis located in the Shiite holy shrine city of Najaf in central Iraq.

A nine-year-old Syrian girl whose fate captured the tragedy, hope and heartbreak of this month's earthquake after spending 40 hours under the rubble was taken to Turkey Thursday for treatment.

Local officials told AFP that Sham Sheikh Mohammed, who may have to have her legs amputated, and her brother Omar, 15, crossed from rebel-held northwest Syria at the Bab al-Hawa border post.

They were the first of those rescued from the rubble of the February 6 quake to be given authorisation to enter Turkey for treatment from rebel-held areas.

The European Union said Thursday it is temporarily easing sanctions on Syria to speed up aid deliveries to the country two weeks after a devastating earthquake.

Aid organisations will no longer need to seek permission from EU member state governments before sending supplies and services to sanctioned entities in Syria, the European Council representing the bloc's countries said in a statement.

The measure will last for six months and was taken "in view of the gravity of the humanitarian crisis in Syria exacerbated by the earthquake".

Palestinians on Thursday buried the lead negotiator of the Oslo accords with Israel, Ahmed Qorei, following his death at the age of 85.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas paid tribute to Qorei, who died on Wednesday evening, as an indefatigable "fighter" for the Palestinian cause after their ruling Fatah party announced his death.

A Lebanese judge filed new charges on Thursday against central bank chief Riad Salameh, who already faces investigations into the fortune he amassed in a country mired in financial crisis.

Salameh, his brother Raja and his former assistant Marianne Hoayek were being indicted for embezzlement of public funds and money laundering, a judicial official told AFP.

They are the first such charges to have been levelled against him in a Lebanese probe that was launched in 2021 in parallel with investigations overseen by European judges.