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Israeli officer killed in Jerusalem after Gaza and West Bank violence

An Israeli policeman was killed Monday in a stabbing attack carried out by a Palestinian boy in annexed east Jerusalem, police said, triggering a raid on a refugee camp amid a spike in violence.

The border policeman was stabbed on Monday afternoon while searching a bus at the entrance to east Jerusalem's Shuafat refugee camp, officers said, who arrested a 13-year-old Palestinian from the camp.

Israeli police stand guard in Jerusalem's Old City following a reported stabbing attack on February 13

Syria's Assad urges UN for help rebuilding after quake

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called Monday for international aid for reconstruction in the quake-struck country during a meeting with United Nations relief chief Martin Griffiths, the presidency said.

After more than a decade of war, Assad's government remains a pariah in the West, complicating international efforts to assist those affected by the quake.

Assad "stressed the importance of international efforts focused on helping to rebuild infrastructure in Syria," the statement said.

This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's President Bashar al-Assad (R) meeting with Martin Griffiths (L), the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

'Are we going to die?': Trauma haunts Turkish kids after quake

Serkan Tatoglu is haunted by the question his six-year-old keeps asking since their house collapsed in last week's earthquake in Turkey.

"Are we going to die?" she wonders, while looking up at scenes reminiscent of an apocalyptic movie set.

Coffins line roadsides, and ambulance sirens wail around the clock.

Walking through the rubble of flattened buildings, children watch as rescue workers lift body bags from the putrid-smelling debris.

Psychologists carefully monitor children's drawings for signs of trauma from last week's Turkish quake

Yemen model jailed for five years on appeal

An appeals court in Yemen's Huthi rebel-held capital Sanaa has confirmed a five-year jail sentence for a model accused of "prostitution", her lawyer said Monday, denouncing a political verdict.

The Iran-backed Huthis took over Sanaa in 2014 and have been enforcing a morality campaign, particularly against women.

Entisar al-Hammadi, 21, was arrested in February 2021 in Sanaa at a checkpoint while on her way to a photo shoot with a friend.

Last year the two women were sentenced to five years in jail by a lower court for "prostitution", "fornication" and "drug abuse".

Picture from the Facebook page of Entisar al-Hammadi

What are Israel's controversial judicial overhaul plans?

Israel's hard-right government was planning Monday to push through parliament a key element of its controversial judicial revamp.

The "reasonability clause" would remove the power of the Supreme Court to overrule government decisions that its judges deem unreasonable.

The wider reform plans have sparked protests, often drawing tens of thousands, since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government proposed them in January.

A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes part in a sit-in at the entrance to Israel's parliament, just before a vote on the judicial overhaul plans

Syria's health workers hit by double tragedy after quake

While his wife and two daughters lay under the rubble after Syria's earthquake, Abdelbaset Khalil tended to hundreds of patients who flooded into his hospital.

Khalil, a nurse anaesthetist, was already at work when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria last week, flattening entire neighbourhoods and leaving a combined death toll of more than 35,000, including at least 3,581 in Syria.

As the quake shook the ground beneath him, he rushed out of the hospital to find his apartment building had collapsed with his family inside.

Hospitals in Syria, particularly the rebel-held northwest, are critically low on life-saving supplies

Saudi Arabia to send its first woman into space

Saudi Arabia will send its first ever woman astronaut on a space mission later this year, the latest move by the kingdom to revamp its ultra-conservative image.

Rayyana Barnawi will join fellow Saudi Ali Al-Qarni on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Barnawi and Al-Qarni will fly to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of a mission this spring by the private space company Axiom Space, SPA and Axiom said.

The first Saudi woman is to take part in a mission to the International Space Station in the spring of 2023

Focus on humanitarian crisis as Turkey-Syria quake toll hits 35,000

Rescue teams began winding down the search for survivors on Monday as the focus switched to tackling a dire humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake that has left more than 35,000 dead in Turkey and Syria.

Syria, already wracked by 12 years of civil war, is of particular concern. The United Nations held an emergency meeting Monday on how to boost aid to rebel-held areas, as anger grows over a sluggish international response to the pariah nation.

Some rescue operations are winding down near the epicentre of the quake in Kahramanmaras

Ten deadliest quakes of the 21st century

The massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6 is the fifth-deadliest this century.

Here is a list of the 10 worst quakes since 2000, ranked by death toll:

- 2004: 230,000 dead, southeast Asia -

On December 26, a massive 9.1-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Sumatra, triggering a tsunami that kills more than 230,000 people throughout the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia alone.

Waves 30 metres (100 feet) high, travelling at 700 kilometres per hour (435 miles per hour), swallow everything in their path.

Mesut Hancer holds his dead daughter's hand. Irmak, 15, died in the Turkey-Syria quake

Israelis hold mass protest outside parliament against judicial reforms

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested outside parliament on Monday against the government's controversial judicial reform plan, which aims to give lawmakers substantially more control over the supreme court.

The measures, which were inching towards approval through a series of preliminary votes inside the chamber, have provoked widespread criticism and charges that they would give the legislative branch nearly unchecked authority.

Israeli protesters wave national flags outside the parliament in Jerusalem against the controversial legal reforms being touted by the country's hard-right government