A short distance from the border with Poland, Olaf Jansen, the director of a migrant processing centre in eastern Germany, is looking anxiously at the numbers of latest arrivals.

The former barracks turned 1,500-bed facility in Eisenhuettenstadt risks running out of space soon as migrants are turning up in Germany in numbers not seen since 2015, when then chancellor Angela Merkel opened the doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and beyond.

Hundreds of Syrians protested Friday in the southern city of Sweida, as women play a growing role in the anti-government demonstrations that have rocked the province for over a month, activists said.

Peaceful protests have swept Sweida province, the heartland of the country's Druze minority, since President Bashar al-Assad's government ended fuel subsidies last month.

The move dealt a heavy blow to Syrians reeling from more than a decade of war and economic woes.

Libya's prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of four more officials, bringing to 12 the number held as part of an inquiry into this month's flood that killed thousands.

Flooding caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya on September 10, leaving at least 3,893 people dead and thousands more missing.

The seaside city of Derna was the worst-hit in the flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami. It burst through two dams and washed entire neighbourhoods into the Mediterranean.

Relatives of Saudis facing heavy sentences for social media posts are calling on the kingdom's de facto ruler to take action after he voiced shame over their cases.

In a rare interview with Fox News last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was asked about Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a retired school teacher sentenced to death in July for posts on X, formerly Twitter, where he had around 10 followers.

Prince Mohammed acknowledged that details of the case described in media reports were "true" and said he disapproved of the judgement.

The leaders of nine Mediterranean and southern European countries called Friday for a "significant increase" in the EU's efforts to tackle the thorny issue of migration at its roots, in origin and transit countries.

Italian far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that front-line countries were struggling to deal with arrivals now, but without "structural" solutions from the bloc, "everyone will be overwhelmed".

Rana Hariri doesn't know when she'll be able to send her children back to school, as Lebanon's grinding economic crisis thrusts the fate of public education into uncertainty.

Lack of funding for the school system has precipitated repeated teachers' strikes and school closures, resulting in children being increasingly pulled out of the formal learning system, and in some cases being forced to work.

Hariri, 51, says her nine-year-old daughter Aya "repeatedly asks me: 'When will I go back to school?' But I do not know what to tell her."

Military strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose forces dominate eastern Libya, held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, his forces and the Kremlin said.

Haftar, who sponsors a rival administration to Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli, has long cultivated close relations with Moscow and relies heavily on Russian mercenary group Wagner for military support.

Haftar "held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu", his Libyan Arab Armed Forces said on its official Facebook page without giving further details.

"The Immortals" have spoken: the 388-year-old Academie Francaise, custodian and promoter of the French language, has a new leader in the form of author Amin Maalouf.

The French-Lebanese writer, 74, becomes only the 33rd person to occupy the post of "perpetual secretary" since the body's founding under King Louis XIII in 1635.

He takes over from Helene Carrere d'Encausse, who died last month having held the post since 1999.

Charities rescuing migrants stranded in the Mediterranean play a vital role in saving lives, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock insisted Thursday, amid a spat with Italy over Berlin's funding for such organisations.

Baerbock told a joint news conference with Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani that as long as people were dying trying to reach Europe, Berlin stood by its backing of such NGOs despite Italian complaints.

"Volunteer sea rescuers have a life-saving task in the Mediterranean," she said.

Israel's top court heard appeals Thursday against a law restricting how a prime minister can be removed from office, as current premier Benjamin Netanyahu faces protests against the government's judicial overhaul.

The hearing got underway as Israel is deeply divided over the judicial reforms, which have triggered one of the country's biggest ever protest movements against the hard-right government.