Even in a country which regularly holds the world record for jailing journalists, the case of Turkish investigative reporter Baris Pehlivan stands out.

Pehlivan -- whose latest book accused Turkey's last interior minister of having links with organised crime -- is about to be locked up for the fifth time in three years.

Having been jailed, released on parole and locked up again, this time Pehlivan has been ordered back behind bars by text message.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Wednesday that the biggest obstacle to millions of refugees returning home is a lack of infrastructure, devastated by more than a decade of civil war.

The Syria conflict has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry since it began in 2011 with the government's repression of peaceful anti-government protests.

Saudi Arabia has emerged as a force in the football transfer market this year, offering eye-watering salaries that have lured a host of big names to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

Here, AFP Sport takes a look at some of the biggest names to make the move:

The stars

Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival in January to play for Riyadh-based Al-Nassr is what first drew global attention to ongoing efforts to boost the Saudi Pro League.

The United Nations says it will resume aid deliveries to rebel-held areas of northern Syria via Turkey after reaching agreement with Damascus -- a deal that raises concerns among relief groups who want Syrian authorities kept out of the process.

Under a 2014 agreement, most international aid had passed through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey without the authorization of Damascus.

A spate of high-profile visits by US officials to Saudi Arabia underscores how ties have warmed amid talks over a potential deal that would see the Gulf kingdom recognise Israel, analysts say.

Less than a year after US President Joe Biden warned of unspecified "consequences" for Riyadh during a dispute over oil supply, he is dispatching top aides to meet Saudi royals at a rapid clip.

Over the weekend, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, landed in Jeddah for a summit on Ukraine –- his third visit to Saudi Arabia in just a few months.

Thousands of people displaced by 12 years of war are stuck in squalid, unofficial camps in Syria's Kurdish-held northeast, languishing in extreme poverty and largely cut off from international assistance.

"We've been completely forgotten," said Rahma al-Hammud, 33, standing at her tent -- a shoddy patchwork of worn-out fabric, tarp and old fertiliser bags crudely sewn together.

"Our children get sick over and over again. They get fever, diarrhoea and vomiting," said the widowed mother of four.

Israel's army said Tuesday it demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of killing a soldier and his brother in the occupied West Bank, which has seen months of violence.

Clashes occurred during the overnight incursion to destroy the residence of Abdel Fatah Khroushah in the Askar camp for Palestinian refugees, in the northern city of Nablus, the military said.

The army said "explosive devices were hurled, and live fire was shot at the forces, who responded with riot dispersal means."

Russia claimed Tuesday it had struck a command post in the eastern Ukraine town of Pokrovsk, as Kyiv said the missile attack had hit civilian targets and killed at least seven people.

Pokrovsk, which had a pre-war population of around 60,000, sits just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the eastern front line, where Moscow says it is gaining ground and repelling Ukrainian attacks.

Around 200 Tunisian bakers staged a sit-in Monday after a government decision to stop selling them subsidised flour, a move threatening the closure of hundreds of bakeries.

"We are being forbidden from producing baguettes," Mohamed Jamali, president of the Association of Modern Bakeries, told AFP in Tunis where the protest took place.

Last week the ministry of commerce banned some 1,500 privately-owned bakeries that produced European-style breads and pastries from purchasing subsidised flour, ending a practice that had lasted for more than a decade.

More than 3,000 United States military personnel have arrived in the Red Sea aboard two warships, part of a beefed up response from Washington after tanker seizures by Iran, the US Navy said Monday.

The deployment adds to a growing US military buildup in tense Gulf waterways vital to the global oil trade and led Tehran on Monday to accuse the US of inflaming regional instability.

The US military says Iran has either seized or attempted to take control of nearly 20 internationally flagged ships in the region over the past two years.