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Six Israelis wounded in West Bank shooting, gunman killed: police

A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a group of Israelis in a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, wounding six people before being shot dead, police said.

Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.

"A terrorist opened fire at a group of people in Maaleh Adumim," a police statement said, referring to the Jewish settlement and adding that an off-duty border police officer "neutralised" the assailant.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the scene of the attack

Residents fearful as clashes rock Palestinian camp in Lebanon

Fruit and vegetable seller Ismail Akkawi had no choice but to brave days of intermittent but deadly fighting in Lebanon's biggest Palestinian refugee camp in order to make ends meet.

The produce market at the heart of the restive Ain al-Helweh camp -- in the southern coastal city of Sidon -- is usually bustling with vendors, but few have ventured out since clashes broke out in the camp late Saturday.

"I have to leave the house, despite the horrific circumstances for selling vegetables," said Akkawi, who is in his sixties.

Smoke from the fighting billows over Ain al-Helweh

UAE vows to allow 'peaceful' assembly of climate activists at COP28

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it would allow environmental activists to "assemble peacefully" at this year's UN climate talks, despite a prohibition on unauthorised protests in the Gulf state.

The oil-rich UAE, set to host COP28 from November to December in the business hub of Dubai, requires official permission for protests but effectively bans demonstrations it deems disruptive.

At the upcoming UN climate talks "there will be space available for climate activists to assemble peacefully and make their voices heard", it said.

UAE vows to allow 'peaceful' assembly of climate activists at COP28

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it would allow environmental activists to "assemble peacefully" at this year's UN climate talks, despite a prohibition on unauthorised protests in the Gulf state.

The oil-rich UAE, set to host COP28 from November to December in the business hub of Dubai, requires official permission for protests but effectively bans demonstrations it deems disruptive.

At the upcoming UN climate talks "there will be space available for climate activists to assemble peacefully and make their voices heard," it said.

Six Israelis wounded in West Bank shooting, gunman killed: police

A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a group of Israelis in a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, wounding six people before being shot dead, police said.

"A terrorist opened fire at a group of people in Maaleh Adumim," a police statement said, referring to a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

"The terrorist was neutralised by an off-duty border police officer."

Police later confirmed to AFP that the gunman was shot dead.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the scene of the attack

Two-day holiday in Iran over extreme heat

Iran on Tuesday declared a two-day holiday for government workers and banks nationwide as searing temperatures sweep across the country, state media reported.

The decision came after the meteorological office forecast temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in many cities, and hovering around 50 degrees Celsius in the southwest.

State broadcaster IRIB has said many cities including in the provinces of Ilam, Bushehr, and Khuzestan have seen temperatures rise above 45 degrees Celsius in recent days.

A motorcyclist takes a break in the heat of Tehran on July 11, 2023

Iraq's Yazidis: reclusive group hunted by Islamic State

The Yazidis, who Britain on Tuesday officially acknowledged as victims of "acts of genocide" by the Islamic State (IS), are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority found mainly in Iraq.

IS jihadists carried out horrific violence against the community in 2014, killing men en masse and abducting thousands of girls and women as sex slaves.

Here are some key facts about the Yazidis:

- Ancient faith -

The Yazidis are followers of an ancient religion that emerged in Iran more than 4,000 years ago and is rooted in Zoroastrianism.

Members of Iraq's Yazidi minority celebrate New Year at a holy shrine in northern Iraq

UK recognises 'acts of genocide' against Yazidis by Islamic State

The British government on Tuesday officially acknowledged that the Islamic State group committed "acts of genocide" against the Yazidi people in 2014.

The Yazidis -- whose pre-Islamic religion made them the target of IS extremists -- were subjected to massacres, forced marriages and sex slavery during the jihadists' 2014-15 rule in the northern Iraq province of Sinjar, the Yazidis' traditional home.

The Yazidis were subjected to massacres, forced marriages and sex slavery during the jihadists' 2014-15 rule

Migrants between life and death in Tunisia-Libya desert

In the unbearable midday heat, a Libyan patrol near the border with Tunisia comes across a black African man collapsed on the reddish-brown desert sand.

He is barely breathing, and officers try to revive him, gently, with a few drops of water on his lips.

The man is just one among hundreds of migrants arriving daily in Libya after being abandoned in the desert borderland by Tunisian security forces, according to Libyan border guards and the migrants themselves.

Migrants have been abandoned by Tunisian security forces in the desert, according to Libyan border guards and the migrants themselves

UN reports 11 killed as clashes rock Lebanon Palestinian camp

Three days of fighting in south Lebanon's Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp have left at least 11 dead and dozens wounded, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday.

Clashes broke out over the weekend between members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's secular Fatah movement and Islamist militants based in the camp, Lebanon's largest located in the coastal city of Sidon.

Renewed gunfire and shelling on Monday shook the camp, said an AFP correspondent in Sidon, sending frightened residents fleeing.

Smoke billows during inside Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon