Years of criticism of an EU-backed migration pact between Italy and Libya are coming to a head as migrant rescuers say the Libyan coastguard has begun firing directly at them.

"Hundreds of bullets were fired during 20 terrifying minutes" in an attack "deliberately targeting crew members on the bridge... at head height", said SOS Mediterranee, the charity running the Ocean Viking ship, in August.

Last week, German charity Sea-Watch said its rescue ship was also shot at by the Libyan coastguard using live ammunition.

By Sakshi Dayal

NEW DELHI/KABUL (Reuters) -The U.N. Security Council Committee has temporarily lifted a travel ban on the Afghan Taliban foreign minister, which would allow him to visit India between October 9 and 16, India's foreign ministry said on Friday.

If confirmed, it would be the first visit to India by a senior leader of the Taliban-run Afghan administration since it seized power in 2021 after 20 years of U.S. military presence.

Delhi and Kabul have traditionally enjoyed close ties when the Islamist Taliban were not in power.

By Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) -Hundreds of thousands of Italians took to the streets across the country on Friday, as part of a day-long general strike called by unions in support of an aid flotilla carrying food to Gaza that was intercepted by Israel this week.

"After what I saw with the flotilla, I thought I couldn't just stand by and do nothing. It's the first time I go to these kind of demonstrations," Mario Mascetti, a protester in Rome, told Reuters.

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) -A Tunisian man has been sentenced to death on charges of insulting the president and assaulting state security through posts on social media, the head of the Tunisian League for Human Rights and his lawyer said on Friday.

The ruling is unprecedented in Tunisia, where restrictions on free speech have been tightened since President Kais Saied seized almost all powers in 2021.

Syrian-American Jew Henry Hamra is running for a seat this Sunday in Syria's first legislature since the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

If chosen in the indirect polls, Hamra, whose father was reportedly the last rabbi to leave Syria, would be the first Jewish representative to enter parliament since the 1940s.

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Damascus on Friday, an AFP photographer saw posters on walls bearing Hamra's image alongside the Syrian flag and reading: "Candidate for Damascus for the Syrian People's Assembly".

By Catarina Demony and Andrew MacAskill

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's government and police have called for a pro-Palestinian protest in London on Saturday to be cancelled following a deadly attack on a synagogue in Manchester that has shone a light on rising religious hatred.

Thursday's attack follows a politically charged summer where incidents of antisemitic and Islamophobic hate have remained high, and pro-Palestinian marchers have routinely taken to the streets to denounce Israel, drawing criticism from some members of the Jewish community.

By John O'Donnell and Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland is poised to curb planned sanctions on Israel, blunting a law central to its protest over the war in Gaza, after pressure from business groups concerned about the impact on investment, four people with knowledge of the matter said.

Ireland's government is one of the most outspoken critics of Israel's assault in Gaza but, unlike others such as Spain, it hosts the European headquarters of some of the U.S.'s biggest companies, making it uniquely vulnerable to pressure from the U.S.

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -The 20 points that U.S. President Donald Trump announced this week under his plan to end the war in Gaza were not in line with a draft presented to him by a group of Muslim-majority countries, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday.

The group had proposed a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza during a September 22 meeting with Trump, whereas his plan envisages a partial Israeli pullback to prepare for a release of remaining hostages held by Palestinian Hamas militants.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) -Mothers and newborn babies in Gaza face dire conditions as Nasser hospital in the south of the enclave is overwhelmed with patients fleeing the north and medical resources running out, UNICEF said on Friday.

"The situation for mothers and newborns in Gaza has never been worse. In Nasser hospital, we're seeing hospital corridors lined with women who've just given birth," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told reporters in Geneva via video link from Gaza.

BARCELONA/ROME (Reuters) -Pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Europe on Thursday blocked traffic and vandalised shops and restaurants after Israeli forces intercepted a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla.

Israel faced international condemnation after armed Israeli soldiers boarded around 40 ships that were attempting to break a naval blockade to deliver aid to the Palestinian enclave, arresting more than 400 foreign activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.