A fragile UN-brokered truce between the Yemeni government and Huthi rebels hung in the balance Wednesday as talks on renewing it hit trouble, threatening the humanitarian gains of the past two months.

Aid agencies and Western governments have urged Yemen's warring parties to extend the truce, which has significantly reduced the intensity of fighting in a conflict the United Nations says has triggered the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

But with just one day before the truce expires, there was no sign of any breakthrough in UN-backed talks.

Spain opened the borders of its North African enclaves Ceuta and Melilla to Moroccan workers on Tuesday, two years after their closure and following the resolution of a drawn-out diplomatic crisis.

The European Union's only borders on African soil had been shuttered in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, then later become hostage to a bitter spat over migration and the issue of the disputed Western Sahara.

Before they were closed, some 4,400 Moroccans had regularly made the crossing visa-free to work and trade.

Aid agencies urged Yemen's warring parties to extend a two-month UN-brokered truce on Tuesday two days before it was set to expire, saying it had "positive humanitarian impacts".

A brutal seven-year conflict pitting Yemen's Saudi-backed government against the Iran-aligned Huthi rebels has killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions on the brink of famine.

On April 2, the first nationwide truce since 2016 came into force, but that runs out on Thursday.

Lebanese lawmakers re-elected Nabih Berri as parliament speaker Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term, cementing his reputation as an immovable centrepiece of the country's political landscape.

Berri's candidacy went largely unchallenged but the 84-year-old clinched only the bare minimum number of votes needed for a win -- one of his lowest counts since he first rose to the helm of parliament 30 years ago.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could face a vote among his own MPs to end his tenure in power as soon as next week, former Conservative leader William Hague said on Tuesday.

The prediction came after more Tory lawmakers, including two former cabinet ministers, expressed doubts about Johnson's continued leadership in the wake of the "Partygate" scandal.

Dozens of his MPs have now publicly criticised their embattled leader over the numerous lockdown-breaching parties held in Downing Street in 2020 and last year under his watch.

Saudia Arabia, Russia and their allies are likely to stick to their policy of modest oil output increases when they meet Thursday after the EU banned most imports from Moscow.

European Union leaders agreed on Monday to ban more than two-thirds of Russian oil imports, tightening economic screws on the country over its invasion of its neighbour Ukraine.

This has caused oil prices, which have already hit record highs so far this year, to soar further amid pressure on the 23-member OPEC+ to open tabs more widely and relieve the market.

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey over the arrest in 2017 of the head of the Turkish branch of rights group Amnesty International, ruling his detention was unlawful.

The court said there was no indication an offence had been committed.

Taner Kilic was detained in June 2017 on charges of links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey accuses of staging a failed coup in 2016 against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Skilfully riding decades of turbulence and shifting political tides, Nabih Berri is returning for a seventh consecutive term as speaker of Lebanon's parliament, despite growing popular demands for fresh faces.

At 84, he is one of the world's longest serving legislative chiefs, having held his post for the past 30 years, a feat no other Lebanese politician has accomplished.

Lebanese lawmakers re-elected Nabih Berri as parliament speaker Tuesday for a seventh consecutive term, cementing his reputation as an immmovable centrepiece of the country's political landscape.

Berri's candidacy went largely unchallenged but opponents and independent lawmakers expressed their objections by writing slogans instead of names on their ballots.

Aged 84, the warlord-turned-politician is one of the longest-serving chiefs of any parliament in the world, having held his post for 30 years.

Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of diplomatic relations in 2020.

Israel's ambassador to the oil-rich UAE, Amir Hayek, tweeted "mabruk" -- congratulations in Arabic -- with a photo of Emirati and Israeli officials holding documents at a signing ceremony in Dubai.

The Emirati envoy to Israel, Mohamed Al Khaja, hailed as an "unprecedented achievement" the deal that, according to the Israeli side, scraps customs duties on 96 percent of all products traded.