The United States on Tuesday reiterated its support for a Moroccan plan for autonomy in the Western Sahara to settle the kingdom's decades-old conflict with the Polisario independence movement.

"We continue to view Morocco's autonomy plan as serious, credible and realistic," US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said during a visit to the US ally.

Her regional tour will also include Morocco's arch-rival Algeria.

Sherman voiced support for Staffan de Mistura, the UN's Western Sahara envoy, who is working to revive a peace process that has been stalled since 2019.

Sudanese security forces arrested a senior opposition leader Tuesday, as officers fired tear gas to stop thousands of protesters rallying against last year's military coup, an AFP correspondent said.

The demonstrations were the latest since an October 25 military takeover led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which was followed by a broadening crackdown on civilian and pro-democracy figures in the northeast African nation.

Sudanese security forces arrested a senior opposition leader Tuesday, as officers fired tear gas to stop thousands of protesters rallying against last year's military coup, an AFP correspondent said.

The demonstrations were the latest since an October 25 military takeover led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, which was followed by a broadening crackdown on civilian and pro-democracy figures in the north-east African nation.

Israeli forces on Tuesday demolished two homes of Palestinians accused of killing an Israeli settler, in an operation that sparked more violence, AFP reporters said.

The homes of brothers Omar and Ghaith Jaradat and Mohammed Jaradat were demolished with explosives in Silat al-Harithiya village, near Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, by border police and the Israeli army.

Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed a military satellite in orbit, as talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers reach a critical stage.

"Iran's second military satellite -- named Nour-2 -- has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth," the official IRNA news agency reported.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps described the Nour-2 as a "reconnaissance satellite" in a statement on its Sepah News website.

Iran announced Tuesday it had successfully placed a military satellite in orbit, as talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers reach a critical stage.

"Iran's second military satellite -- named Nour-2 -- has been launched into space by the Qassed rocket of the aerospace wing of the Revolutionary Guards and successfully placed in orbit 500 kilometres (310 miles) above the Earth," the official IRNA news agency reported.

The Revolutionary Guards described the Nour-2 as a "reconnaissance satellite" in a statement on their Sepah News website.

A mentally ill inmate from Guantanamo Bay has been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, the US Department of Defense announced Monday.

Suspected of being Al Qaeda's intended 20th hijacker for the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured by interrogators at the US military base in Cuba where he has been detained for nearly two decades.

The government dropped its case against him in 2008 due to the abuse he experienced at the prison. In February, US authorities recommended he be released and repatriated.

In a parking lot under his office in northern Israel, Nof Hagalil mayor Ronen Plot juggled phone calls as volunteers unloaded blankets and clothes donated for refugees fleeing war in Ukraine.

"Nof Hagalil is built on immigration," said Plot, 67, who arrived in Israel nearly 50 years ago from Moldova. "We will absorb as many people as we can."

After the Russian invasion began, Plot posted on Facebook, inviting Ukrainian "olim", or Jewish immigrants, to his town and urging residents to help.

Her voice shaking, 26-year-old Balqees recounts her ordeal at a Huthi rebel checkpoint in northern Yemen, where experts say repression of women is rampant after years of civil war.

"There is no limit to their shame," she said, asking to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.

The Huthis, from the Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam, whose traditional stronghold is Yemen's mountainous north, control the capital Sanaa as well as swathes of the country.

Yemen's women and girls are bearing the brunt of a seven-year civil war that has robbed many of their freedoms and crippled state institutions, leaving them unable to seek help.

A strict interpretation of Islam is being enforced in Huthi rebel-controlled areas and mass displacement, with millions driven from their homes, often makes education and employment impossible.

AFP discussed their plight with Huda Ali Alawi, director of the Women's Research and Training Centre at Aden University, who has conducted a number of studies on gender-based violence: