By Elwely Elwelly, Yomna Ehab and Muhammad Al Gebaly

DUBAI/CAIRO, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The Middle East war intensified on Tuesday with Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen launching strikes on several Saudi cities, further embroiling a U.S. ally in the conflict, while U.S. forces hit multiple Iranian oil tankers and Iran targeted a U.S. base in Jordan.

The Houthis attacked four cities in the south of Saudi Arabia, wounding 73 people and setting oil installations ablaze in what appeared to be a major expansion of the six-month-old war.

Iran launched fresh attacks against US targets in the Middle East on Wednesday in retaliation for American strikes on I

By Nicolás Misculin, Shadia Nasralla and Leila Miller

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Argentina's government has initiated sanctions proceedings against a total of 60 people and companies for participating in illegal oil exploration operations in the Falkland Islands, it said on Tuesday.

The move follows a televised address on Thursday by Argentine President Javier Milei, in which he vowed to sanction oil companies drilling in the British overseas territory as he stepped up the South American nation's sovereignty claims.

LIV Golf, the breakaway tour that spent billions of dollars luring top players away from the PGA and triggered bitter divisions within the sport, filed Tuesday for bankruptcy protection.

The filing at a New Jersey court indicates the organization, which lost its deep-pocketed Saudi investors earlier this year, intends to restructure and return in a new form, though the fate of star players including Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm remains unclear.

Israeli opposition leaders on Tuesday called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unfit to serve after a bombshell report that the United Arab Emirates had warned him before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.

Haaretz newspaper, in a report excerpted from a forthcoming book by its reporters, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spoke to Netanyahu a week and a half before the attack and told him that Hamas was planning a major operation.

By Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to consolidate Israel's fractious right-wing parties ahead of a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid an election loss forecast by opinion polls.

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, is seeking a record seventh term in the October 27 election, but he has faced pressure over the Hamas-led 2023 attack on Israel and subsequent wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon, and surveys have for months been pointing to a defeat for his nationalist-religious coalition.

LONDON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Britain on Tuesday published legislation to introduce tougher sanctions on Iran, expanding trade restrictions and powers to target ships as part of what it described as a wider effort to curb Tehran's nuclear programme and other hostile activities.

The government said the measures would restrict Iran's access to the British financial system, broaden trade bans to include more goods, technology and services, and prohibit Iranian aircraft from landing in Britain unless exemptions apply.

TEL AVIV, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday said that it was closing Britain's consulate in East Jerusalem, accredited to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, after London announced it was imposing sanctions on goods from Israeli settlements.

A drone strike blamed on Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed 13 people outside a courthouse in the army-held central town of Umm Rawaba on Tuesday, a medical source and witnesses told AFP.

The attack is the latest in an escalating wave of drone attacks by both the RSF and the Sudanese army, which have been at war since April 2023.

"There are now 13 killed and 22 injured being treated at the hospital," a medical source at the local hospital told AFP, revising an earlier toll of 12 after one more person succumbed to their injuries.

Sept 8 (Reuters) - South Korea has sent an inspection team to assess the security situation in the Strait of Hormuz but no decision has been taken on sending troops, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.

The announcement follows a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump in August to scale back U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, in part because South Korea had declined to help Washington in the U.S.-Iran war.