(Reuters) -After 26 years in a Turkish prison, Abdullah Ocalan is carving out a key role for himself as Ankara tries to end his outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party's four-decade insurgency.

In an event that was unimaginable a year ago, three Turkish lawmakers visited Ocalan on Monday to further the peace process following the PKK's announcement in May that it would disarm and disband.

LONDON (Reuters) -The British government's decision to ban pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation will be challenged in court on Wednesday, with lawyers representing a co-founder arguing it is a misuse of anti-terrorism laws.

Palestine Action was proscribed in July, putting it on a par with Islamic State or al Qaeda and making it a crime to be a member, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Israel said on Tuesday it had received the coffin of a hostage held in Gaza, with the remains undergoing forensic examination to determine their identity.

Prior to this latest handover, the bodies of three deceased hostages were still being held in the Gaza Strip -- those of two Israelis and one Thai national.

Hamas and its allies have been handing over the final hostages as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel that came into force on October 10.

PARIS (Reuters) -France will finalise with other European Union countries a solution for providing financial support to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.

Macron, who was speaking after a virtual meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, said Ukraine needed a peace that was "serious" and "respectful of international law".

ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey's spy chief met with his Egyptian counterpart and Qatar's foreign minister in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss transitioning to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal and increasing joint efforts in coordination with the U.S., a Turkish source said.

The seizure of a large amount of performance-enhancing drugs in a raid by Yemeni law enforcement agents is "a landmark moment", the head of investigations for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has told AFP.

Gunter Younger said the operation, which netted 447kg of both narcotics and performance-enhancing substances, mainly amphetamines, showed authorities were increasingly tracking the cross-border trade of prohibited substances.

The popemobile used by the late pope Francis on his 2014 visit to Bethlehem re-emerged on Tuesday as a mobile children's clinic to be deployed in Gaza.

The vehicle is still unmistakeable as a popemobile: pristine white inside and out, and with the familiar raised canopy.

But instead of transporting the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, the re-branded "Vehicle of Hope" is now set to serve in the war-battered Gaza Strip, in accordance with the late pope's wishes.

LATAKIA, Syria (Reuters) -Syrian security forces used gunfire on Tuesday to break up two rival groups of demonstrators in the coastal town of Latakia, heartland of the country's Alawite minority, witnesses and officials said.

Syria has been rocked by several episodes of sectarian violence since longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, who hails from the Muslim Alawite minority, was ousted by a rebel offensive last year and replaced by a Sunni-led government.

GAZA/CAIRO (Reuters) -Heavy rain caused flooding in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, swamping the tents of thousands of homeless Palestinians facing the prospect of harsh winter storms without sturdy shelter.

The large majority of Gaza's 2 million people were forced from their homes during Israel's two-year ground and air war in the small, crowded enclave triggered by Hamas' October 2023 attack, with many now living in tents and other basic shelters.

Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday across Syria's coastal Alawite heartland in protest at recent attacks targeting the minority community, AFP correspondents said.

The protests are the biggest in the Alawite region since the fall last December of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, who hails from the community, following an Islamist-led offensive.

Since then, the community has been the target of attacks, while hundreds of people were killed in sectarian massacres in the area in March.