By Catherine Cartier

BEIRUT, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Filipina worker Loren Capobres said the world stood still when she kissed Pope Leo's hand this week in Lebanon, but hopes his message for peace will linger after his departure, leading to better working conditions and a lasting peace in the country.

Capobres, who is Catholic and has worked in Lebanon for 17 years, met Leo on Monday, alongside priests and other church volunteers on his first overseas trip as pope, in which he called on the Middle East's leaders to reject the horror of war.

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Israel and Lebanon sent new representatives to a military committee monitoring a truce between the countries, top officials from both said on Wednesday, in a move set to expand the scope of talks between the long-time foes.

The meeting was a step towards a months-long U.S. demand that the two countries broaden talks beyond monitoring the 2024 ceasefire, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump's broader agenda of peace agreements across the Middle East.

ANKARA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Turkey demanded an explanation from Iraqi Kurdish officials after former leader Masoud Barzani arrived in a mainly Kurdish Turkish border region last weekend surrounded by heavily armed and uniformed guards.

Barzani, who was president of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government from 2005-17 and remains Iraqi Kurdistan's most powerful figure, visited the Cizre district in southeast Turkey's Sirnak province for a symposium on a Kurdish poet. It was also attended by Turkish officials, including a deputy interior minister.

The couples walked hand in hand, the brides in traditional embroidered Palestinian white and red dresses adorned with red ribbons, the grooms walked beside them in black suits and ties.

But the backdrop told a different story: dilapidated buildings, piles of concrete and rubble -- the scars of two years of conflict in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, 54 couples tied the knot in a mass wedding ceremony in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza -- a defiant celebration of life amid the wreckage of war.

Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades on Wednesday under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism, though Lebanon's premier cautioned the new diplomatic contact did not amount to broader peace discussions.

The two sides met at the UN peacekeeping force's headquarters in Lebanon's Naqura near the border with Israel, where the guarantors of the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah regularly convene.

ANKARA, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed Black Sea safety on Wednesday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said, after Ankara expressed alarm at attacks on Russia-linked tankers, some claimed by Ukraine.

Ankara, a NATO member that has kept warm relations with both sides in the Russian war in Ukraine, has condemned attacks on vessels with links to Moscow that took place inside Turkey's exclusive economic zone off its coast in the Black Sea.

By Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche

OSLO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Norway's governing Labour Party said on Wednesday it had reached agreement with four left-wing parties in parliament on a 2026 fiscal budget, ending a standoff that had threatened to bring down Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere's cabinet.

The deal, which excludes demands for a gradual phaseout of oil and divestment in Israeli companies, came ahead of a vote on the budget due on Friday. If the government had lost that vote, it would have forced the prime minister to call a vote of confidence.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban administration and Pakistan have held fresh peace talks in Saudi Arabia and agreed to maintain a ceasefire, the latest attempt to dial down tensions between the South Asian neighbours.

A ceasefire has held in recent weeks between the two South Asian militaries, after the outbreak of deadly border clashes in October, following talks hosted by Qatar and Turkey, although the two sides failed to come to a peace agreement.

Dec 3 (Reuters) - The Rafah crossing will open in the next few days to let Gaza residents cross into Egypt, COGAT, the Israeli military's arm that oversees aid flows, said on Wednesday.

The arrangement, which has security clearance from Israel, will be coordinated with Egypt under the supervision of the European Union mission, similar to the mechanism that operated in January 2025, COGAT said.

(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Tala Ramadan; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

A Doctors Without Borders official has pleaded for countries to open their doors to tens of thousands of Gazans in dire need of medical evacuation, warning that hundreds have already died waiting.

"The need is really huge," said Hani Isleem, who coordinates medical evacuations from Gaza for the charity, known by its French acronym MSF.

The numbers taken in by countries so far remains "just a drop in the ocean", Isleem told AFP in an interview on Tuesday.