In Morocco's High Atlas mountains, shepherds Hammou Amraoui and his son hardly need words to speak. Across peaks, they whistle at each other in a centuries-old language, now jeopardised by rural flight.

"The whistle language is our telephone," joked Hammou, 59, the elder of a family known for the tradition in Imzerri, a hamlet in the remote commune of Tilouguit, about a two-hour drive from the nearest city.

In Tilouguit, Hammou said people learn it "like we learn to walk or to talk".

A court on Thursday sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.

In a verdict that will make the rightwinger the first French postwar leader to serve jail time, the Paris criminal court convicted Sarkozy, 70, on criminal conspiracy charges.

However, it acquitted the former head of state, France's president from 2007 to 2012, of corruption and personally accepting illegal campaign financing.

US President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to stop Israel from annexing the West Bank as he presses to end the Gaza war, ahead of a high-stakes visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu will address the United Nations on Friday and later meet Trump in Washington as Israeli ministers muse of annexing the West Bank in response to recognition of a Palestinian state by France, Britain and several other Western powers.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Ukraine and Syria formally restored diplomatic relations on Wednesday as their leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine broke off relations with Syria in June 2022 after ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's government recognised the independence of swathes of occupied Ukraine following Russia's full-scale invasion.

(Reuters) -Israel's prime minister's office said on Wednesday that negotiations were being held with Syria and the conclusions were contingent upon ensuring Israel's interests, which include the demilitarization of southwestern Syria and safeguarding the well-being and security of the Druze in Syria.

Under U.S. pressure, Syria is accelerating talks with Israel for a security pact that Damascus hopes will reverse Israel's recent seizures of its land but that would fall far short of a full peace treaty, sources briefed on the talks said.

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday he will join Italy in sending a military warship to protect an international flotilla seeking to deliver aid to Gaza after it was attacked by drones off Greece.

Sanchez told a press conference in New York where he has been attending the UN General Assembly that the citizens of 45 countries were on board to deliver food to the population of Gaza and express solidarity with their suffering.

Syria's new leader warned Wednesday that Israel's persistent attacks put his country and the region at risk, on a landmark UN visit where the former jihadist sought to charm with his moderation.

Ahmed al-Sharaa is the first Syrian president in decades to address the UN's annual week of high-level diplomacy, marking a rapid reinvention for an erstwhile Al-Qaeda affiliate who until last year had a US bounty on his head.

Sharaa, sporting a neat-fitted Western suit and tie, said Syria had turned a page after a half-century of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family.

(Reuters) -The recent recognitions by some Western nations of a Palestinian state will not "bind Israel in any way," Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

"A Palestinian state will not arise," the prime minister's office posted on X.

Dozens of world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Monday to embrace a Palestinian state, a landmark diplomatic shift nearly two years into the Gaza war that faces fierce resistance from Israel and its close ally the United States.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump has presented leaders from several Muslim-majority countries with a 21-point plan peace plan for the Middle East and Gaza, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday, adding that he is confident of "some sort of breakthrough" in the coming days.

French President Emmanuel Macron and a US envoy said Wednesday that Iran still had a last chance to avoid deep UN sanctions if it addresses concerns on its nuclear program.

France, Britain and Germany have set the clock through the UN Security Council to reimpose sweeping sanctions at the end of Saturday on Iran, which they say has not cooperated on the long-running nuclear row.

Macron met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and urged him to reverse a series of steps taken by Tehran following an Israeli and US attack in June.