By Maayan Lubell and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Israel won't withdraw from southern Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, the defence minister said on Thursday, qualifying remarks he made a day earlier that had suggested Israeli forces would occupy the territory indefinitely and drew U.S. criticism.

BEIRUT, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A Lebanese official denied on Thursday a Reuters report that Beirut had agreed with Israel to a shortlist of countries that could send troops to Lebanon to verify the disarmament of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and said it was following up on the issue with Washington.

A June 26 deal brokered by the U.S. linked the progressive withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon to the "verified disarmament" of all non-state armed groups by the Lebanese government. Hezbollah, which is not a party to the agreement, has rejected disarming.

Economic pressures and changing social norms are driving couples in Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria to have fewer babies, with a recent study saying Maghreb fertility was at a historic low.

Israel officially reopened the West Bank settlement of Ganim on Thursday, more than 20 years after it withdrew from the community, in a move emblematic of the current government's policy of rapid settlement expansion.

The smell of freshly-poured asphalt hung in the air above Ganim's new and only street, where future residents and their families -- who had come to help with the move -- smiled at the sight of their pre-fabricated homes.

ANKARA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will group senior ministers, hold joint exercises and deepen defence industry cooperation under a military pact signed between the regional powers last week, Turkey's defence ministry said on Thursday.

Israeli forces moved against rogue settlers laying siege to Palestinians on Thursday, after unusually strong US criticism, even as Israel re-opened an emblematic settlement elsewhere in the West Bank.

Settlers at Qusra near Nablus have since Sunday been blockading Palestinian homes, including one owned by a US citizen, with residents saying they have been cut off from food and other supplies.

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

KABUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch called for the release of two UN staffers and six NGO workers in Afghanistan following a string of Taliban detentions in recent weeks.

HRW said on Wednesday that six male staff working with the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF) had been "forcibly disappeared" from the NGO's Kabul office last month. The NGO has been involved in aid programmes and advocacy on women's and children's rights, HRW said.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Half of Afghan women now leave their homes only once or twice a month as Taliban-imposed restrictions curtail their freedom of movement and participation in public life, according to data released by U.N. Women on Wednesday.

As the Taliban prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power this week, Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to ban girls from secondary education and women from attending university, stated the U.N. agency, which promotes gender equality.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hasseb Alwazeer

CAIRO/GAZA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Gaza cancer patients are dying at two to three times the pace they did before the start of the war in the territory, as Israel blocks many from travelling for treatment after destroying the only local specialised facility, Gaza doctors said.

Israel blew up Gaza's specialised cancer hospital last year after saying troops found a tunnel used by Hamas militants running beneath it. That means that an estimated 17,000 Gazans with cancer have no local option for chemotherapy or other advanced therapy.

DUBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Iran will soon join the New Development Bank, the development lender established by the BRICS group of nations, central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said in a state media report published on Wednesday ahead of a BRICS finance meeting in India.

Iran remains under sweeping U.S. and international sanctions, and it has yet to reach a peace deal to end the current conflict with the U.S. and Israel, giving Tehran added incentive to seek alternative financial channels outside the dollar system.