At a Damascus air base once off-limits under Bashar al-Assad, a crew now films a TV series about the final months of the ousted leader's rule as seen through the eyes of a Syrian family.

"It's hard to believe we're filming here," director Mohamad Abdul Aziz said from the Mazzeh base, which was once also a detention centre run by Assad's air force intelligence branch, known for its cruelty

The site in the capital's southwestern suburbs "used to be a symbol of military power. Now we are making a show about the fall of that power", he told AFP.

Dec 10 (Reuters) - Groups operating from Israeli-held areas of Gaza say they will continue to fight Hamas despite the killing of their most prominent commander, reporting more recruits since an October ceasefire as they eye a role in the enclave's ​future.

The emergence of the groups, though they remain small and localised, has added to pressures on Islamist Hamas and could complicate ​efforts to stabilise and unify a divided Gaza shattered by two years of war.

ANKARA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. is in discussions with Turkey ​regarding Ankara's rejoining the F-35 fighter ​jet programme and Washington hopes that talks will yield a breakthrough ⁠in the coming months, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey said on Wednesday.

Washington removed Ankara from Lockheed Martin's <LMT.N> advanced F-35 programme and imposed ​the sanctions in 2020 over its acquisition of ‍Russian S-400 air defence systems. Turkey ​has said the move was unjust and voiced hope that the sides could overcome the issue during U.S. President Donald Trump's second term.

Deep in the Abu Dhabi desert, a vast AI campus a quarter the size of Paris is starting to emerge, the oil-rich UAE's boldest bet yet on technology it hopes will help transform its economy.

Towering cranes clank as long, low buildings take shape below, the eventual home of data centres powered by five gigawatts of electricity -- the biggest such facility outside the United States.

Scotland's Nnena Kalu took home the Turner Prize on Tuesday, with the autistic artist beating four competitors including an Iraqi painter to the prestigious contemporary art award.

Glasgow-born Kalu, 59, was nominated for her hanging sculptures using wrapped material, including fabric, rope and tape, with the British disability charity Sense hailing her shortlisting as "incredibly significant".

The jury of the prize, established in 1984 to celebrate contemporary British art, hailed Kalu's art as "bold and compelling" as well as "the powerful presence these works have".

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - United Nations ​Secretary-General Antonio Guterres ​condemns a referral by Yemen's Houthis ⁠of some of the dozens of U.N. staff they have detained to a ​special criminal court, his ‍spokesperson said on Tuesday.

U.N. ​spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the Houthis have arbitrarily detained 59 Yemeni U.N. personnel, who have been held "incommunicado - ⁠some for years - without any due process, in violation of international law."

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Yemen's southern separatists have claimed control over swathes of territory in an apparent major shift in power that risks rekindling a 10-year-old civil war ​after a long lull, raising new uncertainties in a country near important sea routes.

The ​separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC), backed in the past by the United Arab Emirates, says it has taken over the eastern provinces of Hadhramaut and Mahra and is now firmly established across ⁠all provinces of the former state of South Yemen.

Dec 9 (Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed ​an executive order designating one ​of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, ⁠the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so ​in recent weeks.

Mohamed Salah reported for Liverpool training on Tuesday as doubts grow about the star's future at the Premier League champions with Saudi clubs intent on making a move for the striker in the winter transfer window.

The 33-year-old Egypt forward was left out of Liverpool's squad for their Champions League tie at Inter Milan on Tuesday following his extraordinary public criticism of Reds manager Arne Slot after he was left on the bench for the third consecutive game.

By Daphne Psaledakis

WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) -

The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on actors it ​accused of fueling the war in Sudan, ​taking aim at what it said was a transnational network that recruits former Colombian ⁠military personnel and trains soldiers, including children, to fight for the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.