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.

TUNIS, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Tunisian police on Tuesday arrested prominent opposition figure Ayachi Hammami at his home to enforce five-year prison term on a conviction for conspiracy against state security, his family told Reuters.

An appeals court last week handed jail terms of up to 45 years to dozens of opposition leaders including Hammami, business figures and lawyers on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied, in what critics said was a sign of his increasingly authoritarian rule.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; editing by Mark Heinrich)

Dec 2 (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo's army and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels traded accusations of ceasefire violations on Tuesday, two days before the White House is set to host the signing of an accord to end fighting in the country's east.

The United States and Qatar have been mediating talks aimed at restoring peace in North and South Kivu provinces where clashes have displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Rwanda has denied backing M23, which says it is fighting to protect Tutsi communities in eastern Congo.