A sandstorm swept through Iraq, filling the air with choking dust that closed airports and put more than 3,700 people in hospital with breathing difficulties, the health ministry said Tuesday.

Visibility fell to less than one kilometre (barely half a mile) in central and southern cities as the storm cloaked the region in an eerie orange haze, AFP photographers reported.

Basra and Najaf airports both closed for the duration of the storm, which began to dissipate on Tuesday morning.

The presidents of Syria and Lebanon arrived in Qatar on separate visits Tuesday, the first official trips by both leaders to the wealthy Gulf state since taking office.

Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha, the Qatari leader's office said in a statement.

Qatar has been a key backer of the new administration in Damascus after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December.

Two years into a war that has left tens of thousands dead, Sudan's RSF paramilitary force on Tuesday announced its own government to rival the army-backed administration it is battling.

The United Nations says the conflict that erupted on April 15, 2023 is the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with 13 million people displaced -- including more than 3.5 million to other countries -- and no sign of peace on the horizon.

Years of negotiations culminated early Wednesday with countries agreeing the text of a landmark accord on how to tackle future pandemics, aimed at avoiding the mistakes made during the Covid-19 crisis.

After more than three years of talks and one last marathon session, weary delegates at the World Health Organization's headquarters finally sealed the deal at around 2:00 am (0000 GMT) Wednesday.

"Tonight marks a significant milestone in our shared journey towards a safer world," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The once unthinkable disarmament of Hezbollah could finally be within reach, as the United States pushes Lebanon to act and applies pressure to the group's backer Iran over its nuclear programme, analysts said.

Hezbollah was left badly weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, beginning with the group's campaign of rocket fire at its arch-foe in support of ally Hamas, and culminating in a major Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion into Lebanon.

US immigration authorities on Monday arrested another Columbia University student who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests, detaining him as he attended an interview to become an American citizen.

Mohsen Mahdawi's lawyers, in a court filing seeking his release and halt to any imminent deportation, also claimed President Donald Trump's mounting crackdown on immigrant student protesters violates the US Constitution -- the latest judicial challenge to the Republican adminstration.

Sudan's civil war has displaced 13 million people, the United Nations reported Monday, as the conflict between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces enters a third year.

"The conflict has provoked the displacement of 13 million people, including 8.6 internally displaced people and 3.8 million refugees," said Abdourahouf Gnon-Konde of the UN refugee agency in an interview with AFP.

The war, which erupted on April 15, 2023, has left tens of thousands dead, pushed parts of Sudan into famine and fractured the country into warlord-run territories.

Hamas said Monday that Israel has offered a 45-day ceasefire if it releases half of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, which the United Nations said is now in the grip of its worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the war.

A Hamas official told AFP that Israel had also demanded that the Palestinian militants disarm to secure an end to the Gaza war but that this crossed a "red line".

Already worn down by years of political turmoil and economic hardships, Libyans are now facing a sharp deterioration in their purchasing power after a sudden devaluation of the Libyan dinar.

Experts have said the national currency's exchange rate decline came as a consequence of ballooning public expenditures by the country's rival governments in recent years.

Libya has Africa's most abundant hydrocarbon reserves, but it is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam met with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Monday, inviting him to visit Beirut during a trip aimed at rebooting ties between the two neighbours.

Salam and his foreign, defence and interior ministers made the first trip to Damascus by senior Lebanese officials since a new government was formed in Beirut in February, two months after an Islamist-led alliance ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad.