Outside his bullet-riddled home in Sudan's war-ravaged capital, Jamil Morjan stood with his hands raised in prayer for his mother's soul over a mound of earth.

There was no headstone -- just a rough wooden plank marking the spot where his mother lay buried.

"We couldn't take her to a cemetery," he told AFP, his bloodshot eyes laden with exhaustion.

When his mother died in March 2024, the Sudanese capital was a war zone, torn apart by nearly a year of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Israeli survivor Gal Gilboa-Dalal has led a life of pain and worry since Hamas militants took his younger brother Guy hostage from the music festival they attended together on October 7, 2023.

Wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the face of his 23-year-old brother, he showed a photo of their final moments together before being separated during the attack.

Of the 1,218 people killed as a result of the October 7 attack, militants murdered more than 370 people at the Nova music festival, at which Guy Gilboa-Dalal was taken hostage.

Student protesters were back on the streets on Wednesday as they marked a week since the start of Turkey's biggest demonstrations against the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since 2013.

The protests erupted after the March 19 arrest of Istanbul opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as part of a graft and "terror" probe, which the main opposition CHP party slammed as a "coup".

Vast crowds have hit the streets daily, defying a protest ban in Istanbul and other big cities, with the biggest crowds gathering after dark, sparking running battles with riot police.

Huthi media said late Wednesday that new US strikes had hit the rebel-held capital Sanaa, after earlier reporting 19 American raids elsewhere in Yemen.

"A series of strikes by the US aggression have hit the south and north of the capital," the Al-Masirah channel said, without providing further details.

The station had earlier reported 17 raids by the United States "on the Saada governorate", on top of two more on Amran.

The Iran-backed rebels' news agency, Saba, said "the American aggression targeted the Oncology Hospital building in Saada".

In a matter of days, US President Donald Trump has extended a hand to Iran and bombed Tehran's allies in Yemen. His administration has both demanded that Iran dismantle its nuclear program and offered more flexibility.

Trump has for years dangled force as a means to get his way in negotiations.

But on Iran, some observers see less a strategy than mixed messaging, with a real debate on how the norms-breaking president will handle a US adversary of nearly half a century.

Iran became the second Asian side to secure their place at the 2026 World Cup after twice coming from behind to draw 2-2 with Uzbekistan in Tehran on Tuesday, handing organisers a likely diplomatic headache.

Iran, the second-highest ranked AFC side in the FIFA standings, needed only a point to join Japan in qualifying for the finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Iran will, however, head to North America with relations strained as US President Donald Trump takes a hard line over opening new nuclear talks with Tehran.

Israeli police released Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal on Tuesday, after detaining him a day earlier for "hurling rocks" following what activists described as an attack by settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Basel Adra, who worked with Ballal on the Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land", posted a photo of Ballal on X after his release with blood stains on his shirt.

"After I won the Oscar, I did not expect to be exposed to such attacks," Ballal said in a video by AFPTV.

"It was a very strong attack and the goal was to kill."

US President Donald Trump downplayed a growing scandal Tuesday after a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat about air strikes on Yemen, denying any classified information was shared and defending a top aide over the breach.

Trump said he would "look into" the use of the Signal app as he put on a united front at a meeting with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who inadvertently included The Atlantic magazine's Jeffrey Goldberg in the conversation of top national security officials.

A Sudanese monitor accused the army Tuesday of carrying out one of the deadliest air strikes in the country's nearly two-year war on a rebel-held town in the western region of Darfur.

The Emergency Lawyers, a group of volunteer legal professionals, said "hundreds of civilians" were killed in an "indiscriminate air strike on Tora market in North Darfur", while two residents who took part in burial operations said they had counted 270 bodies.

AFP could not independently verify a toll or reach local medics due to a telecommunications blackout in Darfur.

Israel's president said on Tuesday he was shocked that the issue of hostages being held by Palestinian militants in Gaza was no longer a top priority in the country, days after criticising the government's war policy.

"I am quite shocked how suddenly the issue of the hostages is no longer at the top of the priority list and at the top of the news," Isaac Herzog said in a video issued by his office, adding it was important to keep working towards "bringing the hostages home, down to the last one".