The Syrian presidency announced on Monday an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the institutions of the autonomous Kurdish administration in the northeast into the national government.

Syria's new authorities under interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entirety of the country since ousting long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that the detention of a leader of pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University in New York is "the first arrest of many to come."

"We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Members of Syria's small Christian community on the coast are living in fear after attacks killed more than 1,000 mostly Alawite civilians, with Christians reportedly caught up in the violence.

"The current conflict in Syria does not concern me, but we are its victims," said Ruwayda, a 36-year-old Christian from the port city of Latakia.

"There's a feeling that no one is protecting us," she told AFP.

"I feel a mix of both fear and anticipation for what lies ahead in Syria, but I feel certain that migration is the only option," she added.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Monday rejected Israel's assertion that other organisations could replace it in Gaza, insisting that only a Palestinian state "institution" could take over.

Israel has banned UNRWA from operating in Gaza and agency chief Philippe Lazzarini hit back after Israel's ambassador Daniel Meron told reporters that his country was "working to find substitutes to the work of UNRWA inside Gaza".

Israel was actively "encouraging UN agencies and NGOs to take over," he said.

Syria's new authorities announced on Monday the end of an operation against loyalists of deposed president Bashar al-Assad, after a war monitor reported more than 1,000 civilians killed in the worst violence since his overthrow.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overwhelming majority of the 1,068 civilians killed since Thursday were members of the Alawite minority who were executed by the security forces or allied groups.

In their home in war-devastated Gaza City, Iman Farhat and her husband cherish the "paradise" brought by their newly-adopted baby, one of many orphans in the Palestinian territory after more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Wrapping five-month-old Jannah in a brightly coloured blanket, Farhat gently sang as she rocked her to sleep.

"I chose Jannah just as she was," the new mother said smiling, explaining the couple simply wanted to adopt a young child without preference for gender or physical appearance.

Olfa Meriah stands, frustrated, before a smartphone shop near the capital Tunis. How can she buy a phone in instalments, she wonders, when a new banking reform has made split payments nearly impossible?

In Tunisia, where the average monthly salary hovers just around 1,000 dinars ($320), people have long relied on post-dated cheques to make purchases by paying in increments over months.

Unlike many other countries where cheques are now rarely seen in the era of instant online payments, the culture of paying by cheque persists in Tunisia.

Immigration officers have arrested a leader of the protests at Columbia University against Israel's war in Gaza, authorities said Sunday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.

Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the university's protest movement that erupted in response to Israel's conduct of the war, was arrested on Sunday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia.

Highly anticipated negotiations on Tuesday on resolving the three-year conflict will see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelensky's disastrous White House visit last month.

Zelensky said he would on Monday meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country's de facto leader, after which his team "will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team".

Israel's negotiating team left for Qatar Monday for talks aimed at extending the fragile Gaza ceasefire after the authorities cut the Palestinian territory's electricity supply to ramp up pressure on Hamas.

Ahead of the negotiations, Israel disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza, a move Hamas denounced as "cheap and unacceptable blackmail".

The first phase of the truce deal expired on March 1 with no agreement on subsequent stages that should secure a lasting end to the war that erupted with Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.