Oil-rich Libya, whose parliament on Tuesday passed a no-confidence vote in its unity government, has been mired in chaos since dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted and killed in 2011.

The unity government, only installed in March, was to rule until elections scheduled for December, replacing two rival governments who have battled for years in a bloody struggle for control of the country.

A group of leftist U.S. Democrats came under heavy fire Tuesday after reportedly vowing to nix a short-term spending bill over a $1 billion allocation for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

The party leadership vowed there would be no interruption in funding, with the cash being sourced elsewhere -- but not before being berated by Republicans for capitulating to "anti-Semites" on their left flank.  

Coronavirus cases are surging to the worst levels of the pandemic in a rebel stronghold in Syria — a particularly devastating development in a region where scores of hospitals have been bombed and that doctors and nurses have fled in droves during a decade of war.

The total number of cases seen in Idlib province — an overcrowded enclave with a population of 4 million, many of them internally displaced — has more than doubled since the beginning of August to more than 61,000. In recent weeks, daily new infections have repeatedly shot past 1,500, and authorities reported 34 deaths on Sunday alone — figures that are still believed to be undercounts because many infected people don't report to authorities.

The ruling emir of Qatar, whose nation has played a pivotal role in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal, urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday against turning their backs on the country's Taliban rulers.

Speaking from the podium of the U.N. General Assembly, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani stressed "the necessity of continuing dialogue with Taliban because boycott only leads to polarization and reactions, whereas dialogue could bring in positive results."

Libyan lawmakers on Tuesday passed a vote of no confidence in the country's transitional government, an official said, a move that throws long-waited elections late this year into further uncertainty.

The vote took place in the parliament's headquarters in the eastern city of Tobruk, said Abdullah Ablaihig, a spokesman for the legislature.

A new poll has found that nearly 80% of Palestinians want President Mahmoud Abbas to resign, reflecting widespread anger over the death of an activist in security forces' custody and a crackdown on protests over the summer.

The survey released Tuesday found support for Abbas' Hamas rivals remained high months after the 11-day Gaza war in May, when the Islamic militant group was widely seen by Palestinians as having scored a victory against a far more powerful Israel while the Western-backed Abbas was sidelined.

Energy officials from Qatar and Turkey, long-standing foes of the United Arab Emirates, descended on Dubai along with hundreds of other executives on Tuesday, flocking to the world's largest gas expo and the industry's first in-person conference since the pandemic began.

In a scene that would have been unthinkable just a year ago, the Emirati oil minister held forth from a crowded conference room beside the Qatari minister of state for energy, the first such visit since the UAE and three other Arab states imposed an embargo on Qatar in 2017.

Tunisia's president has announced plans to draft a new electoral code and appoint a transitional leadership — and to hang on to the exceptional powers that he seized in July, throwing the country's young democracy into question.

In a speech Monday night, President Kais Saied promised that the new initiatives would respect Tunisians' hard-fought rights and freedoms and democratic constitution.

Hussein Tantawi, the Egyptian general who ruled the country following the Arab Spring uprising that removed longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, died on Tuesday, Egypt's presidency said. He was 85.

Field Marshal Tantawi was Mubarak's loyal defense minister for some 20 years. But it was Tantawi who led the country after the then-chief spy Omar Suliman announced on state television on Feb. 11, 2011, that Mubarak was stepping down after the 18 days of protest against his government.

Morocco's moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which was thrashed at last week's elections, on Sunday denounced "violations and irregularities" at the polls.

The PJD had headed Morocco's governing coalition for a decade but saw its support collapse at the September 8 vote, dropping from 125 of parliament's 395 seats to just 13.