Eighteen people who took part in a banned anti-government protest were ordered Wednesday to stand trial next week, with nine of them put behind bars in the meantime, a lawyer said.

Algeria launched its campaign Wednesday for constitutional reforms for a "New Republic" that the government hopes will satisfy a popular protest movement -- to the apparent indifference of many.

The constitutional changes, a flagship initiative of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, are set to be put to a referendum on November 1, the anniversary of the start of Algeria's 1954-1962 war of independence from France.

The United Nations does not have enough funds to investigate rights violations in strife-torn Libya this year, the Human Rights Council decided Tuesday.

In June, the U.N.'s top rights body, with the support of Tripoli, adopted a resolution calling for a fact-finding mission to be sent to the north African country to document abuses committed there by all parties since 2016.

Kuwait's new emir, Sheikh Nawaf, on Wednesday named Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, a long-serving top security official, as crown prince.

Clashes in the Syrian Desert between pro-government forces and holdouts of the Islamic State group have killed at least 90 combatants this month, a war monitor said on Wednesday. 

Tunisia on Tuesday arrested two men allegedly linked to the Islamic State group who were plotting "terrorist operations" in the North African nation, the interior ministry said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said the peace drive to end the conflict in Libya since 2011 should not be wasted, in a video conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

There has been increased hope since the two main warring factions separately announced in August that they would cease hostilities, which was followed by a series of U.N.-backed talks.

The foreign ministers of Israel and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday visited the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin during their "historic" first meeting, a major step forward for their new relations.

A car bomb on Tuesday killed 18 people, including at least 13 civilians, in the Turkish-controlled town of Al-Bab in northern Syria, a war monitor said.

Egypt's prosecutor-general has ordered the release of a journalist days after she was arrested in the country's south, amid outcry from international press freedom advocates.