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.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at Israel late Monday, the army said, without reporting any casualties.

Hundreds of Algerians defied a nationwide ban on protests and took to the streets Monday to demand democratic change and mark the anniversary of 1988 demonstrations that ushered in reforms.

Germany's foreign minister on Monday voiced "cautious optimism" over efforts to end the conflict in Libya, as top diplomats sought to foster a peace drive given new impetus by a series of talks in recent weeks.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres joined German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, other top diplomats and representatives of neighboring countries at the meeting in Berlin.