Engineers on Monday "partially refloated" the colossal container ship that remains wedged across the Suez Canal, a canal services firm said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free.

Nearly a week ago, the skyscraper-sized Ever Given got stuck sideways in the crucial waterway, creating a massive traffic jam. The obstruction is holding up $9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic. Over 300 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, are still waiting to pass through the canal, while dozens more are taking the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip, adding some two weeks to journeys and threatening delivery delays.

Denmark on Sunday joined Norway and other European national teams in a growing movement protesting against the treatment of migrant workers involved in building venues for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Russia's ambassador to Egypt on Sunday offered the country "any possible assistance," as efforts continue to free a megaship that has been blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week. 

Kurdish forces launched a security operation in a camp for suspected family members of Islamic State group militants and made dozens of arrests Sunday, a war monitor and Kurdish officials said.

Egypt's Suez Canal chief has said that "technical or human errors" could be behind the grounding of a huge container ship blocking the vital waterway, causing a backlog of over 300 vessels.

Syria has begun rationing the distribution of fuel in the war-torn country amid concerns that shipments could be delayed because Egypt's Suez Canal is being blocked by a giant cargo ship that has run aground, the Oil Ministry said.

The container ship remained stuck sideways in the Suez Canal over the weekend, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.

Five people died and more than 20 were wounded Saturday as a building collapsed in the Egyptian capital Cairo, local authorities said. 

A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt's Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.

Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in Algeria Friday, with authorities making arrests in the capital and dispersing demonstrators in other cities, a rights group and a journalist said. 

An attempt Friday to refloat a giant container ship blocking Egypt's Suez Canal has failed, the vessel's managers said.