A state of emergency that had been periodically renewed by Moroccan authorities for the past three years to battle the Covid pandemic lapsed without extension on Tuesday.

First declared on March 24, 2020 as the pandemic swept across the globe, the emergency had allowed authorities to take exceptional measure to battle the spread of the virus, including lockdowns, border closures and restrictions on movement and gatherings, including sports events. 

An ultranationalist ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tendered his resignation as a deputy minister in the new government.

Avi Maoz's departure was the first crack in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, which assumed office in late December after securing a parliamentary majority in the November elections.

A suspected Palestinian gunman has shot and killed an Israeli motorist in the occupied West Bank, the latest bloodshed in a fresh wave of fighting that showed no signs of slowing.

The killing occurred a day after two Israelis were killed by a Palestinian gunman in the northern West Bank, triggering a rampage in which Israeli settlers torched dozens of cars and homes in a Palestinian town and one Palestinian was killed. It was the worst such violence in decades.

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in Baghdad to denounce a draft elections law that would increase the size of the country's electoral districts, potentially undermining independent candidates.

The current legislation, under which the 2021 election was held, breaks up each of the country's 18 provinces into several electoral districts. The law, which was a key demand of mass anti-government protests that kicked off in late 2019, was seen as giving independent candidates a better chance at winning.

Land mines left behind by the Islamic State group in central Syria went off in two different locations on Monday, killing 10 workers as they were collecting truffles in the countryside and wounding 12, state media reported.

According to Syria's state news agency SANA, the two mines exploded east of the central town of Salamiyeh. All the casualties were taken to a hospital in the town, the report added. It wasn't immediately clear what had triggered the explosions.

The United Nations is seeking $4.3 billion at a pledging conference Monday to alleviate the suffering of millions of people in Yemen, where an eight-year civil war has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

More than 21 million people in Yemen, or two-thirds of the country's population, need help and protection, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, which says the humanitarian needs in Yemen are "shocking." Among those in need, more than 17 million are considered particularly vulnerable.

A Turkish drone attack Monday in northern Iraq killed at least three fighters from the minority Yazidi community affiliated with the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

"A drone from the Turkish army targeted a vehicle" in the region, killing an officer and two combatants from the Yazidi Sinjar Resistance Units, a statement from the Kurdistan region's anti-terrorist squad said.

Nearly 20 years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid wants the world to know his country now is at peace, democratic and intent on rebuilding economic life while maintaining a government that serves the whole country and the region.

Rashid told The Associated Press on Sunday that after overcoming the hardships of the past two decades, Iraq is ready to focus on improving everyday life for its people. Those hardships included years of resistance to foreign troops, violence between Sunnis and Shiites, and attacks by Islamic State group extremists who once controlled large areas, including Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul.

Israel sent hundreds more troops to the occupied West Bank on Monday, a day after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and settlers rampaged through a Palestinian town, torching homes and vehicles in the worst such violence in decades.

The responses to the rampage laid bare some rifts in Israel's new right-wing government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing for calm while a member of his ruling coalition praised the rampage as deterrence against Palestinian attacks.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry arrived Monday in Damascus, the latest example of Arab outreach to Syria's internationally isolated government since it and Turkey were hit by a devastating earthquake.

Shoukry's trip shows "solidarity with Syria in the face of the consequences of the earthquake", said the official news agency SANA, adding he was welcomed at Damascus airport by his counterpart Faisal Mekdad.