A gas explosion on Saturday killed five people and injured 16 others in the western Algerian city of El Bayadh, the civil defense said, adding that two houses were destroyed.

Israelis kept up weekly protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, defying lockdown restrictions imposed by authorities aimed at stemming a surge in coronavirus cases.

Algerian security forces have arrested thousands of migrants and asylum seekers, cramming them onto trucks and buses before expelling them across the border in Niger, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

A push to downgrade the EU's attendance at next month's G20 summit in Riyadh over human rights concerns marks another setback for Saudi plans to host a coming-out party on the world stage.

The European Parliament passed a wide-ranging resolution on Thursday calling for the European Union (EU) and its member states to downgrade their representation at the virtual summit in order to "avoid legitimizing impunity for human rights violations and ongoing illegal and arbitrary detentions in Saudi Arabia."

The Israeli army said Friday it was holding the body of a Palestinian shot dead in a West Bank clash earlier this week, ending days of uncertainty over his fate.

With its walls pounded by artillery, roofs torn open and concrete beams in shreds, Al-Wehdah school lies in ruins as students return for the first day of Yemen's school year.

Kuwait's new crown prince, Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah, took his oath of office before parliament on Thursday, after being nominated by his half-brother, the new emir.

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.