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Baby flamingos saved from drought-decimated lake in Algeria

Around 300 pink flamingo chicks were rescued by volunteers in eastern Algeria after the salt lake where they hatched dried up following years of high temperatures and drought.

Thousands of flamingos migrate each year to nest in Lake Tinsilt, located around 450 kilometres (about 280 miles) southeast of the capital Algiers.

It is one of the largest wetlands in the country, with an area of more than 20 square kilometres.

A rescued flamingo is pictured at a sanctuary where the birds had been brought after their lake dried up in Algeria

Gazans flee after Israel orders safe zone evacuation over rockets

Thousands of panicked Gazans fled after the Israeli military showered Khan Yunis with leaflets ordering evacuation on Monday, warning it was preparing to launch an operation in part of a former humanitarian area.

The military had declared Al-Mawasi, along the Gaza coast between the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah, a safe zone in May, and told Palestinians to relocate there.

But it has now ordered people to leave part of the zone in eastern Khan Yunis city that it says militants have been using to launch attacks on Israeli targets.

Most of Gaza's 2.4 million population has been displaced

Yemen firefighters struggle against port blaze after Israel strikes

Firefighting teams on Monday struggled to contain a massive blaze at Yemen's rebel-held Hodeida port, days after a deadly Israeli strike damaged oil storage facilities and endangered aid ships in the harbour.

Heavy flames and black smoke spiralled into the sky for a third consecutive day following the strike on Saturday, said an AFP correspondent in Hodeida.

Firefighters appeared to have made little progress, with the blaze seemingly expanding in some parts of the port, the correspondent said, amid fears it could reach food storage facilities.

Israeli settlers beat foreign volunteers in occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers on Sunday attacked a group of foreign volunteers helping Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank, injuring some who needed hospital treatment, the activists and Israeli army said.

Eight mainly American volunteers were working with the farmers in an olive grove near the Palestinian village of Qusra when settlers came after them, said David Hummel, an American-German in the group.

"We were standing there peacefully, not a threat to anyone, when they started coming towards us and pushing us down the path," Hummel told AFP.

Foreign volunteers working with Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank said they were attacked by Israeli settlers on Sunday

Israel's Yemen strike will embolden Huthis: analysts

Israel's first attack on Yemen's Huthis, who have defied months of strikes by the United States and Britain, will likely only embolden the rebels, analysts say.

Saturday's strike on the port city of Hodeida, which the rebels say killed six people and triggered a massive fire, will provide the Huthis with "political capital", said Maged Al-Madhaji, co-founder of the Sanaa Centre for Strategic Studies think tank.

Israel's strike on Hodeida would affect fuel imports but would not deter the Huthi rebels, analysts said

Yemen rebels say 6 killed in Israel port strike, vow retaliation

The death toll from an Israeli strike on Yemen's rebel-held port of Hodeida climbed to six, Huthi health authorities said on Sunday, as the rebel group's leader threatened an escalation in attacks.

Saturday's strike on the port, a key entry point for fuel and humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Yemen, is the first claimed by Israel in the Arabian peninsula's poorest country, about 2,000 kilometres (1,300 miles) away.

Hezbollah says fires rockets, drones at Israel

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it fired Katyusha rockets and drones at Israel on Sunday after strikes which the Israeli army said targeted Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.

Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

Six people were wounded in the overnight Israeli strike, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency.

A rocket fired from southern Lebanon is intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system over northern Israel

Yemen's Huthis vow major retaliation for Israeli port strike

Yemen's Huthi rebels on Sunday promised a "huge" retaliation against Israel for a deadly strike on the port of Hodeida, as regional fallout widens from months of war in Gaza.

The Israeli strike, the first claimed by Israel in Yemen, set oil tanks ablaze at the vital port and came a day after the first fatal attack by the Huthis in Israel.

On Sunday, Israel said it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen and struck targets in southern Lebanon. Residents of southern Gaza reported combat in the Rafah area.

Oil storage tanks burn, a day after Israeli strikes on Yemen's rebel-held Hodeida port

Turkey-Syria rapprochement likely to be gradual: analysts

After a long estrangement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad may be edging towards a meeting, but analysts say normalisation will likely be gradual due to thorny issues.

Ankara initially sought to topple Damascus after the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests, and Erdogan branded Assad a "murderer".

As Damascus regained territory, however, Erdogan reversed course. Since 2022, top Syrian and Turkish officials have met for Russia-mediated talks, with Moscow pushing for a detente.

This combination of file pictures created on July 7, 2024 shows Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) in May 2023 and Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in July 2023. Erdogan has said he might invite Assad for a meeting to ease strained ties

Insect infestation ravages North African prickly pear

Amor Nouira, a farmer in Tunisia's Chebika village, has lost hope of saving his prickly pear cacti, ravaged by the cochineal insect spreading across North Africa.

The 50-year-old has seen his half-hectare of cactus crops wither as the invasive insect wreaked havoc on about a third of the country's cacti after an outbreak in 2021.

"At first, I wanted to experiment with prickly pear production and gradually develop investments while looking for customers outside the country, especially for its natural oil," said Nouira.

In Chebika, as in other rural areas in central Tunisia, many farmers' fields of prickly pear have been spoiled by the cochineal, which swept through North Africa 10 years ago