Hundreds of the demonstrators, mostly supporters of Iraqi Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, break into the heavily fortified Green Zone in protest at a rival bloc’s nomination for prime minister.

No lawmakers were present in parliament when the protesters penetrated the capital.

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi called on the protesters to “immediately withdraw” from the Green Zone.

Jordan’s king has told Israel’s visiting prime minister that Palestinians should be part of US-sponsored regional economic projects to underpin stability in the Middle East.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has long weighed on their bilateral relations. Palestinian leaders seek statehood in territories occupied by Israel since a 1967 war. Peacemaking has been frozen since 2014.

King Abdullah II on Wednesday reiterated to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, in their first meeting since United States President Joe Biden’s visit to the region earlier this month, that a Palestinian state was essential to reach lasting peace.

The Taliban have “decimated” the rights of Afghan women and girls since they returned to power in Afghanistan almost a year ago, an Amnesty International report said on Wednesday.

This includes rights to education, work and free movement which have been severely curtailed under the draconian rules of the regime.

The report titled “Death in Slow Motion: Women and Girls Under Taliban Rule” interviewed more than a hundred Afghan women and girls and revealed that those who protested against the restrictions were “threatened, arrested, detained, tortured, and forcibly disappeared. “

The Iran-backed Houthis have abducted up to 100 women from their homes over prostitution allegations since the beginning of July in Yemen’s northwestern province of Hajjah, Yemeni activists and rights groups warned on Monday.

Yemeni officials and human rights activists put the number of abducted women at about 100, warning that the Houthis falsely accused the captives of prostitution without offering evidence to support their allegations.

Many of the abducted women have suffered from intense social stigma as a result of the arrests, with some ostracized by family members.

Prosecutors in Tunisia have launched an investigation into allegations of illegal foreign campaign funding and anonymous donations to the Islamist Ennahda political party.

The probes follow President Kais Saied’s dismissal of the prime minister and key Cabinet members, and the 30-day suspension of parliament, which is dominated by Ennahda.

Ennahda and two other political parties are accused of obtaining illegal funding before elections in 2019.

A man was found dead Thursday afternoon, hours after a sinkhole opened up in an inground swimming pool at a private home in central Israel, with the receding water dragging him away along with another man who managed to climb his way out.

Search teams at the scene in the town of Karmei Yosef found the body following a complex rescue operation that took four hours and required the assistance of Go-Pro cameras hooked to the helmets of the staff workers as they were lowered deep underground

Witness told the Ynet news site that the vortex swallowed up the victim in a matter of seconds and that there could’ve been additional casualties but that only six people were in the pool at the time.

Rached Ghannouchi, leader of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party, appeared on Tuesday before the court for the probe into his alleged money laundering and terrorist financing, the Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) reported.

Ghannouchi has been under investigation since last month over suspicion of corruption and money laundering relating to money transfers from abroad to the Ennahda-affiliated charity Namaa Tunisia Association

Israel’s new prime minister paid an unannounced visit to the border with Lebanon on Tuesday, threatening to unleash a harsh military response to what he described as “unacceptable” aggression by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

“Israel is prepared to act against any threat,” said Yair Lapid, who took over Israel’s caretaker prime minister on July 1. “We have no interest in escalation but Hezbollah’s aggression is unacceptable and is liable to lead the entire region into an unnecessary escalation.”