US President Donald Trump s call for recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights was manna from heaven for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two weeks before an election. For many Arabs, it crushed any hope that there will one day be a negotiated peace between Israel and the Palestinians and increased doubts that Washington is an impartial arbiter. But allies and enemies can agree on one thing: Trump s statement last Thursday was a turning point in US policy over territory Israel captured from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed in 1981, in a move the UN Security Council declared unlawful.

At least 18 people were killed and around 100 others were injured in flash floods in Iran s southern Fars province, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, with more rain forecast following days of devastating floods in the north. Some 26 provinces out of 31 now have flood warnings due to torrential rain in a country more accustomed to drought. State TV said villages near rivers and dams in several provinces had been evacuated for fear of the rising water.

US President Donald Trump will sign an order recognising Israel s sovereignty over the Golan Heights when he meets Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday, Israel s foreign minister said. "President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Clashes broke out in the latest “yellow vest” protests in French cities Saturday but a massive police deployment prevented more of the rioting and looting that marred last week s rally in Paris. More than 40,000 people took to the streets across France for a 19th consecutive week of anti-government protests — 5,000 of them in the capital — Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

Tunisia s president called on Wednesday for changes to the new constitution to give the presidency more power, escalating a dispute between the two highest offices in the country. The constitution, adopted in 2014 after the uprising of 2011 that ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, significantly erodes the previously extensive power of the presidency and gives the prime minister and parliament a much bigger role.

The European Union could next week hold an emergency summit to offer a Brexit extension with potentially onerous conditions such as holding another referendum, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday. "There could be and we don t know there will be an EU emergency summit to offer us an extension," Hunt told BBC radio.

The United Nations said Wednesday it will organise an all-party conference next month to draw up a "roadmap" to lead Libya toward elections and out of the chaos in which it has plunged since a 2011 revolution. The national conference aims to fix dates for legislative and presidential elections in the North African state, which has been torn apart by military, political and tribal feuds since the NATO-backed uprising that ousted longtime ruler Moamer Kadhafi.

Algeria s deputy prime minister Ramtane Lamamra on Tuesday promised "open and transparent" steps to resolve the country s political crisis, as ally Moscow backed his government s plans. Lamamra was in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as a wave of mass protests continued in Algeria against the rule of its ageing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power for 20 years.

Prime Minister Theresa May s Brexit plans were in disarray on Tuesday as her government sought to plot a way around the speaker of parliament s ruling that she had to change her twice-defeated divorce deal to put it to a third vote. After two-and-a-half years of negotiations with the EU, Brexit remains uncertain - with options including a long postponement, exiting with May s deal, a economically disruptive exit without a deal, or even another EU membership referendum.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced his shock resignation on Tuesday, 29 years after taking office. "I have taken the decision to resign from the post of presidency," the 78-year-old said in a speech broadcast on state television.

Dutch police arrested a Turkish man suspected of shooting dead three people and wounding five on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht on Monday. Utrecht police announced the suspect, 37-year-old Gokmen Tanis, had been taken into custody. The city was put into lockdown after the shooting, shortly after the morning rush hour, which authorities initially said was an apparent terrorist attack.

Algeria s newly-appointed prime minister has started talks to form a new government, the state news agency reported on Sunday, in a move designed to appease protesters demanding President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika and his inner circle step down. The new cabinet will include experts without political affiliation and will "reflect the demographics of the Algerian society", APS quoted an official source as saying. The aim is to "show willingness to establish a government of great openness".

British MPs vote Thursday on whether to seek a Brexit delay, as the chaotic process to end Britain s near five-decade membership of the EU plunged Britain into deep political crisis. Embattled Prime Minister Theresa May has agreed to ask for a postponement with just two weeks to go until the March 29 scheduled departure date, but she has warned that unless MPs drop their opposition to her divorce deal, any delay would likely be lengthy.

Algeria s new prime minister, Noureddine Bedoui, said on Thursday he would form an inclusive and technocratic government that involved young Algerians who have been staging protests to push for quick political changes. His promise at a news conference in Algiers comes after ailing President Abelaziz Bouteflika decided not to run for a fifth term in the face of mass demonstrations. Bedoui was appointed premier on Monday after Ahmed Ouyahia resigned.

French President Emmanuel Macron launched his latest Africa visit with stops in Ethiopia and Djibouti on Tuesday aimed at shoring up military and economic ties in an increasingly strategic region. The French leader also announced that Rwanda had invited him to attend the 25th anniversary of the country s genocide, after years of tensions between the two nations over France s role at the time.

A U.S. Department of State official on Monday said she thinks there will be a third summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but no date has been set. Trump and Kim s second summit in Vietnam last month collapsed over differences on U.S. demands for Pyongyang s denuclearization and North Korea s demand for sanctions relief.

Britain s attorney general punctured Prime Minister Theresa May s hopes of winning backing for her Brexit deal Tuesday, saying last-minute changes secured from the European Union didn t give Britain the power to cut itself free of ties to the bloc. Geoffrey Cox said changes announced late Monday ``reduce the risk Britain could be stuck inside EU regulations indefinitely - but do not eliminate it. The two-page opinion said the U.K. could still not extract itself from the terms of the divorce deal unilaterally, a key demand of pro-Brexit British politicians.

Thousands protested in Algeria on Tuesday, demanding immediate political changes a day after ailing President Abelaziz Bouteflika abandoned his bid for a fifth term in power but stopped short of stepping down. Huge crowds gathered in several cities and Ennahar TV reported workers began a strike that paralysed operations at the Mediterranean port at Bejaia. But in the capital, aside from a few hundred protesters, life carried on normally.

Airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia grounded Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets Monday as investigators recovered the black boxes from a brand-new passenger jet that crashed outside Addis Ababa a day earlier, killing all 157 people on board. The Nairobi-bound plane -- the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, killing 189 passengers and crew -- smashed into a field just six minutes after takeoff as the pilot alerted controllers of "difficulties".