An Iranian cargo ship believed to be a base for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and anchored for years in the Red Sea off Yemen has been attacked, Tehran acknowledged Wednesday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry confirmed the attack on the MV Saviz, suspected to have been carried out by Israel. The assault came as Iran and world powers sat down in Vienna for the first talks about the U.S. potentially rejoining Tehran's tattered nuclear deal, showing that challenges ahead don't rest merely in those negotiations.

The United States expressed concern Tuesday after a Saudi aid worker was sentenced to 20 years in jail, in a ruling that his family condemned as "brutal and unjust."

Sudan's cabinet approved a bill Tuesday abolishing a 1958 law on boycotting Israel, after Khartoum and Israel struck a deal to normalize ties.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to end Israel's repeated elections, after receiving a presidential mandate to form a government following a fourth inconclusive vote in two years.

An audio recording has emerged that appears to be of the fiery exchange between Jordan's Prince Hamzah and its army chief, which sparked the country's worst palace crisis in decades.

Israel's president nominated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday to try to form a government, two weeks after the latest inconclusive election, but voiced doubt that any lawmaker could forge a parliamentary majority.  

The prosecutor general in Jordan's capital Amman on Tuesday banned the publication of any information about an alleged plot said to involve the king's half-brother, Prince Hamzah, state television said.

A Palestinian motorist was killed and his wife wounded by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Authoritarianism is increasing and the freedom of expression being attacked in Jordan, the Human Rights Watch group warned Monday, following a wave of arrests in the kingdom over an alleged plot.

Jordan's King Abdullah II has agreed to enter mediation with Prince Hamzah to heal a rift within the royal family, the palace said Monday.

Abdullah has "decided to handle the question of Prince Hamzah within the framework of the Hashemite (ruling) family and entrusted it to (his uncle) Prince Hassan," it said in a statement.