With the world's largest trade fair opening in an Arab country for the first time next year, Israel is stepping up preparations, hoping to boost nascent ties with regional neighbors.

From buying an Irish navy boat re-registered as a "pleasure yacht" to enlisting a Canadian firm to recruit Sudanese fighters -- Libya's warring parties are running rings around a UN arms embargo.

That's the upshot of a near-400-word report published this week by UN experts, who accuse an array of firms and external powers of violating a 2011 embargo by delivering arms or fighters to the North African country.

Israel Friday hailed the election defeat of Britain's Labor Party as a "milestone in the fight against hatred" after its leadership was accused of inaction against anti-Semitism in its ranks.

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy urged all sides in the Libyan conflict to cease fighting Friday, after strongman Khalifa Haftar threatened to assault Tripoli.

Huge crowds massed in Algeria's capital Friday in protest against the election of a former loyalist of deposed leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president in a widely boycotted vote, an AFP journalist said.

A former Algerian prime minister who served under deposed leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected president of the protest-wracked country after a vote marred by unrest and low turnout, results showed Friday.

A year after Yemen's warring sides agreed to a UN-brokered truce for the key port city of Hodeida and its surroundings, peace remains out of reach.

Seven Iraqi fighters were killed north of Baghdad on Thursday when a suicide bomber attacked a base of an armed group led by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the army said.

Turkey's recent moves with Libya -- threatening troop deployments and signing a contentious maritime deal -- are aimed at shoring up a rare regional ally and preserving access to gas supplies, analysts say.

Ankara has been one of the staunchest supporters of the beleaguered Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, a relationship that has deepened in the face of an assault to seize the Libyan capital by military strongman Khalifa Haftar since April.

After almost 10 months of political turmoil, Algeria on Thursday held a presidential vote bitterly opposed by a protest movement that sees it as a regime ploy to cling on to power.