Iraq's prime minister has held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began.

The two leaders told reporters that they discussed fighting drugs, the return of Syrian refugees and the imperative of lifting Western sanctions imposed in Syria. They also talked about Israel's strikes on the war-torn country and water shortages in the Euphrates River that cuts through both countries because of projects in Turkey.

Israel has returned a boat to a Gaza fisherman it had seized for allegedly breaching the limits of the Palestinian enclave's fishing zone, an NGO said, following an Israeli court order.

Israeli authorities had called for the vessel, belonging to fisherman Mohammad al-Hissi, to be permanently confiscated, triggering fears of more such seizures off the Gaza Strip.

Israel's governing coalition pushed ahead on Monday with its contentious plan to overhaul the country's judiciary, despite growing opposition from within the country's military and a wave of mass protests expected this week.

A parliamentary committee was preparing a bill that would limit judicial oversight on some government decisions, legislation that has sparked intensifying criticism from military reservists in elite units, including the air force and cyberwarfare.

Russia has suspended a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

Russia halted a breakthrough wartime deal on Monday that allows grain to flow from Ukraine to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia where hunger is a growing threat and high food prices have pushed more people into poverty.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own food and fertilizer to the world are met. While Russia has complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance have hampered its agricultural exports, it has shipped record amounts of wheat.

Heavy downpours lashed South Korea for a ninth day on Monday as rescue workers struggled to search for survivors in landslides, buckled homes and swamped vehicles in the most destructive storm to hit the country this year.

At least 40 people have died, 34 others are injured and more than 10,000 people have had to evacuate from their homes since July 9, when heavy rain started pounding the country. The severest damage has been concentrated in South Korea's central and southern regions.

Vehicle traffic on the single bridge that links Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea and serves as a key supply route for the Kremlin's forces in the war with Ukraine came to a standstill Monday after one of its sections was blown up, killing a married couple and wounding their daughter.

Rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) Kerch Bridge also stopped but resumed after about six hours.

The first phase of Ukraine's counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it's going.

A Palestinian gunman opened fire on a car in the occupied West Bank on Sunday wounding three Israelis before fleeing, Israeli authorities said.

The attack was the latest in a relentless cycle of violence that has gripped the region, driving up the death toll and sparking the worst fighting between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly two decades.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still undergoing tests in hospital on Sunday after a dizzy spell but was expected to be released later in the day, his office said.

Netanyahu, 73, was rushed to hospital on Saturday after feeling mild dizziness. His office said test results on Sunday were normal and that Netanyahu was feeling "very good."