An international human rights group called Monday on the United Nations to ensure that countries hosting its climate conference commit to meeting human rights standards after it documented instances of repression against environmental groups in Egypt, the host of COP27 later this year.

Human Rights Watch said in a report based on interviews with more than a dozen academics, scientists and activists that government restrictions amount to a violation of basic human rights and throw into question the Egyptian government's ability to meet basic climate commitments.

Hospitals in the Syrian capital have been put on alert after more than two dozen cases of cholera and at least three deaths were reported in the war-torn country, health officials said Monday.

The main cause of the spread appears to be people drinking polluted water as well as watering plants in some areas with unclean water.

The Islamic State group killed six U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in eastern Syria saying on Monday that the killing was in retaliation for an ongoing operation inside a sprawling camp housing tens of thousands of family members of the extremist group.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency released a video showing the shooting of the six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces near the eastern village of Ruwaished where they were captured alive and later shot dead late Sunday.

They literally run the country.

In parking lots, on flatbed trucks, hospital courtyards and rooftops, private generators are ubiquitous in parts of the Middle East, spewing hazardous fumes into homes and businesses 24 hours a day.

Lebanon's central bank lifted its remaining subsidies on fuel on Monday, gas station owners said, ending a year-long process of scaling back on the expensive program.

The Central Bank over a year ago announced it would gradually lift fuel subsidies, to slow down the draining of its foreign exchange reserves. Fuel subsidies once cost the cash-strapped country some $3 billion annually. Last week, it subsidized just 20% of the cost of fuel imports.

Ayoub Rumeihat opened his palms to the sky in prayer as he stood among tombstones for Bedouins killed in action while serving the state of Israel.

Finishing the holy words, he gazed at the distant Mediterranean Sea across a valley full of olives and oak where his community has grazed goats for generations.

Israel's decision to absolve itself of responsibility for the shooting death of a veteran Al-Jazeera journalist drew criticism from international media Thursday, marking a further deterioration of relations between the military and reporters covering the conflict.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein held talks Friday with Lebanese leaders over sea border demarcation and the gas dispute with Israel.

“I think we’re making very good progress and I’m very hopeful that we can reach an agreement,” Hochstein said after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda.

Syria's international airport in Aleppo is to resume business on Friday after the facility was put out of commission by an Israeli missile attack, the country's transport ministry said.

The ministry said in a statement carried by state media that the damage has been fixed and called on airline companies to resume their flights to the city in northern Syria.

Britain's new king prepared to meet with the prime minister Friday and address a nation mourning Queen Elizabeth II, the only British monarch most of the world had known and a force of stability in a volatile age.

The country began a 10-day mourning period Friday, with bells tolling around Britain and 96 gun salutes planned in London – one for each year of the queen's long life. People around the globe gathered at British embassies to pay homage to the queen, who died Thursday in Balmoral Castle in Scotland.