One of the graves had broken open in Kabul's Nader Shah Hill Cemetery, exposing a near-complete skeleton at the bottom of the pit in the hard earth. The boys, who had been playing nearby, were not impressed.

"There's a lot of ruined graves, it's not unusual," one boy, around 10, said with a shrug as they looked down at the bones. The only reason the kids came over, interrupting their soccer game, was to see what an Associated Press photographer was taking pictures of.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday, the first of its kind that Israel has concluded with an Arab country.

The UAE agreed to normalize relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal in 2020, the first of the so-called Abraham Accords that Israel eventually concluded with four Arab nations. Since then, the two countries have boosted cooperation in a number of economic sectors.

Speaker Nabih Berri was reelected Tuesday for his post with the votes of 65 MPs while 23 blank votes were casted and 40 others were canceled for containing political messages rather than a candidate's name.

Heavy gunfire erupted in some Lebanese regions after the result was announced.

Reformist MPs born out of the 2019 protest movement gathered Tuesday outside Beirut's port and met with families of the port blast victims ahead of the first Parliament session.

The independent lawmakers joined the victims' relatives in a symbolic march from the docks to parliament.

An aging Japanese militant who spent more than a decade in an Israeli prison for his part in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv's airport has showed up in Beirut at an event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the attack.

Kozo Okamoto, 74, served 12 years in an Israeli lockup for a May 30, 1972 attack on the international airport outside Tel Aviv that was thought to be carried out by members of the Japanese Red Army guerrilla group. Twenty-six people were killed, including Christian pilgrims.

Turkey's president told journalists that Ankara remains committed to rooting out a Syrian Kurdish militia from northern Syria.

"Like I always say, we'll come down on them suddenly one night. And we must," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on his plane following his Saturday visit to Azerbaijan, according to daily Hurriyet newspaper and other media.

Something weird is up with La Nina, the natural but potent weather event linked to more drought and wildfires in the western United States and more Atlantic hurricanes. It's becoming the nation's unwanted weather guest and meteorologists said the West's megadrought won't go away until La Nina does.

The current double-dip La Nina set a record for strength last month and is forecast to likely be around for a rare but not quite unprecedented third straight winter. And it's not just this one. Scientists are noticing that in the past 25 years the world seems to be getting more La Ninas than it used to and that is just the opposite of what their best computer model simulations say should be happening with human-caused climate change.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that next month's summit in Madrid will be a "historic" opportunity to strengthen the alliance in the face of Russian aggression against Ukraine on its eastern edge.

Speaking at a gala in Madrid to mark Spain's 40th year as a NATO member, Stoltenberg said he looked forward to welcoming Sweden and Finland at the summit hosted by Spain's capital on June 29-30.

A man seemingly disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair threw a piece of cake at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and shouted at people to think of planet Earth.

Videos posted on social media appear to show a young man in a wig and lipstick who had arrived in a wheelchair. The man, whose identity was unknown, was also seen throwing roses in the museum gallery on Sunday.

Greek authorities say they are planning a major extension of a wall along the country's border with Turkey and are seeking European Union financial support for the additional construction.

Notis Mitarachi, the migration affairs minister, said the steel wall would be extended from 40 to 120 kilometers (25 to 75 miles), with construction work due to start later this year.