Weary and bleary, European Union leaders were gearing up Monday for a fourth day of fighting over an unprecedented 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and coronavirus recovery fund, barely recovered from a weekend of walkouts, fists slamming into tables and insults.

With a brilliant sun warming the negotiating sundeck at the Europa summit center early Monday, there finally was a glimmer of hope that the talks to help the continent emerge from the pandemic through an unprecdented economic aid package are not doomed after all.

A United Arab Emirates spacecraft rocketed into blue skies from a Japanese launch center Monday at the start of a seven-month journey to Mars on the Arab world's first interplanetary mission.

The liftoff of the Mars orbiter named Amal, or Hope, starts a rush to fly to Earth's neighbor that is scheduled to be followed in the next few days by China and the United States.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due to inflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom's Royal Court said Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement did not provide further details.

Kuwait's 91-year-old ruler underwent a "successful" surgery Sunday that required the oil-rich nation's crown prince to be temporarily empowered to serve in his place, its state-run news agency reported.

Kuwait has yet to elaborate what required Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah to seek a previously unannounced medical treatment beginning Saturday. However, Sheikh Sabah's sudden surgery could inspire a renewed power struggle within Kuwait's ruling family.

The number of confirmed cases in a new COVID-19 outbreak in China's far west has risen to 17.

The National Health Commission said Saturday that 16 more cases were identified in the previous 24 hours in the Xinjiang region, on top of a first case.

European Union leaders acknowledged Friday they are about as far apart from reaching a deal on an unprecedented 1.85 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) EU budget and virus recovery fund as the seating distance imposed upon them for health reasons at their summit center.

"The differences are still very, very big and so I can't predict whether we will achieve a result this time," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrived at the Europa summit site. "So I expect very, very difficult negotiations."

Internet access in a southwestern province of Iran has been disrupted as videos circulate on social media of protests in a city there, an advocacy group said.

NetBlocks.org reported the disruption affecting Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan province late Thursday.

Lebanon's worsening economic crisis, which culminated with the tiny nation defaulting on its debt this year, is making it increasingly difficult to attract investors for the country's ailing electricity sector, Energy Minister Raymond Ghajar said Thursday.

This in turn makes it harder to reform the state-run sector as required by the International Monetary Fund and also for international donors to provide Lebanon with financial assistance, Ghajar added. Still, he said the government is working on reforming the highly subsidized sector and has made important steps in that direction recently.

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An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers welfare organization said Wednesday.

Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital.