Iraqi officials must ramp up their response to mass demonstrations demanding an overhaul of the political system, the U.N. representative in Baghdad told AFP in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

Anti-government rallies swelled in Iraq's capital and south Wednesday as Baghdad faced new pressure from both the street and the United Nations to respond seriously to weeks of demonstrations. 

Protests demanding a new leadership have rocked the capital and Shiite-majority south for weeks, the crowds undeterred by government pledges of reform and the deaths of more than 300 people.

Barely four months into his tenure, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is making his second trek across the Pacific. And yet it is the Middle East - most recently a near-war with Iran and an actual war in Syria - that in Washington commands more attention and demands more American troops.

Esper's Asia visits illustrate the central feature of a revamped U.S. defense strategy: Focus first on China as a threat to U.S. global predominance, rather than remain bogged down in a generation-long fight against extremist groups.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have said they will participate in this month's Arabian Gulf Cup football tournament in Qatar, signalling a thaw in their bitter two-year feud.

Two Palestinians were killed in Israeli air and missile strikes on Gaza early Wednesday, the territory's health ministry said, taking the death toll from a two-day flare-up to 12.

Twenty-eight Algerian demonstrators were handed one-year jail sentences Tuesday for "undermining national unity" by bearing the Berber minority's flag during anti-regime protests, a prisoners' rights group said.

Sirens wailed, residents ran to bomb shelters and both sides feared yet another war as an Israeli targeted strike killing an Islamic Jihad commander in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday sparked exchanges of fire.

The EU's top court ruled Tuesday that food products from occupied Palestinian territories must be labelled as such, drawing an angry response from Israel which slammed a "double standard."

Iraqi protesters shut down state institutions Tuesday as the United Nations stepped up pressure on the government to enact a raft of reforms in response to anti-government rallies.

Israel's military killed a commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in a strike on his home in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, triggering exchanges of fire and fears of a severe escalation in violence.