US officials have been negotiating in a bid to reach an elusive normalization deal between the two countries.

The Foreign Ministry said the military attack was unacceptable and would only worsen the humanitarian situation as well as complicate peace efforts in Palestine.

The Chinese ambassador to Nigeria hailed the five-day visit as a milestone in ties, and the Nigerian navy expressed willingness to work with China to tackle maritime security threats and maintain stability in the Gulf of Guinea, the Chinese embassy said in a statement on Monday.

Over 1.8 million Muslim worshippers performed the days-long haj, mostly held outdoors at the height of the Saudi desert summer. Many elderly were among the pilgrims after a Covid-era maximum age limit was scrapped.

From dawn, hundreds of thousands of worshippers began pelting pebbles at three concrete monoliths representing Satan, the last major ritual of an event held in severe summer heat.

Islam's holiest site is expected to host more than two million worshippers from 160 countries during the annual rites that could break attendance records, with 1.6 million foreigners already arrived by late Friday. 

Abbas will stay until Friday, Beijing has said, on his fifth official visit to the world's second-largest economy.

But he declined to say whether the United States would back Riyadh's nuclear ambitions.

Blinken met with the kingdom's de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MbS, and they "discussed deepening economic cooperation, especially in the clean energy and technology fields", according to a State Department readout.

"They had an open, candid discussion that covered the full range of regional and bilateral issues," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The secretary raised human rights both generally and with regards to specific issues."  

In a suburb of Tel Aviv, a group of choristers were getting ready for the moment they will rejoice at the reconstruction of the Jewish temple some 2,000 years after its destruction, which they believe will accelerate the arrival of the messiah.

Suez Canal tugboats are trying to refloat the vessel, named Xin Hai Tong 23, the company said.

Thousands of Israelis marched through Jerusalem on Tuesday to demonstrate against the government's plans to hand more cash to the ultra-Orthodox minority, accusing the coalition of "looting" state funds. 

In nations from Somalia to Pakistan, the world's poorest and most fragile communities are facing the harshest impacts of climate change - a reality that is driving worsening poverty, potential for conflict and resentment against major polluters.

South Africa will auction at least 10 new onshore blocks for shale gas exploration in the environmentally sensitive Karoo region, a government official told Reuters, as the country eyes alternative energy sources to ease its worst-ever power crisis.

The Arab League's welcoming back of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad into its ranks highlights how far behind Qatar has fallen in its bid to be a diplomatic voice that carries weight in the Middle East.

The vote will decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy, which has taken unpredictable turns.

As global hunger swiftly rises - by more than a third last year - curbing it will require not growing more food but rethinking broader systems of trade and aid, farming's heavy reliance on fossil fuels, food waste and meat eating, experts said.

Tunisia and Egypt are edging closer to major debt crises that could suck in a volatile North Africa region and pose tough choices to wealthy Gulf Arab neighbours, investors and analysts warn.

Envoys of Sudan's paramilitary forces will attend talks with the army scheduled for Saturday in Jeddah, their leader said, as the gathering's international mediators pressed for an end to a conflict that has devastated the country.

Sudan's warring parties were to hold talks on Saturday in the Saudi city of Jeddah, international mediators said, as they pressed for an end to a conflict that has killed hundreds and sent around 100,000 fleeing abroad.

"This weekend I will be in Saudi Arabia for meetings with its leadership," Jake Sullivan said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank in Washington. 

"We want to support the African Union getting a seat in the G20," Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters in a statement broadcast on news channel NTV.

The United Nations pressed Sudan's warring factions on Wednesday to guarantee safe passage of humanitarian aid after six trucks were looted and air strikes in the capital undermined a supposed truce.

Most Indonesians in Sudan were students studying Islam, as Sudan is one of the popular spots to study Islam besides Egypt and Saudi Arabia, with Sudan’s religious schools well known for their recitations of the Quran.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Wednesday he was working on obtaining commitments by the warring parties in Sudan to protecting humanitarian assistance to ensure it can be delivered to those in need.

A total of 829 Indonesians have returned home from conflict-hit Sudan to Indonesia via Jeddah in Saudi Arabia.

Along with the departed football crowds, thousands of foreign workers left the Gulf state after Lionel Messi lifted the coveted trophy on December 18. Many of those who stayed on are counting the cost.

Saudi Arabia is temporarily hosting Indonesian nationals fleeing from Sudan, at 560 people as of Thursday, said Saudi ambassador Faisal Abdullah Al Amudi in Jakarta, as Indonesia prepares to airlift them back home.

Multiple nations have scrambled to evacuate embassy staff and citizens by road, air and sea from Sudan, where fighting between the army and paramilitaries has killed hundreds and led to acute shortages of water, food, medicines and fuel.