Attackers have killed at least seven people in an assault on an Islamic seminary in a Rohingya refugee camp on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, the Bangladeshi police said.

The killings came amid mounting tensions after Rohingya community leader Mohibullah was shot dead outside his office in the sprawling camps three weeks ago.

Rohingya activists say there is a mounting “climate of fear” in the camps, with some of them forced to go into hiding since Mohibullah’s killing.

Human Rights Watch has interviewed Afghan refugees who report having been harassed, beaten, and extorted by Taliban officials as they attempted to leave the country.

Human Rights Watch also documented abuses against people in many provinces associated with the former government, including former security forces personnel and members of the judiciary.

Those at greatest risk include human rights defenders, women’s rights activists, high-profile women, journalists and other media workers, judges, and others who held official administrative and security positions.

Neighboring countries should open their borders to Afghan asylum seekers, and all governments should suspend deportations or returns of Afghans indefinitely, Human Rights Watch said.

Afghanistan’s economic woes could fuel a refugee crisis impacting neighbouring countries, Turkey and Europe, the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF said Afghanistan’s neighbours would be further hit because they rely on its funds for trade.

Bordering Tajikistan has said it can’t afford to take in many more refugees.

Nearby countries will also be hurt by the loss of Afghanistan as a major trading partner.

The country used to receive huge amounts in foreign aid. The UK government estimates OECD countries donated $65bn to Afghanistan from 2001 to 2019 — much of this used to filter through to nearby Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan through trade.

The EU will not hold talks in Brussels on Thursday with Iran on restarting negotiations over the nuclear deal, a spokeswoman for the bloc said.

The announcement came after Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the country’s lead nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri, would go to Brussels for discussions Thursday.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said earlier on Monday that there was “hope that we will have preparatory meetings in Brussels in the days to come, but I cannot be sure of that

The climate crisis threatens a double blow for the Middle East, experts say, by destroying its oil income as the world shifts to renewables and by raising temperatures to unliveable extremes.

Already extremely water-scarce, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been warming at twice the global average rate, at about 0.45 degrees Celsius per decade, since the 1980s, scientists say.

Deserts are expanding and dust storms intensifying as the region’s rare mountain snow caps slowly diminish, impacting river systems that supply water to millions.

The US has a habit of seeing itself as indispensable to regional stability around the world, when in fact its intervention can be very destabilizing because it becomes part of the local equation rather than sitting above it.

Saudi and Iranian leaders and officials have sought to put a positive spin on several rounds of direct and indirect talks between the two rivals. Yet, more important than the talk of progress, expressions of willingness to bury hatchets, and toning down of rhetoric is Saudi King Salman’s insistence on the need to build trust.

The monarch suggested at the UN General Assembly that this could be achieved by Iran ceasing “all types of support” for armed groups in the region, including the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.

Daily life has always been very challenging for asylum-seekers and refugees in Libya, which has been roiled by war and political turmoil for the past decade, and hit hard in the COVID-19 pandemic. The lack of a national asylum law means they are considered to be “illegal migrants” and are liable to arrest, detention and abuse.

But nothing prepared them for the events of this month. In the widespread crackdown launched on 1 October in Hai Alandalus municipality — which includes Gergaresh — security forces demolished unfinished and makeshift houses sheltering asylum-seekers and migrants. At least seven people were reportedly killed during the operation in the following days. This week, a Sudanese asylum-seeker was killed on the streets of Tripoli, after being beaten and shot.

Ethiopia’s year-long civil war may be entering a more destructive phase. The rebels in the state Tigray in the country’s north say the government is launching a new offensive. Ethiopian economy has been hit hard. Families have been ripped apart, and the war has hardened feelings in a country that was already bitterly divided, people forced to leave their homes because of violence.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, ruled the country for 27 years. And they were pushed out of power recently. And they’re now fighting against the government that took power from them. So this is a power struggle that has also pulled in some of the ethnic tensions that have existed in Ethiopia for centuries.