Terrorist activity is surging in Africa’s volatile Sahel region, making life more difficult and dangerous for women and girls, senior U.N. officials said Thursday. Over the past decade, the arid region south of the Sahara Desert has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Three nations — Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso — are now ruled by military leaders who took power by force, pledging to provide more security to citizens. But the security situation has worsened. “Terrorist activity has surged in scale, complexity and sophistication,” U.N. special representative Leonardo Santos Simão told the Security Council. He pointed to the use...

 A single bowl of eggplant stewed in watery tomato juice must sustain Sally Muzhed’s family of six for the day. She calls it moussaka, but it’s a pale echo of the fragrant, layered meat-and-vegetable dish that once filled Gaza’s kitchens with its aroma. The war has severed families from the means to farm or fish, and the little food that enters the besieged strip is often looted, hoarded and resold at exorbitant prices. So mothers like Muzhed have been forced into constant improvisation, reimagining Palestinian staples with the meager ingredients they can grab off trucks, from airdropped parcels or purchase...

 Myint Swe, who became Myanmar’s acting president under controversial circumstances after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi more than four years ago, died Thursday, the military said. He was 74. He died at a military hospital in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Thursday morning, according to a statement from Myanmar’s military information office. Myint Swe’s death came more than a year after he stopped actively carrying out his presidential duties after he was publicly reported to be ailing. His funeral will be held at the state level but the date has not been disclosed, a separate statement from the military information...

Shiite members of Lebanon’s Cabinet walked out a government meeting on Thursday in protest of a proposed plan to disarm the Hezbollah militant group and political organization. The rest of the Cabinet then voted in favor of the U.S.-backed plan to disarm the group and implement a ceasefire with Israel. Tensions have been rising in Lebanon amid increased domestic and international pressure for Hezbollah to give up its remaining arsenal after a bruising war with Israel that ended last November with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Hezbollah itself has doubled down on its refusal to disarm. The four ministers who walked out before the...

 Hundreds of Buddhist monks in Cambodia on Friday held a religious ceremony to honor soldiers killed in recent border clashes with Thai forces and to pray for peace. They marched from the country’s main religious school near the Royal Palace in the capital, Phnom Penh, to a nearby temple, where they were joined by nuns and laymen and women. The monks chanted and prayed to honor the souls of the dead soldiers. A board inside the temple displayed the photographs of more than 40 men in uniform. It wasn’t clear whether these images were of soldiers killed, or included those who were...