Israel's foreign minister on Thursday slammed a demand by the UK government to halt a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area.

Israelis began moving into the occupied West Bank settlement of Kadim on Thursday, the local settler council said, the last of four communities from which Israel withdrew more than two decades ago to be repopulated.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, the South said, and Pyongyang mocked U.S. "servant" Seoul, after President Donald Trump suggested he would meet Kim Jong Un this year.

Barcelona have signed defender Joao Cancelo on a free transfer, the Spanish champions said Thursday.

Turkey on Thursday denied having any military presence at an air base in north Syria struck by Israel earlier this week, and vowed to continue "resolutely" supporting Syrian sovereignty.

Israel's defense minister on Thursday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of dragging Turkey into "dangerous adventures in Syria", after Israel tacitly acknowledged a strike on a north Syria air base earlier in the week.

Syria's interior ministry said authorities took custody of a former general under deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad who was extradited from Lebanon on Wednesday and is accused of crimes including murder and torture.

"Today, Syrian authorities received from the Lebanese authorities the former officer in the defunct regime army, major general Adel Issa," a ministry statement said, after Syria issued an arrest warrant in absentia for him.

One of FIFA's vice presidents has withdrawn his support from the world football body's embattled president Gianni Infantino, saying the "unexpected dismissal" of critic Kevin Lamour was the "final straw".

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that the continent could not afford to miss out on the artificial intelligence revolution as the continent's growth model comes under increasing pressure.

A head-on collision between a bus and a truck killed at least 21 people on Wednesday in the municipality of Imbituva in southern Brazil, local officials said.

Images in the local press showed a bus with a sign for people with disabilities smashed to pieces next to a truck.