The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which holds its annual summit Sunday in Riyadh amid a deep crisis, groups Sunni Muslim-led monarchies sitting on a third of the world's oil reserves.

Qatar said its emir will skip a summit Sunday of Arab Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia, which has spearheaded a boycott of the small but energy-flush neighbour and sparked a major regional diplomatic row.

Saudi Arabia hosts a summit of Arab Gulf leaders Sunday as crises brew over a bitter diplomatic dispute with Qatar, the war in Yemen and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The United States and Britain accused Russia on Friday of fabricating a story about chemical weapons use by Syrian rebels and warned Moscow against undermining a shaky truce.

A year after it was routed from Iraq in a devastating war that left entire neighborhoods and towns in ruins, the Islamic State group is fighting to hang on to its last enclave in eastern Syria, engaging in deadly battles with U.S.-backed forces.

Cornered in the desert near the Iraqi border with nowhere to run, the militants are putting up a fierce fight, inflicting hundreds of casualties among their opponents and releasing a stream of beheading videos reminiscent of the extremist group's terrifying propaganda at the height of its power.

Turkey on Friday asked the U.S. to scrap observation posts in northern Syria aimed at helping prevent clashes between Turkish forces and a Kurdish militia backed by Washington.

Yemen's Huthi rebels on Friday turned down a government demand that Sanaa international airport, shut for years in a war between the two rivals, be reopened as a hub for domestic flights.

Yemen's Huthi rebels will not hand over the key port of Hodeida to the rival government, a rebel representative said Friday, as the two parties met for U.N.-brokered talks in Sweden.

Police were questioning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara on Friday on new suspicions of fraudulently misusing public funds, Israeli media reported.

A government offensive on Yemen's Hodeida is still an option if rebels refuse to withdraw from the port city, a minister said Thursday, as the warring sides met for UN-brokered talks.