The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group said Thursday it was working to "de-escalate" fighting between Turkey and a Kurdish-led alliance battling the jihadists in Syria.

Israeli ministers said Thursday they want to construct a new apartment building for settlers in the flashpoint city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in what would be a rare move.

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has told an Israeli newspaper he intends to defy the Palestinians and most of the world by moving his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Over seven million children face a serious threat of famine in Yemen and ending the country's war will not save all of them, the U.N. children's agency said.

Jihadists on Thursday killed four pro-regime fighters in Idlib province, the rebel stronghold where Russia and Turkey have agreed to set up a buffer zone, a monitor said.

Yemen's government said Thursday it was ready to re-start peace talks with Huthi rebels, amid growing international pressure to end the years-long conflict.

The Yemeni government said it welcomed "all efforts to restore peace" after the U.N. called for the warring parties to enter negotiations. 

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday threw its weight behind planned talks on Western Sahara as it voted to extend for six months its decades-old mission in the disputed north African territory.

The surprise U.S. call for a ceasefire in Yemen marks a growing sense that Saudi Arabia's campaign has proven disastrous, but experts say more action is needed to end the devastating war.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged a halt in the three-year Saudi-led assault to defeat Huthi rebels in Yemen, the impoverished country mired in what the U.N. has called the world's worst humanitarian catastrophe.

A senior Saudi prince who courted controversy after appearing critical of the king and crown prince has returned to the kingdom amid a crisis over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, family members said.

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and his body was dismembered and destroyed as part of a premeditated plan, Turkey's chief prosecutor said Wednesday, making details of the murder public for the first time.

The revelations came only an hour after Saudi Arabia's chief prosecutor left Istanbul, and his Turkish counterpart said he was "obliged" to release the information after their talks produced "no concrete results."