With Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the cusp of winning a second term in this month's election, what's left of the opposition is reduced to praying he will step aside in four years.

The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey were locked in talks on Syria in Kazakhstan Friday, almost a month after the Moscow and Tehran-backed regime began pounding an opposition enclave just outside of Damascus. 

Iran on Thursday lashed out at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling him a "simple-mind" after the powerful young royal likened Iran's supreme leader to Adolf Hitler.

"These words are worthless ... because they come from a simple-mind full of illusions who speaks only bitterness and lies," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

France has issued an arrest warrant for the sister of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on suspicion of ordering her bodyguard to beat up a worker at her Paris apartment, sources close to the case told AFP on Thursday.

A Turkish-led offensive to capture the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria has forced 30,000 civilians from its main city in 24 hours, a monitor said Thursday.

Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah survived an apparent assassination attempt in Hamas-ruled Gaza this week when a roadside bomb blew up near his convoy.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has until the summer to secure new funding after only managing to partially cover a near-half-a-billion shortfall at a summit in Rome, the organization's head said Thursday. 

The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet for a three-way summit on Syria in Istanbul on April 4, the Turkish foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Syrian troops and government-linked militia have systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians, atrocities that amount to crimes against humanity, a U.N.-backed inquiry said Thursday. 

Israel's supreme court on Thursday suspended a controversial government plan to deport thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese migrants in response to a challenge from those opposed to the move.

The court said in its decision the state was given until March 26 to provide further information and the suspension on deporting them to a third country would remain in place until then.