Not far from where he used to live, Palestinian engineer Mahmud Khaled watched as bulldozers rumbled back and forth scooping up smashed concrete from the devastated streets of Syria's Yarmuk.

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian suspected of stabbing and wounding a soldier but a manhunt continued for a second Palestinian who shot dead two Israeli civilians, the army said Friday.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Britain expressed concern on Friday about the fate of a journalist who vanished after entering its Istanbul consulate last week.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson is suspending two directorships linked to tourism projects in Saudi Arabia following the unexplained disappearance in Turkey of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia will form a "joint working group" to look into the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, a Turkish official said on Thursday.

The journalist vanished last week after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Riyadh's silence since shrugging off as "baseless" reports of a state-sponsored killing of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi is a risky strategy amid increasing pressure from key allies such as the U.S., analysts said Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has dropped a bid to join the world's club of French-speaking countries, officials said Thursday, as the Gulf monarchy faces criticism over the disappearance of a critical Saudi journalist.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he was not yet prepared to limit arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, though he reiterated he wants answers about his fate.

Ten members of a key financial network for the Islamic State network have been arrested in Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition fighting the jihadists announced Thursday.

Iraqi commandos and Kurdish counter-terrorism forces arrested the members of the al-Rawi network in operations October 7-9 in Baghdad and Erbil in northern Iraq, the coalition said in a statement. 

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged allies of Saudi Arabia to review their ties with its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.