Turkish parliament has approved a motion to extend the deployment of troops in neighboring Syria and Iraq for another year, the official Anadolu news agency reported. 

The mandate, first approved by parliament in October 2014, has been renewed every year since then.

Yemen's Huthi rebels say they have released two sons of slain ex-president Ali Abdallah Saleh, 10 months after they were captured following the killing of their father.

Yemen's embattled government has warned of mass riots after a southern separatist movement called for an uprising against President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, accusing the authorities of negligence and corruption.

Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of a prominent Saudi critic on Thursday after Riyadh announced he had left their consulate in Istanbul -- but Turkey and his fiancee said he had not been heard from since entering the building.

Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of Germany's "everlasting responsibility" to oppose anti-Semitism during a visit to Israel on Thursday as she and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed past their differences and promoted cooperation between their nations.

A missing Saudi journalist critical of Riyadh was still being held at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday.

The Turkish fiancee of a veteran Saudi journalist who has been critical of the Riyadh government was anxiously waiting for news Wednesday after his disappearance.

Adel Abdel Mahdi, the veteran tapped to become Iraq's next prime minister, is seen as an independent capable of bringing together rivals on the country's fractious political scene.

Syrian President Bashar Assad told a little-known Kuwaiti newspaper that Syria has reached a "major understanding" with Arab states after years of hostility over the country's civil war.

The interview in the Al-Shahed newspaper, published Wednesday, is Assad's first with a Gulf newspaper since the war began in 2011.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russian troops will leave Syria when the war is over if the Syrian government asks them to.

Russia entered the Syrian civil war in 2015 to back its longtime ally President Bashar Assad, helping the government retake most of the territory held by rebels. Russia currently operates an air base and a naval base in Syria.