Air strikes on rebel areas of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus killed at least 42 civilians on Friday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

Turkish artillery fire on the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin in northern Syria killed at least 18 civilians on Friday, a monitor said.

An Emirates crew member has died after falling out of an  emergency door of an aircraft parked at Uganda's Entebbe airport, a hospital official said.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has asked the US Congress not to interfere with America's role in the war in Yemen, where it is supporting Saudi-led coalition military operations.

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.