When the Syrian Kurdish sisters Perwin and Norshean Salih sing about loss, it comes from the heart.

Aged in their early 20s, they have twice been driven from their family home in the northern Syrian town of Kobane -- once by the Islamic State group, and again by the threat of Turkish bombs.

At the height of the Islamic State group's rampage across Syria, the world watched in horror as the militants blew up an iconic arch and temple in the country's famed Roman ruins in Palmyra.

Eight years later, IS has lost its hold but restoration work on the site has been held up by security issues, leftover IS land mines and lack of funding.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with China's deputy foreign minister and other top diplomats from the BRICS bloc of developing economies for discussions that included the group's possible expansion to include the major oil-producing nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Ahead of the talks at a luxury oceanside hotel in South Africa, Lavrov cast BRICS — an acronym for current members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — as central to the establishment of a "more just" world order.

A 3-year-old Palestinian boy was in critical condition at an Israeli hospital Friday morning after being shot by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank. The army opened an investigation into what it said was an unintentional shooting.

In a statement, the military said that gunmen opened fire late Thursday toward the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf. It said soldiers at a guard post returned fire.

An Israeli woman critically wounded in a 2001 suicide bombing at a Jerusalem restaurant has died, an Israeli hospital said Thursday. Her death marks the sixteenth fatality from that attack.

Hana Nachenberg was 31 at the time and was dining with her 3-year-old daughter when the blast occurred, Israeli media reported. She was in a coma for nearly 22 years until she died on Wednesday, reports said. Her daughter was not hurt in the attack.

Thousands of people are to march in Jerusalem's Pride parade on Thursday, an annual event that is taking place this year under Israel's most right-wing government ever, stacked with openly homophobic members.

The march in the conservative city is always tense and tightly secured by police, and has been wracked by violence in the past. But this year, Israel finds itself deeply riven over a contentious government plan to overhaul the judiciary. The plan has torn open longstanding societal divisions between those who want to preserve Israel's liberal values and those who seek to shift it toward more religious conservatism.

The Middle Eastern country of Jordan is set to host its biggest royal wedding in years on Thursday as the country's young Crown Prince Hussein exchanges vows with Rajwa Alseif, daughter of one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest and most influential families.

With a VIP list that includes First Lady Jill Biden, White House climate envoy John Kerry and members of several European and Asian royal families, the wedding is sure to provide plenty of fodder for tabloids and gossip columns.

The wedding of Jordan's crown prince to the scion of a prominent Saudi family was set to begin on Thursday in a palace celebration that drew massive crowds and a mood of celebration around the kingdom, while presenting the young Hashemite royal as a new player on the global stage.

The marriage of Crown Prince Hussein, 28, and Saudi architect Rajwa Alseif, 29, drew a star-studded VIP list headlined by Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate. But it also held deep significance for the region, emphasizing continuity in an Arab state prized for its longstanding stability and refreshing the monarchy's image after a palace feud. It even could help resource-poor Jordan forge a strategic bond with its oil-rich neighbor, Saudi Arabia.

Jordan's Al Mamlaka TV saud Thursday that Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate have arrived in Jordan to attend the highly anticipated wedding of Jordan's crown prince and a Saudi architect.

Jordan's royal court had been mum about whether Britain's heir to the throne and his wife would attend Thursday's ceremony. The report by the TV station, which is see as close to the court, marks the first confirmation.

The United Arab Emirates has withdrawn from a US-led maritime coalition tasked with securing tense Gulf waterways that are vital to the global oil trade, it said Wednesday.

The UAE "withdrew its participation" in the 38-nation Combined Maritime Forces two months ago, a foreign ministry statement said, without giving reasons for the move.