European powers on Friday condemned Israel's decision to approve thousands more settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, calling it a "counterproductive" move that undermines regional peace efforts.

Kurdish-led authorities released on Thursday hundreds of militants from the Islamic State group imprisoned in northern Syria, as part of a general amnesty in the region controlled by the U.S.-backed fighters.

Amina Omar, the head of the Syrian National Council, told reporters that IS members who were released have "no blood on their hands" and have all repented joining IS at some point.

Israel's parliament voted Thursday in favor of the normalization of ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain after a marathon debate with over 100 speeches lasting more than eight hours.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday encouraged Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel, in what would be a massive boost for the Jewish state amid normalization by two other Gulf Arab kingdoms.

Israel has approved over 12,000 West Bank homes in 2020, a record high for Jewish building in occupied Palestinian territory, settlement watchdog Peace Now said Thursday.

Italy's foreign minister pledged Thursday to bring home 18 fishermen detained in Libya since the start of September, in an escalation of the so-called Mediterranean "prawn war".

A landmark prisoner exchange between war-torn Yemen's government and Huthi rebels began Thursday, with hundreds of combatants heading home on flights criss-crossing the country and Saudi Arabia.

Attacks on civilian targets during a Syrian-Russian campaign in northeast Syria's rebel-held Idlib may amount to crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, calling for sanctions against top commanders.

Saudi Arabia has failed in its bid to become a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council as China and Russia were elected to three-year terms.

Angry residents took to the streets of an impoverished Tunisian town on Tuesday after a man died when authorities demolished an illegal kiosk where he was sleeping.