Bahrain has stopped issuing new visas to Qataris, the interior ministry said late on Tuesday, in the latest salvo in a months-long feud between the energy-rich Gulf states.

US President Donald Trump's national security adviser warned Wednesday that the United States would respond "very strongly" if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons in an offensive to retake Idlib province.

A scholarly bishop was found bludgeoned to death at the desert monastery he ran, and two monks are facing trial for killing him in an ambush on the way to Sunday mass.

A murky murder saga is gripping Egypt's Coptic Church and the fallout is rumbling through an ancient community already facing grave threats.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said Tuesday that an end to Israel's more than decade-long blockade of Gaza was "around the corner," as talk of a possible truce deal intensifies.

More than two million Muslims took part in the symbolic stoning of the devil Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, the last major ritual of the hajj pilgrimage that heralds the start of the Eid al-Adha feast.

Targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom have for months rattled Syria's Idlib province, with angry residents blaming dominant rebel and jihadist forces for the chaos.

Israel has changed its gun regulations to enable hundreds of thousands more civilians to apply for licences, a move authorities say will increase security but others argue will stoke violence.

The United Nations has called on Libya's internationally recognized government to crack down on armed groups obstructing the work of state institutions in the chaos-wracked country.

The U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) late Sunday night expressed its "strong condemnation of the violence, intimidation and obstruction to the work of Libya's sovereign institutions by militiamen."

An Egyptian army captain has been killed by an improvised explosive device blast in North Sinai during a campaign to eliminate jihadists, medics said on Monday.

The officer died Sunday evening after an explosion hit his vehicle west of the coastal city of El-Arish, a local medical source said.

The US-led anti-jihadist coalition said Monday one of its members was killed in an apparently accidental aircraft crash in Iraq which left several others wounded.