The UN envoy for Western Sahara is planning to convene talks before the end of the year between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front on ending their decades-old conflict, the Security Council president said Wednesday.

Horst Koehler, a former German president and ex-director of the International Monetary Fund, briefed the council behind closed doors on his efforts to restart talks after a 10-year break. 

Colombia recognized Palestine as a sovereign state in the days before new President Ivan Duque took office, according to a letter from the foreign ministry made public on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia shot down a missile fired by Yemen's Huthi rebels on Wednesday, with debris killing a Yemeni man and wounding 11 others, a Riyadh-led coalition fighting the insurgents said.

Gaza militants halted fire Thursday after targeting Israel with some 180 rockets and mortars, provoking Israeli strikes across the enclave that killed three Palestinians, including a toddler, in another severe flare-up of violence.

Seven years of relentless conflict in Syria have wreaked destruction that the United Nations said Wednesday had cost the country close to a whopping $400 billion.

Workers have seized partial control of the headquarters of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Hamas-run Gaza, its head said Wednesday, accusing their union of "mutiny" over job cuts.

Seven Swedish activists detained by Israel's navy for attempting to breach its blockade of Gaza have been deported to Sweden, the organizers of the Ship to Gaza activist flotilla said Wednesday.

Syria's presidency announced Wednesday that first lady Asma Assad has begun treatment for breast cancer.

The presidency posted on its Facebook page a photo of President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife in what appeared to be a hospital room with an IV in her left arm.

Israel's parliament held a special session on Wednesday to debate a controversial law passed last month declaring the country the nation state of the Jewish people. 

Suha Abdelhamid's life has dramatically improved over the past two months -- thanks to the removal of fortified roadblocks that had made her daily commute in Iraq's capital a misery.