The overall death toll for Syria's civil war has crept up to 387,000 following the least deadly of 10 years of conflict, a monitor said Wednesday.

A leading rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the right-wing Likud party announced his resignation from parliament Wednesday as he launches a new party to challenge the premier.  

Residents of Egypt's restive North Sinai region ran for their lives when an Islamic State group affiliate occupied their villages. Now, they are returning to find their homes booby-trapped.

The Egyptian army said Tuesday it had killed 40 suspected jihadist militants since September in air and ground operations in the Sinai region, site of an Islamist insurgency.

Thousands of striking Tunisian medics and hospital staff staged an angry protest on Tuesday over the country's crumbling public health infrastructure, after the death of a young doctor in a lift accident.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday his country will continue to support Syria, urging Damascus to confront Israel in the occupied Golan Heights.

Rouhani's website said the remarks came during a meeting with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

The world can't forget the plight of Syrian refugees this winter despite the global upheaval caused by Covid-19, fantasy author Neil Gaiman said on Tuesday as he helped launch the UN refugee programme's cold weather appeal.

As the Pentagon pulls troops out of the Middle East in the coming weeks, under orders from President Donald Trump, U.S. military leaders are working to find other ways to deter potential attacks by Iran and its proxies, and to counter arguments that America is abandoning the region.

A senior U.S. military official with knowledge of the region said Monday that Iran may try to take advantage of America's troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the planned departure of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz from the Persian Gulf.

Iran on Monday flatly dismissed a call by Saudi Arabia for Gulf states to be consulted on any potential negotiations with the Islamic republic on its nuclear programme.

Pope Francis will visit Iraq in March, the Vatican said Monday, in his first trip abroad since the coronavirus pandemic gripped Italy, grounding the pontiff, early this year.