Two right-wing Israeli government ministers have launched a new party aimed at winning over secular voters ahead of snap elections in April. 

A rescue helicopter crashed on Saturday in the emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, killing all crew members, the United Arab Emirates state news agency WAM said.

Almost eight years into Syria's civil war, President Bashar al-Assad seems closer than ever to securing a comeback at home and in the Arab region, analysts say.

Yemeni rebels have begun to withdraw from the port of Hodeida, under a truce agreement, a U.N. official said, amid doubts over the handover process by pro-government forces.

Two Vietnamese tourists were killed Friday and 10 others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near their bus as it traveled close to the Giza pyramids in Cairo, Egypt's interior ministry said.

A Palestinian man was killed Friday by Israeli fire during protests and clashes near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the health ministry in the coastal enclave said.

The Syrian army has not entered Manbij, the U.S. military said Friday, after Syrian forces claimed they had gone into the key northern city and raised the national flag.

Torrential rains have washed away hundreds of tents in camps sheltering displaced Syrians in the north of the war-wracked country, aid groups have said, as residents pleaded for help.

Turkey on Friday said a Syrian Kurdish militia "does not have the right" to appeal to Damascus for help to counter a threatened Turkish offensive in the north.

Saudi Arabia's new foreign minister struck a note of defiance Friday in the face of international outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder, saying the kingdom was not in crisis.