Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to build 3,500 new settler homes in a super-sensitive area of the occupied West Bank, just a week before a tight general election. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said there was not yet a full accord between Russia, and European Union heavyweights France and Germany to hold a summit over the escalating violence in Syria's Idlib. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said two Turkish troops have been killed in Libya, a country wracked by conflict between its UN-recognised government and the forces of strongman Khalifa Haftar. 

Libya's rival camps announced Monday they had suspended their participation in U.N.-sponsored peace talks this week in Geneva, although a United Nations spokesman said negotiations would still go ahead.

Israel and Islamic Jihad exchanged fire in the Gaza Strip for a second day Monday, a week before Israel's March 2 election.

Libya's warring sides have hashed out a draft ceasefire agreement, the U.N. said Monday, even as Libyan leaders decried international inaction to rein in hostilities still raging in the war-ravaged country.

Iraqi lawmakers on Monday scheduled a confidence vote for the government of prime minister-designate Mohammad Allawi later this week, as the US called for the premier to protect its troops. 

The United States has urged Yemen's Huthi rebels to drop charges targeting the Baha'i community, which said that 24 believers of the faith will face a new trial session Tuesday.

Six pro-Syrian regime fighters were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes near Damascus, a war monitor said Monday. 

Israel is bracing for an unprecedented third election in under a year, with voters eyeing an end to the deadlock but polls indicating another tight race despite criminal charges against the prime minister.