Reuniting children with their missing family has become a top priority in the aftermath of last month's massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, the head of the U.N. children's agency said.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the Feb. 6 quake that rocked southeast Turkey and parts of northern Syria has compounded existing crises in war-torn Syria.

The United Nations chief has praised Iraq for repatriating citizens detained in neighboring Syria on suspicion of ties to the Islamic State group and pledged international support for the country's efforts to regain stability and security.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres spoke to reporters during a rare visit to Baghdad, his first in six years, ahead of this month's 20-year anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

SpaceX launched four astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA on Thursday, including the first person from the Arab world going up for an extended monthslong stay.

The Falcon rocket bolted from Kennedy Space Center shortly after midnight, illuminating the night sky as it headed up the East Coast.

The British navy seized anti-tank missiles and fins for ballistic missile assemblies during a raid on a small boat heading from Iran likely to Yemen, authorities said Thursday, the latest such seizure in the Gulf of Oman.

The seizure by the Royal Navy comes after other seizures by French and U.S. forces in the region as Western powers increase their pressure on Iran, as it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. It also comes as regional and international powers try to find an end to the yearslong war gripping Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, and as Iran arms Russia in its war on Ukraine.

In Israel's divisive debate over the government's planned legal overhaul, proponents claim that curtailing the power of judges and courts is good for the country.

But, as their opponents often counter, other factors may be in play: Some of the leading politicians clamoring for these changes either face legal problems or believe the courts are obstructing their ideological agendas.

A Turkish drone strike in northern Iraq killed two Yazidi fighters affiliated with the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Wednesday, the second such action this week, Iraqi Kurdish officials said.

Both strikes were carried out in Sinjar district, one of the heartlands of Iraq's non-Muslim Yazidi minority, which endured massacres and sex slavery during the brief but brutal rule of the Islamic State jihadist group in 2014.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visited rebel-held northwestern Syria on Wednesday, his first trip to areas outside Damascus's control since a devastating quake last month, an AFP correspondent reported.

Tedros was the highest-ranking United Nations official to visit the rebel-held zones since the February 6 quake.

Weeks of anti-government protests in Israel turned violent on Wednesday for the first time as police fired stun grenades and a water cannon at demonstrators who blocked a Tel Aviv highway. The crackdown came shortly after Israel's hard-line security minister urged a tough response to what he said were "anarchists."

The violence came as thousands across the country launched a "national disruption day" against the government's plan to overhaul Israel's judicial system. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's allies say the program is meant reduce the influence of unelected judges.

Hungary's Prime Minister Victor Orban has thanked Egypt for its role in capping Europe-bound migration as the two countries inked a series of preliminary agreements in Cairo.

Orban's praise for Egypt, and its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, came during his visit to the Egyptian capital in which the two governments signed various memorandums of understanding in nuclear cooperation, education and sports. Few further details were immediately given about the deals.

A group of women stands in front of a vegetable vendor at a street market in one of Cairo's oldest neighborhoods, yelling in frustration.

"Every day there are new prices," one said. "When will this war end?" another shouted, cradling a baby in her arms.