A Hamas delegation arrived in Damascus Wednesday for talks with President Bashar Al-Assad in the first  such visit since the Palestinian Islamist group severed ties with Syria a decade ago.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, was one of Assad's closest allies but left Syria in 2012 after condemning his government's brutal suppression of peaceful protests in March 2011, which triggered the country's descent into civil war.

An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week have complicated Israel's balancing act between Russia and the West.

Israel has stayed largely on the sidelines since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last February so as not to damage its strategic relationship with the Kremlin. Although Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, it has refused Kyiv's frequent requests to send air defense systems and other military equipment and refrained from enforcing strict economic sanctions on Russia and the many Russian-Jewish oligarchs who have second homes in Israel.

The Palestinians on Tuesday hailed Australia's decision to reverse its recognition of west Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite fierce criticism by Israel.

Thousands of Tunisians demonstrated and a general strike shut down the coastal city of Zarzis Tuesday to demand a renewed search for relatives who went missing during a September migration attempt.

An Iraqi investigative judge has questioned five senior tax officials over $2.5 billion in public funds that have gone missing, and more arrest warrants have been issued, authorities said Tuesday.

More than a week of inter-rebel fighting in Syria's Turkish-held north has killed 58 people, mostly combatants -- a flareup that has allowed al-Qaida-linked fighters to gain ground, a war monitor said Tuesday.

Australia said it would no longer recognize west Jerusalem as Israel's capital Tuesday, a policy reversal that prompted a curt rebuke from the Jewish state but was cheered by Palestinians. 

The United Nations will push for a nationwide cease-fire in Syria even after bursts of fighting in the last rebel-held region have punctured a two-year truce there, killing hundreds, a U.N. envoy said Monday.

Geir Pedersen, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, spoke to reporters after meeting the foreign minister in Damascus. Syria's economic situation is "extremely difficult as close to 15 million people are in need for humanitarian assistance," he said.

Iraq's newly-elected President Abdul Latif Rashid pledged Monday on taking office to throw his weight behind efforts to rapidly form a strong new government.

"The Iraqi people expect a new government to be formed rapidly, and that it be efficient and united," Rashid said on his inauguration at the presidential palace in Baghdad.