One of the villas searched by Turkish police for the remains of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi belonged to a friend of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, reports said Tuesday.

British academic Matthew Hedges returned to London on Tuesday, his family said, a day after the UAE pardoned his life sentence for spying in a case he described as "very surreal".

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Pentagon chief Jim Mattis will brief US senators Wednesday on developments related to Saudi Arabia, amid mounting bipartisan concern about the kingdom, a senior Republican lawmaker said Monday.

A Syrian refugee who spent several months in limbo in a budget terminal at a Malaysian airport has been granted permanent residency by Canada and is en route to Vancouver, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Cairo on Monday, the latest leg of his first foreign tour since the killing of critic Jamal Khashoggi sparked a global outcry.

The kingdom's de facto ruler was met on arrival by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a source at the airport said.

A vote on a controversial law that would cut government subsidies to cultural institutions deemed disloyal to Israel was Monday postponed indefinitely, Israel's culture minister said.

The bill, submitted by Culture Minister Miri Regev, would give the finance and culture ministries the power to slash subsidies to institutions backing films or plays that do not show "loyalty" to the state.

A government reshuffle Monday in Syria renewed almost a third of the cabinet, including the ministers of interior and of public works, the official SANA news agency reported.

The reshuffle, which does not include any major surprises, was announced in a decree signed by President Bashar al-Assad.

A 10-week-old truce deal in northern Syria looked as precarious as ever Monday after an alleged chemical attack, which has already drawn retaliatory raids despite its origins being unclear.

Turkish police on Monday were searching the villa of a Saudi citizen in a northwestern province for the remains of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The officers began searching a two-story building in Termal district in Yalova with the help of sniffer dogs and drones before the investigation widened to the adjacent villa, state news agency Anadolu said.

Bahrain has said it "completely rejects" attempts to tarnish the reputation of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, whose powerful crown prince has been under intense scrutiny since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.