The Palestinians won backing Tuesday to lead the biggest bloc of developing countries at the United Nations. The General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to grant the observer-state temporary rights to act as chair of the Group of 77 plus China, a bloc that has grown to 134 countries at the United Nations.

Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip yesterday after the first rocket fire from the Palestinian territory in weeks hit an Israeli city, in a blow to efforts to avert a new war.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has an audience with Saudi King and Custodian of Two Holy Mosques Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud at Royal Palace in Arga of Riyadh.

Police searching the Saudi Consulate finds evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official says, and authorities appear ready to also search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country.

Australia is considering moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced. Morrison called a press conference to say he was "open-minded" to proposals to formally recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Fourteen Iranian security personnel, including Revolutionary Guards intelligence officers, were abducted on the volatile southeastern border with Pakistan yesterday. Sistan-Baluchistan province has long been a flashpoint, with Baluchi separatists and jihadists based in Pakistan regularly attacking Iranian security posts.

Syria's foreign minister said yesterday that Syrian forces stand ready to fight jihadists around the northwestern region of Idlib if a Russian-Turkish deal is not implemented there the same day, in keeping with a critical deadline.

A Palestinian was shot dead yesterday after trying to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank, the army said. An Israeli military statement

Twenty-two people, including children, died yesterday when a vehicle carrying migrants reportedly heading for Greece plunged off the

The United States is seeking "regime change" in Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday, adding that the current US administration is the most hostile that the Islamic Republic has faced in its four decades.

Israel's government yesterday approved the construction of 31 settler homes in Hebron, the first such green light for the flashpoint West Bank city since 2002, a cabinet minister said.

Opposition fighters have fired mortar shells from a planned buffer zone in northwest Syria, in a deadly attack that threatens a deal to protect the last major rebel bastion from a regime offensive.

Saudi Arabia rejected threats to punish it over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, saying the kingdom would retaliate against any sanctions with tougher measures, the official state news agency said yesterday.

Hundreds of people were taken by Islamic State group fighters from a displacement camp in east Syria during a jihadist counterattack

Israel suspended fuel deliveries to Gaza on Friday in response to border violence which the Hamas-run health ministry said left seven Palestinians dead in the coastal enclave.

Saudi Arabia dismisses accusations that Jamal Khashoggi was ordered murdered by a hit squad inside its Istanbul consulate as "lies and baseless allegations", as Riyadh and Ankara spar over the missing journalist's fate.

A Turkish court yesterday ordered the release of an American pastor held for the last two years in Turkey, in a case that sparked a crisis in ties with the United States.

Israel yesterday destroyed a cross-border tunnel running from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, which it said was dug by the Palestinian Hamas group with the aim of carrying out attacks. There was no immediate comment from Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel in the past decade and is the dominant Palestinian armed force in Gaza.

The United States said Wednesday it will refuse any post-war reconstruction assistance to Syria if Iran is present, expanding the rationale for US involvement in the conflict.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Saudi Arabia to release footage of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and President Donald Trump demanded answers over his fate, as the kingdom faced growing pressure yesterday to provide a convincing explanation for his disappearance.