President Bashar al-Assad has blamed Israel for the downing of a Russian plane, which was accidentally hit by Syrian anti-aircraft fire during an Israeli missile strike.

Thousands of residents of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib headed home within 48 hours of a deal being announced to avoid a government offensive to retake the province, a war monitor said yesterday.

An Iraqi court yesterday sentenced a prominent jihadist described as a deputy of Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to death on terrorism charges. Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi was extradited from Turkey earlier this year having fled Syria as the group's self-proclaimed "caliphate" crumbled.

Syria accidentally shot down a Russian military aircraft, killing all 15 crew members, when its air defences swung into action against an Israeli missile strike, Russian and Israeli forces said yesterday.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza border, the territory's Hamas-run health ministry said early yesterday,

The president of the Maldives appeared to accept lavish gifts from a billionaire developer who was later leased two islands in the paradise archipelago without bidding for them, a corruption watchdog alleged yesterday.

The United States has cut additional aid to the Palestinians for programmes supporting conflict resolution with Israelis, an official said Sunday, adding to more than $500 million in other cuts.

Egypt says archaeologists have discovered a statue of a lion's body and a human head in the southern city of Aswan.

A Palestinian fatally stabbed an Israeli at a shopping mall in the occupied West Bank yesterday before an armed civilian shot and wounded the assailant, Israeli police and medical officials said. The Palestinian was shot by a civilian at the scene and was in Israeli custody, a police spokesman said.

Syrians in government-controlled areas cast their ballots yesterday in the first local elections there since 2011 as President Bashar al-Assad regained control of much of the country.

An Israeli missile attack targeted the Syrian capital's airport late Saturday, activating air defences which shot down a number of the projectiles, state news agency SANA reported.

Fresh clashes and air strikes have killed 32 rebels around Yemen's Red Sea city of Hodeida, hospital sources said yesterday, as the UN envoy kept up peace efforts in Sanaa.

At least 20 fighters from a US-backed force fighting the Islamic State group were killed Friday in an IS ambush in eastern Syria, a war

Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, one of them an 11-year-old boy, and wounded 248 others taking part on Friday in weekly

Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians, one of them an 11-year-old boy, and wounded 248 others taking part on Friday in weekly protests at the fortified Gaza Strip border, Palestinian medical officials say.

Afghanistan's Charlie Chaplin says he has witnessed suicide attacks, explosions and threats from hardline Islamic militant groups, but is determined to waddle and bumble to fulfil the primary goal of his life.

Violence in northwest Syria has displaced more than 38,500 people in less than two weeks amid increasing hostilities and a looming regime assault on the opposition-held Idlib province, the UN said yesterday.

Yemen's humanitarian situation has worsened rapidly since UN peace talks collapsed endangering hundreds of thousands of lives especially the children.

Israel reopened its only crossing for people with the Gaza Strip yesterday, more than a week after shutting it following a destructive

US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel yesterday urged feuding Gulf Arab states to put aside their differences and unite against Iranian efforts to "destabilise" the region.