Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians agreed on Thursday to establish a joint economic committee and a business council, as the Palestinian Authority faces a financing gap that could top $1.8 billion.

It rises out of what were once rolling sand dunes stretching toward the horizon, a feverish construction site by tempo and temperature that has tens of thousands of workers building what looks like a new city in the desert of Dubai.

This is the site of Expo 2020, a world's fair that will be hosted by a city-state that is already home to the world's tallest building, the busiest airport for international travel, an indoor ski slope and other modern marvels.

Damascus on Thursday said Syrians are unified against a cross-border Turkish assault, in its first statement since deploying troops in Kurdish-controlled areas to contain Ankara's offensive. 

A Palestinian was shot by Israeli security forces after ramming his car into a vehicle for undercover policemen in the occupied West Bank, police said Thursday.

The embattled Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria on Thursday accused Turkey of resorting to banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus munitions.

France's top diplomat held talks in Baghdad on Thursday about transferring foreign jihadists including French nationals from northern Syria, where a Turkish offensive is under way, to be tried in Iraq.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday to push for a ceasefire in Syria after Ankara rebuffed international pressure to halt its deadly offensive against Kurdish forces.

Thirty-five foreigners were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday.

The accident on Wednesday involved a collision between "a private chartered bus... with a heavy vehicle (loader)" near the western Saudi Arabian city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Syrian regime troops and Russian soldiers on Wednesday entered the key border town of Kobane, following a deal struck with Kurdish authorities amid a deadly Turkish offensive, a war monitor said.

Hundreds of Syrian Kurds entered neighboring Iraqi's Kurdish autonomous region on Wednesday, fleeing a Turkish invasion, an official said.