The U.N.'s COP27 climate summit kicked off Sunday in Egypt after a year of extreme weather disasters that have fueled calls for wealthy industrialized nations to compensate poorer countries.

Pope Francis said Sunday he was praying for "suffering peoples of the Middle East", at the end of a Bahrain visit promoting dialogue with Islam.

In a final address before boarding a flight to Rome, he also urged congregants to pray "for Ukraine, which is suffering so much," and for an end to the war.

Syrian government forces shelled tent settlements housing families displaced by the country's conflict in the rebel-held northwest early Sunday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, opposition war monitors and first responders said.

The shelling is the latest violation of a truce reached between Russia and Turkey in March 2020 that ended a Russian-backed government offensive on Idlib province that is the last major rebel-held stronghold in Syria.

One of the world's leading Islamic clerics has called for dialogue between the faith's two main currents to settle sectarian differences, in an address to religious leaders including Pope Francis.

Thousands of Christians from around the Gulf packed Bahrain's sports stadium on Saturday for Pope Francis' big Mass, as he shifted the attention of his four-day visit to ministering to the Catholic community in the overwhelmingly Muslim region.

The English-language liturgy was clearly geared toward the South Asian migrant workers who make up the bulk of the Gulf's Catholics, with prayers in Malay, Tagalog and Tamil and a priest offering English translations of the pope's native Spanish homily.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has voiced alarm about rising tensions in the West Bank, in a call to thank outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who has conceded defeat in his country's elections.

Blinken spoke to Lapid to "commend Israel for its free and fair elections, and to thank the prime minister for his partnership," the State Department said in a statement.

Israel's election this week cemented the rise of the country's extreme right, with firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir set to gain a powerful position in government.

After leading an energetic campaign centered on security and Jewish identity, Ben-Gvir celebrated as his Religious Zionism alliance achieved third place -- and likely kingmaker status -- in the November 1 vote.

Veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu launched negotiations Friday with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies on forming what could be the most right-wing government in Israel's history, raising concerns at home and abroad.

Netanyahu's Likud party won 32 seats in Israel's 120-seat parliament, the Knesset, according to the latest official results of the election released on Thursday night.

Israeli fighter jets early Friday targeted a rocket manufacturing site in the Gaza Strip, in response to rockets fired towards Israel, the army said.

One of the rockets was intercepted and three others "exploded inside the Gaza Strip", the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had said earlier Thursday.

Pope Francis warned Friday the world is on the edge of a "delicate precipice" buffeted by "winds of war", during a trip aimed at bridging the gap between faiths.

The 85-year-old Argentine decried the "opposing blocs" of East and West, a veiled reference to the standoff over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. His comments came during a speech to religious leaders at the Bahrain Forum for Dialogue in the tiny Gulf state.