Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Friday called for progress on a stalled buffer zone deal around jihadist-dominated Idlib region ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending his country's eight-year war. 

Egyptians were voting Saturday in a referendum that aims to cement the rule of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former coup leader who presents himself as a rock of stability in a turbulent region.

In a referendum bucking the trend of the region's mini-Arab Spring, Egyptians are to start voting Saturday on constitutional amendments that extend President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's rule until at least 2024.

The UN said Friday it had evacuated 163 refugees from war-ravaged Libya to neighbouring Niger, but more than 3,000 others were still trapped in detention centres affected by clashes.

The move marked the first evacuation of refugees and migrants out of Libya since fighting escalated in Tripoli two weeks ago, the UN refugee agency said.

Israeli forces destroyed two apartments in the occupied West Bank on Friday that housed the family of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli woman in February, the army said. 

Regime shelling killed seven civilians in Syria's jihadist-controlled Idlib region on Thursday, in the latest violence to threaten a seven-month-old truce, a war monitor said.

Two Saudi sisters have issued a plea for international protection after fleeing to ex-Soviet Georgia in the latest case of women fleeing oppression in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

In a post on a Twitter account called @GeorgiaSisters, the women said they were "trapped in Georgia" after Saudi authorities cancelled their passports.

Turkey has frozen assets of three senior Yemeni Huthi militia leaders in line with UN Security Council sanctions against the rebels, the state's official gazette said on Thursday.

The UN imposed sanctions in 2014 on the Huthi leadership and then Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced out in 2012 and blacklisted for obstructing peace by later backing the Shiite militia after it seized power in Sanaa.

The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Wednesday that agreements reached four months ago by the warring parties in Yemen have not been carried out and called for their implementation "without delay."

The council reiterated its endorsement of the Dec. 13 cease-fire agreement between Yemen's government and Houthi Shiite rebels that called for the "phased but rapid mutual withdrawals" of fighters from the key port of Hodeida, two smaller ports in the province, and Hodeida city.

The UN Security Council was divided Wednesday on how to address the crisis in Libya after fresh negotiations on a draft resolution demanding a ceasefire in Tripoli failed to yield agreement.

Germany, which holds the council presidency, called for an urgent meeting after Tripoli witnessed the heaviest fighting since commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive to seize the capital nearly two weeks ago.