Syrian President Bashar Assad visited the Gulf nation of Oman on Monday on his first official visit since the deadly Feb. 6 earthquake, his office said.

Oman is one of a few Arab countries that kept normal relations with Damascus after Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2011 over its crackdown on Arab Spring protests.

Israel's president on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition to seek dialogue and compromise after it pushed ahead with controversial judicial overhaul in a turbulent parliamentary session overnight.

Isaac Herzog said it was a "difficult morning" following the late night parliamentary vote that saw two contentious pieces of legislation — part of sweeping changes that have prompted vocal criticism in Israel and abroad — pass a preliminary hurdle.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government on Tuesday for the first time advanced a plan to overhaul Israel's legal system, defying a mass uproar among Israelis and calls for restraint from the United States.

The vote marked only preliminary approval for the plan. But it raised the stakes in a political battle that drew tens of thousands of protesters into the streets, sparked criticism from influential sectors of society and widened the rifts in an already polarized Israel.

The death toll in Turkey and Syria rose to eight in a new and powerful earthquake that struck two weeks after a devastating temblor killed nearly 45,000 people, authorities and media said Tuesday.

Turkey's disaster management authority said six people were killed and 294 others were injured with 18 in critical condition after Monday's 6.4-magnitude quake. In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media outlets said.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Monday rocked Turkey's southern province of Hatay and northern Syria, killing eight people and sparking fresh panic after a February 6 tremor that left nearly 45,000 dead in both countries.

Russia offered weapons for sale on Monday at a biennial arms fair in the United Arab Emirates, ranging from Kalashnikov assault rifles to missile systems — despite facing sanctions from the West over its war on Ukraine.

The event, known as the International Defense Exhibition and Conference and held in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, underscores how the Gulf Arab federation has sought to embrace Moscow while balancing its ties to the West.

The Gulf nation of Bahrain plans to put three religious reformers on trial Tuesday for allegedly questioning the foundations of Islam, a case that has divided the Shiite majority of the country ruled by a Sunni monarchy.

The three are members of Tajdeed, a local Shiite cultural society that advocates open discussion of religion, and whose members have questioned Islamic jurisprudence and scholarly opinions. Such questioning is taboo in many parts of the Muslim world, where religious and political authorities enforce orthodoxy.

Saudi Arabia hopes to send medical volunteers to areas of Syria rocked by the recent earthquake that killed thousands in the war-torn country, an official told AFP on Monday.

Israel has told the Biden administration it will rein in the approval of new West Bank settlement outposts, the prime minister's office said Monday, a day after a potential diplomatic crisis was averted at the United Nations over Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not greenlight any new wildcat settlements in the West Bank beyond nine such outposts built without authorization that it approved retroactively earlier this month. The statement, however, made no mention of the thousands of additional settlement homes in existing settlements officials say are to be soon approved.

Israel's government on Monday was pressing ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul Israel's legal system, despite an unprecedented uproar that has included mass protests, warnings from military and business leaders and calls for restraint by the United States.

Thousands of demonstrators were expected to gather outside the parliament, or Knesset, for a second straight week to rally against the plan as lawmakers prepared to hold an initial vote.