A spate of high-profile visits by U.S. officials to Saudi Arabia underscores how ties have warmed amid talks over a potential deal that would see the Gulf kingdom recognise Israel, analysts say.

Less than a year after U.S. President Joe Biden warned of unspecified "consequences" for Riyadh during a dispute over oil supply, he is dispatching top aides to meet Saudi royals at a rapid clip.

The United Nations announced late Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with Syria to reopen the main border crossing from Turkey to its rebel-held northwest for six months.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the "understanding" reached following talks between U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths and Syrian officials, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The Syrian government decided to increase prices of drugs by 50%, the head of the pharmacies syndicate in Damascus said Tuesday, as the Syrian pound hit new a low in recent days.

Hassan Derwan did not give a reason for the price hike in his interview with the pro-government daily Al-Watan. Earlier this year, prices were raised by between 50% and 80%.

A medical charity on Tuesday deplored the U.N.'s failure to renew a cross-border mechanism that allowed international aid to reach rebel-held northwestern Syria from Turkey and demanded an urgent solution.

"The resolution expired a month ago and there is no solution currently in sight. This is simply deplorable," said Sebastien Gay, head of mission for Doctors Without Border (MSF) in Syria.

Thousands of people displaced by 12 years of war are stuck in squalid, unofficial camps in Syria's Kurdish-held northeast, languishing in extreme poverty and largely cut off from international assistance.

"We've been completely forgotten," said Rahma al-Hammud, 33, standing at her tent -- a shoddy patchwork of worn-out fabric, tarp and old fertiliser bags crudely sewn together.

Israeli security forces on Tuesday demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian man accused of carrying out a deadly shooting attack earlier this year, the military said, the latest incursion to fuel tensions in the occupied territory.

Israel's decades-old tactic of leveling the family homes of alleged Palestinian assailants has drawn intense criticism from human rights groups, which call it collective punishment — prohibited under international law.

Ukraine has said it was "satisfied" with a summit held in Saudi Arabia over the weekend on a peace settlement to end fighting, to which Moscow was not invited.

Representatives from around 40 countries including China, India, the United States and Ukraine took part in the peace summit, which was held in Jeddah.

The United States has said that West Bank settlers' killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian was "terror," sharpening its tone on far-right Israeli violence.

The State Department's bureau in charge of the Middle East in a weekend post on Twitter, which has been rebranded X, strongly condemned the "terror attack by Israeli extremist settlers."

Islamic State group militants killed 10 Syrian troops and pro-government fighters in the former jihadist stronghold of Raqa province, a war monitor said Tuesday, displaying their ability to keep mounting deadly attacks.

Despite losing their last piece of territory in Syria in 2019, IS has maintained hideouts in the vast Syrian desert from which it has carried out ambushes and hit-and-run attacks.

A baby girl who was born under the rubble of her family home destroyed by the deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria six months ago is in good health, loves her adopted family and likes to smile even to strangers.

The dark-haired baby Afraa survived 10 hours under the rubble after the Feb. 6 earthquake crushed to death her parents and four siblings in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis. When she was found, her umbilical cord was still connected to her mother.