An Egyptian man accused of hijacking a plane and diverting it to Cyprus has been sent back from the Mediterranean island to his homeland after a two-year extradition battle, officials said Sunday.

In regime-held central Syria, Suleiman Berber carried his son in his arms, anxiously observing Russian soldiers unload food parcels from a truck.

The hajj pilgrimage, which starts at Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, is one of the world's largest annual gatherings.

More than two million Muslims from around the globe started the hajj pilgrimage on Sunday in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest annual gatherings in a country undergoing unprecedented change.

Qatar on Sunday said its citizens were unable to take part in the annual hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia as the two countries remain bitterly locked in a diplomatic dispute.

U.S. President Donald Trump's national security adviser arrived in Israel on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a time of shared concerns over Syria, Iran and the Gaza Strip.

Israel closed its only crossing for people with the Gaza Strip on Sunday except for humanitarian cases after border clashes, the latest tightening of its blockade on the Palestinian enclave.

The bomb that killed 40 children and 11 others in a Saudi-led coalition air strike on a bus in rebel-held northern Yemen was sold by the United States under a State Department deal with Riyadh, CNN has reported.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres presented four options aimed at boosting the protection of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, from sending UN rights monitors and unarmed observers to deploying a military or police force under UN mandate.

US-backed forces have repelled a raid by the Islamic State group targeting barracks housing American and French troops in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday.