U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the Trump administration's anti-Iran message to Gulf Arab states on Friday as he continued a nine-nation tour of the Middle East aimed at reassuring America's partners that withdrawing troops from Syria does not mean Washington is abandoning the region.

Pompeo was traveling to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates where he will call for increasing pressure on Iran and push for unity among Gulf neighbors still embroiled in a festering dispute with Qatar. He'll also be promoting a U.S.-backed initiative to form what some have termed an "Arab NATO" that would bring the region together in a military alliance to counter threats from Iran.

A storm that battered Lebanon for five days has displaced many Syrian refugees after their tents were flooded with water or destroyed by snow.

On Thursday, volunteers were pumping water from a refugee settlement in the eastern town of Bar Elias and distributed rubber boots, blankets and winter clothes to Syrian refugees needing help.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri chaired an "expanded" ministerial meeting at the Center House on Thursday to discuss the damages and compensation following a storm that pummeled Lebanon for five consecutive days.

A storm packing snow and rain that has battered Lebanon for five days has left an 8-year-old Syrian girl dead, flooded neighborhoods and paralyzed major mountain roads.

Residents in the Antelias area north of Beirut awoke Wednesday to find their cars immersed with water as rivers overflowed, inundating streets with muddy water.

They always anticipated U.S. support would run out, but President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to rapidly pull U.S. forces out of northeast Syria has nevertheless stunned the Kurds there, who for the past three years have been America's partner in fighting the Islamic State group.

A withdrawal will leave Syrian Kurds exposed to Turkish threats of an invasion from one side and Syrian government troops on the other.

Parts of Lebanon's public and private sectors have gone on strike called for by the country's labor unions to protest worsening economic conditions and months of delay in the formation of a new government.

Friday's strike was called for this week by the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers, with the backing of the new cross-sectarian Sabaa Party. The veteran Progressive Socialist Party and Kataeb Party have also voiced support for the move.

With little resistance from a friendly White House, Israel has launched a new settlement push in the West Bank since President Donald Trump took office, laying the groundwork for what could be the largest construction binge in years, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

The figures, gathered from official government sources by the anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now, show an increase in building in 2018 and a sharp spike in planning for future construction.

A search in waters between Cyprus and Lebanon for more possible survivors from a capsized boat has been unsuccessful, Cypriot authorities have said.

The search was mounted after a Syrian man was airlifted to a Cyprus hospital Thursday when the U.S.-flagged merchant ship Safmarine Nimba plucked him from stormy seas some 17 miles off Cyprus' southeastern coast.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia ordered a major government reshuffle Thursday, replacing the ministers of foreign affairs and information, a royal decree said.

The shake up comes as the kingdom grapples with international outrage over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a scandal that has tipped Riyadh into one of its worst international crises.

The last year was a 12-month champagne toast for the legal marijuana industry as the global market exploded and cannabis pushed its way further into the financial and cultural mainstream.

Liberal California became the largest legal U.S. marketplace, while conservative Utah and Oklahoma embraced medical marijuana. Canada ushered in broad legalization , and Mexico's Supreme Court set the stage for that country to follow.