Hamas on Friday said it would release the following day four Israeli women soldiers held hostage since October 7, 2023, in a second exchange under a ceasefire deal that has halted the Gaza war.

Israel confirmed it had received the list of names of the captives, and the Hostage and Missing Families Forum campaign group later named them as Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag.

Albag turned 19 while in captivity, while the other women are all now 20 years old.

Two buildings branded "Saudi House" and "Saudi At Davos" stand out on the chic main street of the Swiss Alpine village hosting the World Economic Forum, showcasing the kingdom's growing presence at major international events.

Saudi officials and business leaders make the annual pilgrimage to the meeting of the world's global elites every year, with this year's delegation counting 57 people.

Nine ministers made the trip this time, the most from any country, with some participating in panel discussions alongside other powerbrokers from around the world.

Israel announced on Friday that the withdrawal of its forces from southern Lebanon would continue beyond the 60-day period stipulated in a November ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the ceasefire agreement had been drafted "with the understanding that the withdrawal process might extend beyond the 60-day period".

The comment comes despite earlier calls from UN peacekeepers and French President Emmanuel Macron for "accelerated" implementation of the deal.

Saudi Arabia's top diplomat said Friday the kingdom was seeking to help Syria's new authorities secure the lifting of international sanctions, during his first visit to Damascus since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan was received by Syria's Islamist interim leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who is eyeing investments from wealthy Gulf states to rebuild the war-torn country.

The Saudi diplomat flew to Damascus from Beirut, an AFP correspondent said, following meetings on Thursday with Lebanon's new leadership.

Yemen's Huthi rebels have detained another seven UN employees, the United Nations chief said on Friday, their latest move to target aid workers.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of all aid staff held in Yemen, which is suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"Their continued arbitrary detention is unacceptable," Guterres said in a statement, adding that the United Nations was working to secure the release of those being held.

More than 50,000 Syrian refugees have left Turkey to return home since Bashar al-Assad's ouster. But for many others living in the country, the thought raises a host of worrying questions.

In Altindag, a northeastern suburb of Ankara home to many Syrians, Radigue Muhrabi, who has a newborn and two other children, said she could not quite envisage going back to Syria "where everything is so uncertain".

All signs of life have disappeared from the bombed-out houses and empty streets of the Lebanese border town of Naqura, but despite a fragile Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire that has held since November, no one can return.

The Israeli military is still deployed in parts of Lebanon's south, days ahead of a January 26 deadline to fully implement the terms of the truce.

The deal gave the parties 60 days to withdraw -- Israel back across the border, and Hezbollah farther north -- as the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers redeployed to the south.

Iraqi grocery store owner Abu Amjad al-Zubaidi is grappling with asthma, a condition his doctor blames on emissions from a nearby power plant that fills his Baghdad neighbourhood with noxious smoke.

In winter, a thick smog frequently envelops the city of nine million people as the fumes belched out by its many oil-fired factories are trapped by a layer of cold air.

The stench of sulphur permeates some districts, where brick and asphalt factories run on heavy fuel oil, taking advantage of generous state subsidies in the world's sixth biggest oil producer.

Father Bashar Basiel moved freely in and out of his parish in the occupied West Bank until Israeli troops installed gates at the entrance of his village Taybeh overnight, just hours after a ceasefire began in Gaza.

"We woke up and we were surprised to see that we have the iron gates in our entrance of Taybeh, on the roads that are going to Jericho, to Jerusalem, to Nablus," said Basiel, a Catholic priest in the Christian village north of Ramallah.

The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are trapped in limbo, two days before the second prisoner exchange of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, with many having relatives both on the list to be freed and those who aren't.

Among them is Silvia Cunio, an Argentine-Israeli from the Nir Oz kibbutz community. She has two sons in captivity, one of whom was taken along with his partner Arbel Yehud.

She is on the list -- but the Cunio brothers, David and Ariel, are not.