With verses from love poems and flowing calligraphy, Jordan-based fashion designer Hana Sadiq stitches a testament to the beauty of Arab women.

In a career spanning decades, Iraqi-born Sadiq has shown her creations worldwide and dressed the stars, but she remains rooted in the traditions of her homeland.

The artistic handwriting of Arabic script dominates her embroidered modern designs, with poetry or letters scattered in bright colours.

The Iraqi Communist Party may have seen its red star fade but it hopes to come back by advocating what remain radical ideas in the country: women's rights and secular politics.

For now the movement with the hammer-and-sickle banner and the peace dove logo -- Iraq's oldest active political party, founded in 1934 -- claims only a few thousand members and no deputies in parliament.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with Saudi Arabia's crown prince to "develop" relations in his first visit since the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi drove a wedge between the Sunni powers.

Saudi state news agency SPA on Thursday published images of the Turkish leader embracing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler who US intelligence officials determined approved the plot against Khashoggi -- something Riyadh denies.

The pair "reviewed the Saudi-Turkish relations and ways to develop them in all fields," SPA reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's family is likely worth $1-2 billion, the US State Department said Thursday, despite US-led efforts to isolate him over the brutal war.

In a report required by Congress, the State Department said it could only provide an "inexact estimate" with the Assads believed to hold assets under fictitious names or through opaque property dealings.

"Estimates based on open-source information generally put the Assad family net worth at between $1-2 billion," said the publicly released part of the report, some of which was classified.

A former US ambassador has pleaded guilty to illegal lobbying for Qatar and accepting a lavish trip while serving as envoy to Pakistan, court documents showed.

Richard Olson, who has also served as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and as special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, was charged in federal court over violating a restriction on lobbying for a foreign country within a year of leaving office.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting Yemen's Huthi insurgents announced Thursday it would free 163 rebel prisoners, a gesture it said was part of efforts to end the brutal seven-year war.

The move came after a Huthi official called this week for both sides to release 200 prisoners before the coming Eid al-Fitr celebrations, marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and several weeks into a fragile truce that has raised hopes of a lasting ceasefire.

Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif began his maiden foreign trip Thursday, arriving in Saudi Arabia in a bid to enhance financial support from a country where he spent years in exile.

The kingdom has long been an intelligence partner for Pakistan as well as a regular source of relief for its struggling economy.

"Today I am embarking on a visit to Saudi Arabia to renew & reaffirm our bonds of brotherhood and friendship," Sharif said on Twitter, adding that the country "has a special place in all our hearts".

Israel came to a standstill on Thursday, halting the morning bustle for two minutes as sirens blared to honour millions murdered during the Holocaust.

In an annual ritual at 10:00 am (0700 GMT), pedestrians froze in place. Drivers stopped and stood in silence beside their vehicles, honouring the six million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War Two.

At Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Wednesday that the Holocaust is the "ultimate, absolute expression of thousands of years of anti-Semitism."

Israel, which withdrew from the UN cultural agency UNESCO with the United States over alleged bias in 2019, has no objections to a US return, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

Questioned by lawmakers, Blinken called on Congress to give President Joe Biden the power to waive a US law that requires an end to US funding to any international organization, such as UNESCO, that recognizes Palestine as a state.

Ongoing fighting in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has killed more than 200 people in recent days, with the UN human rights chief saying she was "appalled" at the spike in violence.

Members of the Massalit community and Arab fighters have clashed since Friday in and around the West Darfur state capital El Geneina, the latest ethnic violence in the vast, arid and impoverished region long awash with guns.

Heavy shooting was reported Wednesday evening in El Geneina, said Adam Regal from the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an independent aid group.