"Shaggy," "messy," "unprofessional". Natural curls were once looked down upon in Egypt, where Western beauty standards favoured sleek, straight locks. Now, things are changing.

For Rola Amer and Sara Safwat, their curls were once a career-hindering nuisance. Now part of an aesthetic liberation movement sweeping Egypt in recent years, they own a curly hair salon that caters to women and men like them.

Amer used to spend hours straightening her bouncy curls, she told AFP as she began her day at the Curly Studio, which became Egypt's first natural hair salon in 2018.

Two Palestinians were killed early Thursday as Israeli forces raided the West Bank district of Jenin on the sixth day of operations in the occupied territory, the Palestinian health ministry said.

"Two youths died of injuries sustained in an Israeli attack in the Jenin district," the ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli army said it had been "continuing recent counterterrorism activities", a week after a Jenin man killed three people in Tel Aviv, without commenting on the latest Palestinian deaths.

In the month since Chadian rebels and envoys of the military government started peace talks in Qatar, the two sides have prayed together most days but refused to face each other across the negotiating table.

With more than 250 opposition and government officials staying in two luxury hotels, the Gulf state is picking up a mounting bill for its mediation in the Central African nation.

Churches in Jerusalem are up in arms against Jewish "radicals" who are settling in the Christian Quarter and threatening a fragile religious balance in the ancient Holy City.

"We have a major problem here," said Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III in Jerusalem's Old City, which is split into historic Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters.

"Jerusalem also has her Christian character, and that is what is threatened," he told AFP, as Christian worshippers readied for Easter celebrations.

Hundreds of ceramic doves are suspended over the streets of the Old City of Damascus, part of an art installation that had been set to debut before the start of Syria's war.

The lifelike figurines crafted by Buthaina al-Ali, a professor at Damascus University's faculty of arts, had been gathering dust in a basement since the outbreak of Syria's conflict in 2011.

Eleven years on, the 15,000 ceramic birds are finally airbound, appearing in an exhibition curated by Ali's students on the woes of Syria's war.

A jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of El Shafee Elsheikh, a former British national who went to Syria to join the Islamic State and allegedly became a member of the notorious kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles."

Wrapping up the government's case, prosecutor Raj Parekh said it had been proven "beyond any shadow of a doubt" that Elsheikh was one of the hostage-takers dubbed the "Beatles" by their captives because of their British accents.

The UN envoy to Yemen called Wednesday for "serious engagement" to uphold the war-torn country's truce, which has offered a rare respite from violence.

Hans Grundberg spoke at the end of his first visit to the rebel-held capital, where he held talks with Huthi rebel leaders.

The two-month ceasefire took effect 11 days ago.

"While we see that the truce is broadly holding, we need to be mindful of the challenges, too," the Swedish diplomat warned at the end of his three-day visit.

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that a preliminary deal had been reached with a foreign bank over frozen funds belonging to the Islamic republic.

"An accord was concluded with a foreign bank to release a part of our financial claims," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at a news conference.

"This is a preliminary agreement on when and how to release the funds," he added.

Four French tourists and one Belgian were among 10 people killed in a bus crash Wednesday in Egypt, whose travel industry is only just emerging from years of political upheaval and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fourteen others -- eight French and six Belgians -- were taken to hospital with "broken bones, bruises and superficial injuries" but all were in a stable condition, the governor of the southern province of Aswan said.

A Palestinian lawyer and two teenagers were killed Wednesday, the fifth day of Israeli raids in the West Bank following a spate of deadly attacks in the Jewish state.

Israel has poured in additional forces and is reinforcing its wall and fence barrier with the occupied territory after four deadly attacks have claimed 14 lives in Israel, most of them civilians, in the past three weeks.

Wednesday's deaths bring to 18 the number of Palestinian fatalities in the ongoing escalation.