Syria's army renewed strikes on a Kurdish district of Aleppo on Friday after fighters from the minority refused to leave in defiance of a ceasefire that sought to halt days of fighting.

The government and Kurdish forces have traded blame over who started the violence in Syria's second city on Tuesday as they struggle to implement a deal to merge the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and military into the country's new government.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minnesota, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Iran's economy is facing high inflation and other challenges, partly due to U.S. sanctions, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday, underscoring Washington's concerns about Tehran cracking down violently on anti-regime protests.

"The Iranian economy is on the ropes," Bessent told the Economic Club of Minnesota, underscoring President Donald Trump's warning to Tehran to avoid harming protesters.

By Jonathan Stempel

Jan 8 (Reuters) - A federal judge dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit demanding the U.S. government conduct emergency rescues of Palestinian Americans and family members who are trapped in Gaza and trying to escape hardships caused by the war between Israel and Hamas.

Jan 8 (Reuters) - Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential leadership council has dismissed Defence Minister Mohsen al-Daeri in the internationally recognised government, the state news agency Saba reported on Thursday.

The move comes amid a fast-moving crisis in Yemen that erupted last month when United Arab Emirates-backed separatists swept through parts of the south, including the port city of Aden, advancing to within reach of the Saudi border.

(Writing by Enas Alashray in Cairo;)

Protesters rallied for a second day in Turkey's main cities on Thursday to demand an end to a deadly Syrian army offensive against Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent said.

Several hundred people gathered in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey's main Kurdish-majority city, while hundreds more joined a protest in Istanbul that was roughly broken up by riot police who arrested around 25 people, the pro-Kurdish DEM party said.

By Olivia Le Poidevin, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Rami Ayyub

GENEVA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organisations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.

Chinese and Iranian warships were docked off South Africa's main navy base Thursday ahead of exercises that officials said were also meant to involve Russia.

The January 9-16 "Will for Peace" drill hosted by South Africa risks further straining its ties with the United States, which is in dispute with many of the countries taking part.

AFP journalists saw two Chinese ships in Cape Town's False Bay harbour on Wednesday, joined by an Iranian vessel on Thursday.

MOGADISHU, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Somalia's immigration and citizenship agency said on Thursday that it had launched an investigation after the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen accused the United Arab Emirates of spiriting a separatist leader out of the country via Mogadishu airport.

The Saudi-led coalition said that Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of a UAE-backed southern separatist group, had left Yemen by boat for Somaliland, before boarding an aircraft to Mogadishu that was later tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.

Jan 8 (Reuters) - A dispute over territorial control in southern Yemen has set erstwhile Gulf allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against each other and fractured the coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis.

The separatist Southern Transitional Council, backed by the UAE, seized swathes of territory across southern and eastern Yemen last month but it has mostly been retaken by Saudi-backed fighters.

BEIRUT, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Lebanon's central bank will seek the repayment of public funds embezzled by at least one former central bank official and by lawyers and commercial bankers, to help guarantee its liquidity, Central Bank Governor Karim Souaid said on Thursday.

Souaid did not name Riad Salameh, the former central bank governor whose 30-year term ended in disgrace amid investigations into whether he embezzled more than $300 million between 2002 and 2015.