By Jarrett Renshaw

NEW YORK (Reuters) -President Donald Trump planned to meet the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday, a White House official said, days after U.S. ally Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha.

The official did not elaborate on the timing of the meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani or its agenda.

The Eurovision Song Contest will respect countries' decisions on participating in next year's competition, its chief said Friday, after several European broadcasters threatened a boycott if Israel takes part.

During the past two editions of the competition, the event has been drawn into the controversy over Israel's devastating war in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian activists protested in Malmo, Sweden in 2024 and in Basel, Switzerland last May over Israel's participation in the contest.

AL-SOMARIA, Syria (Reuters) -Syrian security forces stormed the rundown Damascus suburb in late August, toting guns, swords and eviction orders. In their wake, they left the district's homes spray-painted with big black "X"s and "O"s: marking who could stay and who must go.

The raids targeted al-Somaria, home to the families of thousands of former soldiers in the army of Bashar al-Assad, whose toppling by rebels nine months ago unleashed a wave of violence against the minority Alawite group to which he belongs.

The UN General Assembly will vote on Friday whether to back the "New York Declaration," a resolution which seeks to breathe new life into the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine -- without the involvement of Hamas.

Although Israel has criticized UN bodies for nearly two years over their failure to condemn Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, the declaration, presented by France and Saudi Arabia, leaves no ambiguity.

By Huseyin Hayatsever and Jonathan Spicer

ANKARA (Reuters) -A Turkish court will decide on Monday whether to oust the head of the main opposition, in what some see as a test of the country's shaky balance between democracy and autocracy after a nearly year-long legal crackdown on the party.

Hundreds of members of the Republican People's Party (CHP) have been jailed pending trial in a sprawling probe into alleged corruption and terrorism links, among them President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival - Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Israeli referee Sapir Berman beamed as she recalled the moment her "dream came true" earlier this year, when she became the first transgender woman to officiate an international football match.

"I always wanted to be a woman, and I always wanted to be a football referee -- and then those two came together and fused into one dream that just exploded with joy," the 31-year-old told AFP.

"It's an uplifting, powerful feeling -- the feeling that I'm doing the right thing, that I'm choosing myself, that I'm showing the world it's possible.

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkey's main opposition party has seen hundreds of its members arrested in a nearly year-long legal onslaught that will reach a critical point on Monday when a court decides whether to annul the party's last congress and unseat its leader.

The Ankara court's decision on whether to invalidate the 2023 congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP) over alleged procedural irregularities could reshape the party, rattle financial markets and even influence the timing of a general election set for 2028.

WHAT IS THE CRACKDOWN ABOUT?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani will be visiting New York and Washington on Friday, and is expected to meet U.S. officials to discuss the Israeli strike and the status of ceasefire talks in Gaza, Politico reported on Thursday.

He is expected to see President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, the report added, citing a source.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Ismail Shakil; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

(Reuters) -Yemen's Houthi-run Health Ministry said on Thursday the number of casualties in Israel's Wednesday attacks rose to 46 people killed and 165 wounded.

Israel struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the northern province of al-Jawf, the latest in a series of attacks and counterstrikes between Israel and the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, part of a spillover from the war in Gaza.

The attack followed an August 30 strike on Sanaa that killed the prime minister of the Houthi-run government and several ministers, in the first such assault to target senior officials.

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar's capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed toby all 15 members, including Israel's ally the United States.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attackon Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance U.S. and Israeli interests.