Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday hailed Syria's Ahmed al-Sharaa for his "strong commitment" to fighting terror as the newly installed interim president made his first visit to Turkey.

Sharaa flew to Ankara from Saudi Arabia where he had sought Riyadh's support to fund Syria's reconstruction and revive its economy after 13 years of civil war.

"I would like to express our satisfaction for the strong commitment my brother Ahmed al-Sharaa has shown in the fight against terrorism," Erdogan said after the pair held talks.

Amena Mohamed can't stop smiling as she prepares to board a bus home to Wad Madani, in Sudan's central Al-Jazira state, more than a year after she fled brutal fighting there.

"I can't describe the feeling, we're so happy," she told AFP in the southeastern state of Gedaref, where over a million people sought shelter from the battles between the regular Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war since April 2023.

Like most Palestinians, Hatem Azzam, a resident of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, was incensed by US President Donald Trump's remarks suggesting Gazans should relocate to Egypt or Jordan.

"Trump thinks Gaza is a pile of garbage -- absolutely not," the 34-year-old said, attacking Trump's choice of words when he told reporters last week of his plan to "clean out the whole thing".

Calling him "delusional", Azzam said that Trump "wants to force Egypt and Jordan to take in migrants, as if they were his personal farm".

A romantic drama about an elderly couple who share a night together to escape their loneliness has landed its Iranian directors with legal charges and pressure to stop its release internationally.

The feel-good movie called "My Favourite Cake" has been lauded on the festival circuit and appeared in cinemas in more than a dozen countries at the end of 2024.

With favourable reviews mounting and more international releases expected in coming weeks, Tehran-based directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha are facing rising intimidation from Iranian authorities.

To applause, percussionist Bahjat Antaki took the stage with Syria's national symphony orchestra, marking the first classical concert at the Damascus opera house since president Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.

The concert was a way of saying "we are here and able to produce art," despite more than years of devastating war, Antaki told AFP after last week's performance, which drew an audience of hundreds.

"We will continue, and we will be stronger and more beautiful," the 24-year-old said.

A gunman attacked an Israeli military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, fatally wounding two soldiers before troops shot him dead, the military said.

The shooting took place in the morning at a military post in Tayasir in the northern part of the West Bank, the military said in a statement.

"A terrorist fired at the soldiers at a military post in Tayasir," it said, adding the troops killed the gunman during a shootout.

Two other soldiers were "severely injured" in the attack, while six were slightly wounded.

Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa visits Ankara on Tuesday for talks with Turkey's leaders on rebuilding his land and the volatile issue of Kurdish fighters near the countries' border.

Sharaa is scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon, flying in from Saudi Arabia where he made his first international visit since his Islamist-led rebels overthrew Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad on December 8.

The move left Syria -- which shares a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border with Turkey -- facing a fragile transition involving multiple territorial and governance challenges.

US President Donald Trump's administration appeared to backtrack Wednesday after his proposal to take over Gaza sparked uproar, with the United Nations warning against "ethnic cleansing" in the Palestinian territory.

Facing a wave of criticism from Palestinians, Arab governments and world leaders, Trump's Secretary of State Marco Rubio said any transfer of Gazans would be temporary, while the White House said there was no commitment to sending US troops.

The trial of the man accused of attempting to kill Salman Rushdie in 2022, leaving the famed author blind in one eye, opened Tuesday with jury selection.

Hadi Matar, an American of Lebanese descent, entered the small courtroom in upstate New York wearing a light blue shirt and closely cropped hair, flanked by security officers, video of the proceedings showed.

He separately faces federal terrorism charges for allegedly conducting the attack on behalf of militant group Hezbollah.

Iran may seem an unlikely setting for women's ice hockey, but a fledgling league has seen its young players confront the country's deeply conservative values and financial obstacles to blaze a trail for the sport.

"The first time I was given a stick, I fell in love with this sport," said Soheila Khosravi, a member of the Iranian women's league, which played its inaugural round just three years ago.

Khosravi left her family home two years ago to dedicate herself fully to ice hockey in Tehran, where Iran's only Olympic ice rink is located.