Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum's singular voice still echoes through busy streets in Egypt, across time-worn cafes in Iraq, and in millions of homes from Morocco to Oman.

"As long as people listen to music, there will be Umm Kulthum," said Abu Ahmed, the manager of a Cairo cafe named after the Arab world's most revered singer.

"She still lives in every song and every note," he told AFP, adjusting the volume on an antique recorder as visitors to the historic bazaar the cafe is housed in peered in from outside.

The Red Cross, accused of not doing enough to help hostages in Gaza or Palestinian detainees in Israel, has defended itself in a rare statement outlining the limits of its role.

Insisting on its neutrality, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the escalation of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has triggered "a proliferation of dehumanising language and of false and misleading information about the ICRC and our work in the current conflict".

- Hostages -

Hamas and Israel will conduct their fourth swap of the Gaza ceasefire on Saturday, with militants releasing three Israelis including the father of the two youngest hostages, in exchange for 183 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Since the truce took effect on January 19, Gaza militants have released 15 hostages after holding them in captivity since their attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Despite concerns about the destruction of documents and other indications of serious crimes committed in Syria under Bashar al-Assad's rule, UN investigators said Friday that plenty of evidence remained unspoiled.

"The country is rich in evidence, and we won't have huge difficulty in pursuing accountability, criminal justice," said Hanny Megally of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin talks on a second phase to the Gaza ceasefire in Washington on Monday, his office said hours after the completion of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange of the truce.

Netanyahu spoke with the US President's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday and agreed that negotiations would "begin when they meet in Washington".

A date for formal talks involving mediators and delegations from Hamas and Israel has not been set, with the 42-day first phase due to end next month.

Sudan's paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, in a rare video address on Friday, acknowledged setbacks in the capital Khartoum but vowed to expel the army from the city again.

The war since April 2023 between Daglo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, according to the United Nations, and pushed millions to the brink of famine.

Hayan Hadid was 18 when soldiers arrested him in his pyjamas and took him for execution in Syria's Hama in 1982, during one of the darkest chapters of the Assad clan's rule.

"I've never really talked about that, it was a secret. Only my family knew," said Hadid, now a father of five.

In light of the December 8 ouster of Bashar al-Assad, "we can talk at last", he said.

On February 2, 1982, amid an information blackout, Assad's father and then leader Hafez launched a crackdown in Hama in central Syria against an armed Muslim Brotherhood revolt.

US President Donald Trump insisted Thursday that Egypt and Jordan would take in displaced Gazans, despite the two Arab nations dismissing his plan to move Palestinians from the territory.

Trump's comments came a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II rejecting any forced displacement of Gazans following the war between Hamas and Israel.

Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, who was shot dead late Wednesday in Sweden, stoked international controversy with his Koran burnings.

In June 2023, the 38-year-old with a chequered past sparked outrage when he stomped on the Islamic holy book and wrapped it in bacon before lighting a few pages on fire, slamming it shut and kicking it like a football.

Momika, along with co-protester Salwan Najem, went on to stage several similar protests, in one instance outside Iraq's embassy in Stockholm -- although he refrained from burning it on that occasion.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas fighters struggled to hold back a crowd of hundreds in a chaotic handover of two Israeli and five Thai hostages in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza on Thursday.

Spectators surged forwards, some trying to take pictures, as 80-year-old Israeli-German Gadi Moses and 29-year-old Israeli woman Arbel Yehud, were transferred to Red Cross vehicles along with five Thai hostages.