Eight bodies have been recovered from a rubber boat carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean, the Italian navy said in a Tweet on October 18.

A Palestinian gunman went on a shooting rampage at the central bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on October 18, killing a soldier and wounding 11 other people, police said.

Migrants streaming across the Balkans reached Slovenia on October 17, diverted overnight by the closure of Hungary's border with Croatia in the latest demonstration of Europe's disjointed response to the flow of people reaching its borders.

Israel and the United States have resumed talks on future defense aid that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended in protest at the Iran nuclear deal, the Israeli ambassador to Washington said on October 18.

Syrian troops backed by Hezbollah and Iranian fighters made advances on October 17 in their offensive to retake territory around the northern city of Aleppo from insurgents and jihadist fighters, a monitoring group said.

Israeli authorities said four Palestinians had been shot dead and a fifth seriously injured in thwarted knife attacks on October 17 in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of unrest.

Yemen's Saudi-backed government said on October 17 it was studying an invitation from the United Nations to attend talks aimed at ending a war between a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi militiamen who control much of the country including the capital.

Palestinians set fire to a Jewish shrine in the occupied West Bank, and an attacker disguised as a journalist stabbed an Israeli soldier on October 16 as tensions ran high after more than two weeks of violence.

US President Barack Obama and the Republic of Korea's President Park Geun-hye said on October 16 they were open to negotiations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on sanctions but Pyongyang needed to show it was serious about abandoning its nuclear weapons program.

Syrian troops and their allies, backed by Russian jets, attacked rebel-held towns north of the city of Homs on October 15, targeting a long-held and strategic enclave of opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.