Furious anti-government youth held their ground in protest squares across Iraq's south on Sunday, despite the previous evening's appointment of a prime minister who insists he is an independent. 

Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas on Saturday after cross-border mortar fire by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army said.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Saturday announced a cut in all ties with Israel and the United States, including security cooperation.

A deadline set by Iraq's president for parliament to name a new premier was set to expire Saturday amid renewed pressure from the street after influential cleric Moqtada Sadr called for fresh protests.

Yemen's Huthi rebels are in possession of new weapons similar to those produced in Iran, according to a UN report obtained by AFP on Friday, in potential violation of a UN arms embargo.

The United Kingdom sent its fellow Security Council members an amended draft resolution on Libya Friday, calling for the withdrawal of mercenaries from the country, according to the text, seen by AFP.

A senior member of Syrian Islamist armed group Jaysh al-Islam has been arrested in France and charged with war crimes and torture, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Syrian regime forces were poised Friday to retake the rebel-held town of Saraqeb in the country's northwest where battles this week killed more than 400 combatants, a monitor said.

Once the throbbing heart of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Maaret al-Numan is an eerie ghost town where few buildings have been spared by nine years of war.

Following a major ground offensive, the Syrian army captured the town in the northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday, a key prize in its push to reconquer the country's last rebel enclave.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric called Friday for parliamentary elections "as soon as possible" to ease the political crisis gripping the country since anti-government protests erupted four months ago.