The family of a U.S. activist who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003 have condemned an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the military was not responsible.

"It will take some time before we have (the) ability to read the decision in English and to process all the court has said," the parents and sister of Rachel Corrie wrote in a statement published Friday.

Two Al-Jazeera journalists were freed from an Egyptian prison Friday pending retrial, their families said, after spending more than a year in jail in a case that provoked global uproar.

A Cairo court on Thursday ordered the release of Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamed, who face retrial on charges of supporting the blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste said Friday he was overjoyed that two colleagues have been released from an Egyptian jail but said that with a retrial pending, it was too soon to celebrate.

Mohamed Fahmy, who is Canadian, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were freed on bail Thursday after more than 400 days in prison after an appeals court ordered a retrial.

Two Saudi women's rights activists, one of whom tried to defy a ban on female driving, have been freed after more than two months in jail, a campaigner said on Friday.

"Yes, Loujain is free," said the campaigner who spoke with Loujain Hathloul after she left prison.

Most residents in opposition-held areas of Syria's Aleppo favor the U.N.'s proposal of a "freeze" in fighting, but are skeptical that a truce will hold, a survey published Thursday said.

The poll said 53 percent of people surveyed favored a lull in fighting, with 38 percent saying a freeze would allow humanitarian aid to reach war-torn areas of Syria's second city.

France announced Thursday it will sell 24 Rafale fighters plus a frigate to Egypt in a 5 billion euro ($5.7 billion) deal that marks the first foreign contract for the multi-role combat jet.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will travel to Cairo on Monday to sign the contact with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a ministry source told Agence France-Presse.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded a convicted Pakistani drug smuggler, bringing to 29 the number of executions in the first six weeks of the year.

Babir Hussein Mohammed Ishaq was found guilty of transporting heroin which he had ingested, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to the U.N. Security Council Thursday for action to halt Yemen's slide toward anarchy, warning it was "collapsing before our eyes."

The U.N. chief was reporting to the 15-member council following his visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for talks that he said focused on "preventing civil war in Yemen."

Canada welcomed Thursday Egypt's release on bail of Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy, but decried as "unacceptable" putting him through a retrial.

"While we welcome Mohamed Fahmy's release on bail, we continue to call for his immediate and full release," Canadian Consular Affairs Minister Lynne Yelich said.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at choking off millions of dollars in earnings from oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking and ransom payments to the Islamic State group.  

The resolution was co-sponsored by more than 35 countries in a show of international resolve to confront the threat posed by the jihadists who overran parts of Syria and Iraq nearly a year ago.