The EU extended on Friday by six months the sanctions against the head of Libya's internationally recognized parliament as well as two former officials, for blocking peace efforts by failing to get behind the U.N.-backed unity government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the United States of protecting a jihadist group in Syria in its effort to overthrow the beleaguered regime of President Bashar Assad. 

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group is bombing bridges in eastern Syria in a bid to restrict the group's movement in the area bordering Iraq, a monitor said Friday.

The death of Nobel laureate Shimon Peres led to a surge of nostalgia in Israel over his peace efforts, but his ideals have become increasingly absent from the country's political scene.

Israel has paid Turkey $20 million in compensation for the deadly storming of an aid ship in 2010, a key pillar of a deal to normalize ties after a six-year rift, a Turkish official said Friday.

Russia on Friday dismissed an accusation its bombing campaign in Syria has killed thousands of civilians, insisting it has stopped jihadists taking over as it marks a year since it began air strikes.

Syrian regime forces advanced in the battleground city of Aleppo on Friday, backed by a Russian air campaign that a monitor said has killed more than 3,800 civilians in the past year.

Bunker-busting bombs are putting children in so much danger in Syria's Aleppo that they won't even be able to return to underground schools when classes resume this weekend, a charity said Friday.

As campaigning heats up ahead of next week's parliamentary elections in Morocco, Nabila Mounib wants to offer voters an alternative to ruling Islamists and the liberal opposition.

World leaders bid farewell to Israeli elder statesman and Nobel Peace laureate Shimon Peres at his funeral in Jerusalem Friday, with U.S. President Barack Obama hailing him as a giant of the 20th century.