The United Nations will investigate several attacks on U.N.-supported facilities and other civilian sites in northwest Syria, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced on Thursday, angering Russia.

Algerians descended on the capital in huge numbers Friday and called for "civil disobedience" for the first time in their months-long anti-regime campaign, despite a heavy police presence. 

The European Union called Friday on Libya's warring sides to establish a permanent truce and return to U.N.-led talks to prepare for quick elections.

Mohammed Haji Abed drives his yellow taxi through the busy streets of the Syrian capital for about 12 hours a day, toiling in the sweltering summer heat but earning barely enough for his family of five to get by.

It was easier for him to make ends meet at the height of his country's civil war, when rebels regularly lobbed mortars into Damascus from their strongholds on the outskirts of the city.

Air strikes on Syria's northwestern Idlib region stopped on Friday after the government announced it had agreed to a truce following more than three months of deadly bombardment.

Al-Qaida gunmen killed 19 soldiers in an attack on an army base in southern Yemen Friday, security officials said, a day after deadly assaults by rebels and a jihadist bomber.

US President Donald Trump's advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner met Thursday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo to discuss Washington's plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The Islamic State remains a global threat despite losing the once vast territory it held in Syria and Iraq, U.S. officials said Thursday in warning about persistent violence from underground cells and an expansion of militants into new areas.

Ambassador James Jeffrey, the State Department envoy to the international coalition fighting the Islamic State, told reporters that thousands of the extremist organization's fighters are scattered around Syria and Iraq, where officials see a "persistent, resilient, rural terrorist level of violence" in that country.

A legal battle between the ruler of Dubai and his estranged wife over their children's welfare will be heard by England's High Court in November, a judge decided Wednesday.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday announced the appointment of an acting deputy chief, after a report on alleged ethical abuses by top management prompted donors to freeze funds.