A bomb that exploded Sunday morning in a vegetable market in a north Syrian border town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed eight and wounding 19, an opposition war monitor and the state news agency reported.

The blast scorched market stalls and scattered produce in the town of Ras al-Ayn along the border with Turkey.

Libya's U.N.-recognized government has disavowed a visit by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, a champion of the 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi whose standing has plummeted since the uprising.

Thousands of Israelis have protested in Jerusalem and other cities including Tel Aviv, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation over his government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli army helicopters struck military targets in southern Syrian on Friday in retaliation for earlier "munitions" fire towards Israel from inside Syria, escalating tensions between the bitter rivals. 

The top U.S. general made an unannounced visit to Israel on Friday to discuss "regional security challenges" at a time of heightened tensions with Iran and its allies across the Middle East.

Army Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, met with senior Israeli military and intelligence leaders at an air base in southern Israel and held a video conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli company is developing a coronavirus breathalyzer test that gives results in 30 seconds, billing it as a "front line" tool that can help restore a sense of normality during the pandemic.

Iran protested Friday to the United Nations of a "flagrant violation" of international law after nearby U.S. fighter jets sparked panic on an Iranian passenger plane over war-torn Syria.

Iranian officials on Friday slammed the interception of an Iranian passenger plane by a U.S. fighter jet in the skies over Syria as "illegal," threatening action against Washington over the incident.

Iran had said that one of its airliners, flying from Tehran to Beirut on Thursday, was "harassed" by fighter jets, but later landed safely in Lebanon. A U.S. official confirmed a U.S. jet had passed by the Iranian airliner, but at a "safe" distance.

A German woman kidnapped in Baghdad earlier this week was freed overnight, Iraqi officials said on Friday, without providing additional details.  

"Security forces have freed activist Hella Mewis," Iraq's military spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement.

Every chapter of Iraq's modern history can be seen in the sprawling cemetery of Wadi al-Salam outside the holy city of Najaf. Its sandy expanse is growing, this time with coronavirus victims.

A special burial ground near the cemetery has been created specifically for COVID-19 victims because such burials have been rejected by Baghdad cemeteries and elsewhere in Iraq.