Israel's foreign ministry said Tuesday the country was "reducing" ties with nations that voted for last week's UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to settlement building in Palestinian territory.

Refuting reports that ties had been suspended, foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said that Israel was "temporarily reducing" visits and work with embassies.

American officials say U.S.-Russian talks on their separate fights against the Islamic State group are improving and becoming more frequent, with each side trading information and even outlining some of their strategic objectives.

Such progress would dispel the notion that ties between the former Cold War foes are "frozen."

Turkey on Monday said it wanted international air support for its army's assault on the jihadist-held Syrian town of Al Bab where the military is facing tough resistance from Islamic State (IS) extremists.

Turkish forces have for weeks joined pro-Ankara Syrian rebels in fierce fighting for Al Bab, taking increasing casualties as they approach closer to the centre.

Syrian authorities have accused rebel fighters of executing 21 civilians, including women and children, at close range as they quit second city Aleppo last week, state media reported.

The bodies were found in two neighbourhoods in east Aleppo, state news agency SANA said late Sunday. 

A Kuwaiti court on Monday sentenced a Filipino woman to 10 years in jail after convicting her of joining the Islamic State jihadist group and plotting attacks.

The ruling, which is not final, also calls for deporting the 32-year old after serving her term.

The Turkish army on Monday accused Islamic State (IS) jihadists of killing at least 30 civilians seeking to flee the flashpoint Syrian town of Al-Bab which Ankara and its rebel allies have been seeking to capture for weeks.

The army said that the civilians were killed with mines and homemade bombs as they tried to make their way out of Al-Bab, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, without giving further details.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has visited a Christian orphanage near the capital Damascus on Christmas Day.

Photographs posted on the Syrian presidency's Facebook page showed the president along with his wife, Asma, standing with nuns and orphans in the Damascus suburb of Sednaya.

Pakistan's defence minister has threatened to retaliate in kind to any Israeli nuclear strike after apparently being tricked by a fake news site into a confrontation on social media.

Tunisia's security forces called on the government Sunday to take "exceptional measures" to combat the return of jihadists fighting for extremist groups abroad. 

Pope Francis on Sunday hoped for peace between Israelis and Palestinians as he gave his Christmas address, urging the two sides to "write a new page of history."