Kurdish forces pressed their biggest offensive against the Islamic State group so far Friday, buoyed by U.S. reports that jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's top aide in Iraq has been killed.

Kurdish peshmerga forces were securing the surroundings of Mount Sinjar after breaking a months-old jihadist siege of the northwestern region while fighting was also reported near the city of Tall Afar further east.

New U.S. legislation authorizing sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis could undermine relations between Moscow and Washington for a long time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Friday.

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani is expected to arrive in Beirut over the weekend for talks with senior Lebanese officials.

The Iranian official will reportedly hold talks with his Lebanese counterpart Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam and prominent Hizbullah officials, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

The White House fence should be immediately raised by four or five feet to prevent people from breaking into the grounds, according to an independent security review made public Thursday.

A public summary of the panel's classified report also warned that the Secret Service -- the U.S. agency that guards the president -- is "starved for leadership" and needs root and branch reform.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday and expressed concern over mass trials and the continued detention of journalists and peaceful activists.

During a telephone call, the White House said, Obama encouraged Sisi to "invest in the political, economic, and social aspirations of the Egyptian people." 

A naturalized American was jailed for 15 years in Miami on Wednesday for conspiring to provide thousands of dollars to al-Qaida and its affiliates in Syria and Somalia, U.S. justice officials said.

Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed, 31, admitted to the court in July that he conspired to provide money and recruits to al-Qaida, the Al-Nusra Front in Syria and the Shebab in Somalia, a Justice Department statement said.

Recent close shaves between Russian fighters and civilian aircraft highlight the dangers of the cat-and-mouse game being played out between Moscow and the West in European skies amid the crisis in Ukraine, analysts say.

In the latest incident, Sweden said Friday that a Russian military jet nearly collided with a passenger plane south of Malmoe shortly after take-off from Copenhagen International Airport.

The United States and Cuba brought their bitter Cold War stand-off towards a historic close Wednesday, agreeing to revive diplomatic ties and to ease a five-decade U.S. trade embargo.

In the wake of a prisoner exchange, President Barack Obama said Washington is ready to review trade ties and to re-open its embassy in communist Cuba, which has been closed since 1961.

Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani vowed Wednesday to fight "terrorism and extremism" together, a day after Taliban militants killed 148 people at a Pakistani school.

President Ghani held talks with Sharif in Kabul as Pakistan mourned the victims -- mostly children -- killed in the massacre that put new pressure on the Islamabad government to combat militancy.

A conference on respect for international human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories opened Wednesday in Geneva but was shunned by   Israel and the United States.

Israel is boycotting the one-day talks and has accused host Switzerland of contributing to the politicisation of the Geneva Conventions on the laws of war.