After months of violence, troubled Burundi risks sliding into civil war, a leading think tank has warned, issuing a "conflict alert" after a string of battles between gunmen.

"Burundi again faces the possibility of mass atrocities and civil war," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) warned in a report issued late Thursday.

Weeks after U.N.-backed experts warned that thousands are dying of starvation in South Sudan war zones, aid agencies say they cannot access areas to stave off famine because of "spiraling" violence.

Last month, U.N. agencies said 30,000 people were starving to death in Unity state, with Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) experts warning of a "concrete risk of famine" before the end of the year if fighting continues and aid does not reach the hardest hit areas.

The head of the European Investment Bank warned Friday about what he termed the "deep" financial challenges posed by Europe's biggest refugee and migrant crisis since World War II.  

"It is still a little bit underestimated, but I am sure that the financial dimension of the crisis will reach the tables of finance ministers very soon," EIB chief Werner Hoyer told delegates at a conference in the Slovak capital Bratislava.  

Concerns grew Friday that a bomb downed a Russian plane after takeoff from its Sharm el-Sheikh resort, while British carriers started to evacuate holidaymakers.

President Vladimir Putin called a halt to Russian flights to Egypt, the Kremlin said, in line with a recommendation from his security chief, although Moscow had downplayed reports that a bomb caused the crash last Saturday.

Authorities ordered a curfew in parts of Indian-administered Kashmir Friday after hundreds of separatist activists were arrested on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the disputed region.

In the main city of Srinagar shops and schools remained shut, university exams were cancelled for the day and public transport was suspended as hundreds of police and paramilitary forces patrolled the streets. 

Dutch airline KLM Friday banned checked luggage on an early flight from Cairo to Amsterdam after Britain and the U.S. said a bomb may have brought down a Russian plane in Egypt.

Passengers were only allowed to board flight KLM 554 with hand luggage, the airline said in a statement, adding that "based on national and international information and out of precaution KLM will not allow check-in luggage." The flight arrived in Amsterdam at 7:42 am (0642 GMT).

Turkish police detained 20 Islamic State suspects in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya on Friday, barely 10 days ahead of a G20 summit there being attended by world leaders, local media reported. 

Counter-terrorism police launched simultaneous raids in Antalya and surrounding neighbourhoods, the private Dogan news agency reported, adding that the suspects were "in contact with IS militants in Iraq and in Syria".

Police in the Maldives on Friday raided a private television station in connection with a YouTube video that allegedly threatened President Abdulla Yameen, the network's managing director said.

The move came days after President Yameen imposed a state of emergency, giving wider powers to police and armed forces to arrest and suspending freedom of assembly and freedom of movement

The colours blue and green symbolise the rift between opposing political parties in Taiwan, an entrenched divide that polarises friends and families, with this weekend's historic China summit adding fuel to the fire.

As Taiwan's president Ma Ying-jeou prepares to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Singapore on Saturday, the visceral response from blues and greens has highlighted the seemingly irreconcilable split over Taiwan's identity and role in the world.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pledged Thursday to cut off his moustache if the government fails to meet a goal to provide a million new homes by year's end.

"If by December 31 I have not turned over home number one million, I will cut off my moustache in self-punishment so everyone will know that I failed," Maduro said.