Syrian air defense batteries on Friday intercepted projectiles coming from Israel and downed a number of them, the official news agency SANA reported.

The head of al-Qaida's former Syria affiliate has urged rival fighters allied to Turkey to take up arms against regime forces to ease the pressure on the jihadist bastion of Idlib.

Thousands of Algerians pushed through police tear gas in the capital Friday, to rally at the focal point of mass protests against the country's ruling elite.

Britain on Friday challenged Russia and Syria to provide assurances to the U.N. Security Council that attacks on hospitals and schools in northwest Syria will stop.

Germany's parliament on Friday condemned the BDS movement that demands a boycott of Israel as anti-Semitic, warning that its actions were reminiscent of the Nazis' campaign against Jews.

The body of a Palestinian who Turkish authorities said committed suicide while in jail was badly mutilated including having his tongue removed, his family said Friday.

A villa in Misrata is abuzz with activity as mothers prepare food parcels with poems and messages of love attached for sons battling on the outskirts of the Libyan capital.

Dozens of international aid groups say conditions in Syria's northwest have reached "crisis point" and are calling for an immediate end to the fighting.

The aid groups said, in an appeal issued Friday, violence has displaced an estimated 180,000 people in the last two weeks.

Syria called Friday on all parties to exercise "restraint" in the Gulf as its ally Iran comes under mounting pressure from the United States, state media said. 

Organisers cancelled the main weekly protests along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, for only the second time in more than a year.