The European Union called on Syria's regime and its allies to halt "indiscriminate" military attacks on civilians in the country's north west, where an intensifying bombardment by Damascus and Russian forces has displaced tens of thousands.

A Saudi criminal court sentenced a Yemeni man to death Sunday for a knife attack on a Spanish theater group performing in Riyadh last month, state television said.

Iraqi anti-government protesters blockaded an oil field and rallied in southern cities Sunday while political factions remained paralyzed in their attempts to form a new government.

The speaker of Libya's parliament on Saturday urged the international community to reject the legitimacy of the war-torn country's U.N.-recognized government which is pursuing closer military ties with Turkey.

Iran has summoned Kuwait's envoy to Tehran to protest its officials meeting a "terrorist group" and holding an "anti-Iran meeting," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Turkey will not withdraw from its observation posts in Syrian rebel bastion province of Idlib which has seen an increase in violence carried out by regime forces supported by Russian airstrikes, the defense minister said. 

The posts were established under a September 2018 deal between Syrian regime ally Moscow and Ankara, which backs the rebels, to avert an all-out Syrian government onslaught in Idlib.

Cyprus has stepped up its campaign against the UN-recognised Libyan government's increasingly close military ties with Turkey, hosting talks on Saturday with a leading figure in the rival Libyan administration.

A Syrian refugee disabled after being shot in a Greek coastguard pursuit in 2014 is demanding 100,000 euros ($111,000) in damages from the Greek state, a report said Saturday.

Iran-supported groups on Friday blasted Iraq's president for not naming their preferred prime minister candidate, saying his decision was at the behest of the United States, and warned him not to designate anyone who could be "an agent of the Americans."

In refusing to appoint Fatah-backed candidate Asaad al-Eidani on Thursday, President Barham Salih said he was responding to broad opposition by anti-government protesters who have flooded the streets for nearly three months to demand the overthrow of Iraq's entire political class.

The director of an Algerian internet radio station has been placed in pre-trial detention after a new charges were pressed against him, a prisoners' rights group said Friday.