Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called Saturday for legal action over allegations that senior officials took millions of dollars in bribes to help major firms secure lucrative oil sector contracts.

Abadi instructed the country's anti-corruption commission to take "legal measures" and called for the judiciary to pursue prosecutions connected to the scandal, a statement from his office said.

The U.S. government is warning its citizens to avoid visiting southeastern Tunisia near the Libyan border as well as the country's mountainous western areas due to "the threat of terrorism."

In a travel warning out Friday, the State Department warns that Islamic State group jihadists have targeted Tunisian security officials, tourists and civilians in the regions.

An Egyptian court sentenced Saturday a policeman to life in prison for shooting dead a driver over a fare dispute, a judicial source said, a case that provoked outrage over police abuses.

Mustafa Mahmud was referred to an expedited trial after he shot dead Mohamed Ali Sayed Ismail with his police issue firearm in February, sparking rare protests and an apology from the interior ministry.

The Syrian army has found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 civilians and soldiers executed by the Islamic State jihadist group in Palmyra, a military source said Saturday.

The military on Friday "uncovered a mass grave of officers, soldiers, members of the popular committees (pro-regime militia) and their relatives," the source told Agence France Presse.

The United Nations says violence killed at least 1,119 Iraqis in March, a sharp increase from the previous month, as the Islamic State group stepped up attacks on civilians despite suffering battlefield setbacks.

Another 1,561 Iraqis were wounded last month, the U.N. mission to Iraq said in a statement Friday. The figures include 575 civilians killed and another 1,196 wounded. The other casualties were Iraqi security forces, including Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga and government-allied militiamen.

Talks aimed at ending the war in Yemen are on track to begin on April 18 in Kuwait, the U.N. envoy confirmed on Friday.

A nationwide ceasefire is due to come into effect at midnight on April 10 to bolster the new round of talks between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Shiite Huthi rebels. 

An Israeli soldier caught on video shooting and killing a wounded Palestinian assailant will be held under arrest on base until his next court appearance, a military court ruled Friday.

France on Friday accused the Syrian regime of violating a fragile ceasefire in the five-year war that has devastated the country.

The French foreign ministry also accused President Bashar Assad's regime of trying to undermine efforts by the international community to resolve the conflict.

Libya's U.N.-backed unity government has won increasing pledges of loyalty as it gradually exerts its authority in the face of strong opposition from rival political forces in the conflict-wracked country.

Libya's warring sides are under intense international pressure to cede power to prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, whose arrival in the capital on Wednesday angered a rival Tripoli-based government.

A Syrian was remanded in custody in Cyprus on Friday on suspicion of smuggling migrants after coastguards rescued 28 people from a small boat that had been adrift for days.

The 41-year-old suspect was among the mostly Syrian people who were brought safely to shore on Thursday evening after patrol vessels responded to a distress call off the island's west coast.