A U.S.-led alliance launched new air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria Friday, targeting oil facilities for a second day, as Britain weighed joining the campaign in Iraq.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported fresh strikes in the oil-rich eastern province of Deir Ezzor, and northeastern Hasakeh, both of which were also targeted a day earlier.

Hundreds of mostly Syrian refugees rescued by a cruise liner in the Mediterranean agreed to disembark in Cyprus on Friday after a standoff triggered by their demand to go to Italy.
A total of 345 migrants were plucked by the Salamis Filoxenia from a trawler in rough seas off the coast of Cyprus on Thursday.

President Barack Obama spoke briefly with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday about the war against the Islamic State group and the U.S.-led coalition which the Turks have yet to join.
Officials said Obama called Erdogan from Air Force One as he returned from the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where the Turkish leader met with Vice President Joe Biden.

A resolution proposed by Arab states expressing concern about Israel's nuclear arsenal was defeated on Thursday at a meeting of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The measure, brought by 18 Arab member states, was rejected by 58 votes to 45, with 27 countries abstaining at the annual general conference.

The Pentagon said Thursday it will investigate reports that civilians were killed in U.S.-led air strikes in Syria this week but insisted the raids were carried out with precision.
The U.S. military said its bombing raids were carefully calibrated to avoid civilian casualties and touted the role of coalition partners from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the latest strikes in Syria on Wednesday.

The jihadists who rule Iraq's northern city of Mosul have executed a female rights activist who criticized the Islamic State group on social media, several sources said Thursday.
According to rights groups and residents, Samira Saleh al-Nuaimi was executed on Monday. A source at Mosul morgue confirmed to AFP that her body was brought in on September 22.

Morocco has jailed four men convicted of planning to join the ranks of jihadists fighting to topple the Syrian regime, the official MAP news agency said Thursday.
The defendants received jail sentences of between three and five years, according to the report.

The United States has identified the masked Islamic State militant who murdered two kidnapped American journalists in separate videotaped beheadings, FBI chief James Comey said Thursday.
The jihadist organization triggered global outrage when it released videos of a man with a British accent killing first James Foley then Steven Sotloff, freelance journalists who were kidnapped in Syria.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders on Thursday accused Shiite Huthi rebels who have taken near-total control of the Yemeni capital of harassing journalists.
The rebels went on the offensive earlier this month and spilled into Sanaa from their stronghold in the north.

The State Department has ordered a cut in the number of American government staff in Yemen after Shiite rebels appeared to have seized much of the capital city, a U.S. official said Thursday.
"We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution and in response to recent political developments and the changing, unpredictable security situation in Yemen," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
