United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Head of Mission and Force Commander Major-General Luciano Portolano briefed on Friday Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam on UNIFIL's joint efforts with the Lebanese army to maintain calm and stability in the South and along the Blue Line.

Portlando discussed with the two officials in separate meetings the situation in UNIFIL’s area of operations and issues related to the implementation of UNIFIL’s mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday imposed sanctions on Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two allied rebel commanders for threatening peace in the impoverished Arab country.

A U.S. request to impose a visa ban and assets freeze on the deposed leader and the two commanders from the Shiite Huthi movement went into force at 2200 GMT, the Lithuanian chair of the committee said.

Direct talks between South Sudan's president and the country's rebel chief have failed to strike a peace deal, mediators said Friday, but added that discussions would continue over the weekend.

President Salva Kiir and ousted vice president Riek Machar have held two days of meetings in Addis Ababa, with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalgen and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta leading the latest push for an end to the nearly 11-month-old civil war.

Work on destroying Syria's last remaining chemical weapons production facilities will begin this month and should be completed next year, the U.N. Security Council heard Wednesday.

Dutch diplomat Sigrid Kaag, who leads a U.N. mission to rid Syria of chemical weapons, told the council that 13 production facilities will be dismantled, Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan said.

The Palestinians will submit a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council later this month calling for an end date for Israeli occupation, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The text, which the Palestinians have been preparing for weeks, is expected to be vetoed by permanent member the United States.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday urged the world to step up support for the Iraqi government and its security forces in their intensifying battle against Islamist fighters.

In a unanimous statement, the 15-member council condemned the "vicious string of suicide, vehicle-borne and other attacks" in Baghdad and surrounding provinces carried out by the Islamic State organization.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday urged Mali's warring factions to make progress toward a peace deal at upcoming talks in Algeria, following a wave of deadly attacks on peacekeepers.

In a unanimously-adopted statement, the 15-nation council urged the Bamako government and the six armed groups in northern Mali to "engage in good faith and in the spirit of compromise" during the talks, which open on Sunday in Algiers.

The United Nations voted on Thursday to pick five new members to the Security Council, with New Zealand, Spain and Turkey locked in a tight race for seats at the world's "top table."

Angola, Venezuela and Malaysia are virtually assured to win support from the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly as they are running unopposed from their region.

Lebanon filed a complaint with the U.N. Security Council on Thursday over an Israeli army attack on a Lebanese military post west of the Shebaa Farms area earlier this month.

The state-run National News Agency said the complaint was made by Lebanon's mission in New York.

U.N. Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen expressed concern over the “risks facing Lebanon” at this stage due to the acts of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and dormant terrorist cells that belong to Hizbullah.

Roed Larsen's fears were stated during closed-door consultations between the U.N. Security Council's 15 members.