A monitor of Syria's war said on Saturday that rebels controlled most of Aleppo city, reporting Russian air strikes on parts of Syria's second city for the first time since 2016.
Syria's army admitted that rebels had entered "large parts" of Aleppo and said "dozens of men from our armed forces were killed and others wounded".
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday vowed to cooperate with the Lebanese army and help build the country's defence capacities amid efforts to implement the terms of a ceasefire with Israel.
Qassem was speaking for the first time since the start of the ceasefire on Wednesday that envisions both Hezbollah and the Israeli military withdrawing from south Lebanon and the Lebanese military deploying there alongside UN peacekeepers.
A shooting at a bus near an Israeli settlement injured at least eight people on Friday in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli rescue service said.
Violence in the West Bank has surged since the start of the Gaza war sparked by Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, claimed responsibility for the attack, which left more than a dozen bullet holes in the windshield of the bus.
The attack occurred at an intersection close to the settlement of Ariel, the Israeli military said in a statement.
Joseph Aoun, Lebanon's army chief who was elected president on Thursday, is a political neophyte whose position as head of one of the country's most respected institutions helped end a two-year deadlock.
Widely seen as the preferred pick of army backer the United States, as well as regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, he is perceived as being best placed to maintain a fragile ceasefire and pull the country out of financial collapse.
After being sworn in at parliament, Aoun said "a new phase in Lebanon's history" was beginning.
Jihadists and their Turkish-backed allies breached Syria's second city of Aleppo on Friday, as they pressed a lightning offensive against forces of the Iranian- and Russian-backed government.
The fighters took control of "half of the city of Aleppo" as regime forces withdrew, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The offensive began on Wednesday, the same day that a fragile ceasefire took effect in neighbouring Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Singapore hanged a 35-year-old Singaporean-Iranian man for drug trafficking on Friday, its fourth in less than a month, despite appeals from Tehran to "reconsider" his execution.
The United Nations and rights groups say capital punishment has no proven deterrent effect and have called for it to be abolished, but Singaporean officials insist it has helped make the country one of Asia's safest.
Masoud Rahimi Mehrzad, a Singaporean citizen born in the city-state to a Singaporean mother and an Iranian father, was convicted in 2013 for drug trafficking.
Iran, Britain, France and Germany agreed to continue diplomatic talks following a discreet meeting Friday touching on Tehran's nuclear programme, amid surging tensions even before Donald Trump's return to the White House.
Following the talks in Geneva, shrouded in an unusual level of secrecy, the parties each took to social media to say the discussions had focused on Iran's nuclear programme and sanctions, and other regional issues.
Saudi Arabia will host the COP16 UN conference on land degradation and desertification next week as the top oil exporter pitches itself as an environmental defender despite criticism of its role at climate talks.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the meeting for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) a "moonshot moment" to protect and restore land and respond to drought.
Rami, a Syrian worker in Iraq, spends his 16-hour shifts at a restaurant fearing arrest as authorities crack down on undocumented migrants in the country better known for its own exodus.
He is one of hundreds of thousands of foreigners working without permits in Iraq, which after emerging from decades of conflict has become an unexpected destination for many seeking opportunities.
"I've been able to avoid the security forces and checkpoints," said the 27-year-old, who has lived in Iraq for seven years and asked that AFP use a pseudonym to protect his identity.
Spain and Iraq on Thursday strengthened economic ties as Mohammed Shia al-Sudani became the first Iraqi prime minister to visit the European country.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hosted his Iraqi counterpart in Madrid where they signed memorandums of understanding on "financial cooperation and justice", the Spanish government said in a statement.
