JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The detention of the Israeli military's former chief legal officer, who was arrested on Sunday, has been extended until Friday, a police source told Reuters on Wednesday.

Advocate General Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned last week over a criminal inquiry into the leaking of a video that appeared to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee arrested during the Gaza war.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged his Iranian counterpart to let two French citizens return home, as they were released after over three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied.

Meanwhile an Iranian citizen arrested in France in February on charges of promoting "terrorism" on social media, and who Tehran had said could be swapped in the case, was now at Iran's embassy in Paris, the Iranian foreign minister said.

By Sayed Hassib

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) -Some residents in northern Afghanistan called on Wednesday for the Taliban government to help rebuild and restore a historic mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif that was damaged in a powerful earthquake.

Monday’s magnitude 6.3 quake struck near the city, killing at least 27 people, injuring almost 1,000 and destroying hundreds of houses, weeks before the onset of Afghanistan's harsh winter.

ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey had entered a "new phase" in efforts to end Kurdish militant violence and signalled he was open to the idea of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan addressing lawmakers.

Erdogan said he held "very constructive" talks last week with senior pro-Kurdish DEM Party leaders - who have urged the idea of Ocalan addressing a parliamentary commission on PKK disarmament - and he urged all actors to contribute.

A French pair released by Iran after over three years in prison on espionage charges their families vehemently denied were on Wednesday awaiting permission to be allowed to return to France and end their ordeal.

Meanwhile an Iranian citizen arrested in France in February on charges of promoting "terrorism" on social media, and who Tehran had said could be swapped in the case, was now at Iran's embassy in Paris, the Iranian foreign minister said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki remains a potent force in Iraqi politics despite long-standing accusations that he fuelled sectarian strife and failed to stop Islamic State from seizing large areas of the country a decade ago.

As leader of the influential State of Law, a Shi'ite Muslim coalition, he is seen as having enough clout to decide who will become Iraq's next prime minister after a parliamentary election on November 11.

An attack on a funeral in the strategic city of El-Obeid in Sudan's central Kordofan region killed 40 people, the UN said Wednesday, as paramilitaries looked poised to launch an offensive there.

The United Nations' humanitarian office did not specify when the attack took place or who was behind it, but said that the situation in Kordofan was worsening.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more, with the fighting spreading to new areas in recent days, sparking fears of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Two French citizens were freed because of "Islamic clemency" and are still in Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told state media on Wednesday.

The French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that Iran had released Cecile Kohler and her partner Jacques Paris, who were detained in Iran for over three years and were convicted of spying.

The two are currently at the French embassy in Iran, Araqchi said, adding an Iranian woman freed by Paris earlier this year is at the Iranian embassy in France.

(Reuters) -Iran must "seriously improve" cooperation with the United Nations inspectors to avoid heightening tensions with the West, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

Grossi told the FT that while the IAEA has carried out about a dozen inspections in Iran since hostilities with Israel in June, it had not been given access to nuclear facilities such as Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, which were bombed by the United States.

Smiling broadly and clad in military fatigues, young Iraqi Mohammed Imad's last TikTok post was in a field carved up with heavy vehicle tracks in what appeared to be Ukraine. Smoke was rising behind him.

"Pray for me," read the caption next to a Russian flag.

That was in May. Months went by without a word, only rumours. Mohammed had been taken hostage, was injured, had the flu or had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.