British Foreign Secretary William Hague indicated Friday he would decide within days whether to officially recognise the new Syrian opposition after "encouraging" talks with its leaders in London.
Israeli air strikes on central and southern Gaza killed four people on Saturday, medics said, with Palestinian security sources confirming at least three of them were militants.
Sierra Leoneans voted Saturday in general elections as the west African country continues to recover from a brutal civil war while beginning to reap the benefits of a mining boom.
The United States called Thursday on Egypt, Turkey and European powers to press Hamas to end bloodshed in Gaza, putting the onus on the Islamist movement to end rocket attacks on Israel.
The United Nations has protested to the Syrian government for claiming it had UN permission to attack rebel opponents in the Golan Heights demilitarized zone.
Israel's air strikes on the Gaza Strip have heightened the tensions surrounding the Palestinian bid for observer membership at the United Nations planned for later this month.
US senators got their first look Thursday at dramatic video footage of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya as they probed the government's response to the assault.
Israel's surprise hit on Hamas's top military commander in Gaza may have enraged the enclave's Islamist rulers, but analysts said it was unlikely the movement would respond in a way which would lead to all-out war.
Britain should accept defeat and move all of its soldiers out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, former Liberal Democrat party leader Paddy Ashdown wrote in Friday's The Times newspaper.
Some 113 rebels died in clashes between the M23 rebel group and Democratic Republic of Congo troops as violence flared days after the UN and US imposed sanctions on the group's leader.
Chief regional mediator Blaise Compaore will meet Mali's Ansar Dine Islamists and Tuareg rebels together for the first time on Friday, amid calls for urgent dialogue to resolve the crisis in northern Mali.
Sierra Leoneans vote on Saturday in the country's third election since the end of a brutal civil war, a high-stakes poll billed as a litmus test of the mineral-rich nation's democratic credentials.
The deadly collapse of a six-storey shopping centre in Ghana's capital Accra due to construction flaws, has raised fears of more such tragedies in the West African boom town.
Arab nations demanded the UN Security Council condemn Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza at an emergency meeting, but the United States strongly defended Israel's military strikes.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ease tensions with Gaza militants Wednesday and also discussed the crisis with Egypt's president.
