* Caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi discussed with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone the recent the US-Iran conflict in Iraq and the need to prevent escalation leads to open war, the Iraqi government said Friday.
* Iran's state TV on Saturday quoted the Iranian military as saying that it "unintentionally" shot down the Ukrainian jetliner on Wednesday, in which all the 176 passengers and crew members on board were killed. Iranian armed forces said they mistook the Ukrainian jet for a hostile plane, according to the state TV. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Twitter that Iran "deeply regrets this disastrous mistake," and offered his condolences.
* Ukraine wants the "black boxes," or the flight data recorders, of the Ukrainian passenger plane which crashed near Tehran to be sent to Kiev for analysis, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said Friday.
* Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said the US presence in the region is illegitimate and should end immediately, a local media outlet reported Friday.
* The UN Security Council on Friday re-authorized the cross-border aid mechanism for the Syrian people, which expires at midnight, after heated discussion. The 15-member council adopted a resolution, prepared by Belgium and Germany, which re-authorized two of the existing four crossings on the Syria-Turkey border under the mechanism for six months.
* All parties must respect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and resort to diplomacy and negotiations when resolving the latest Middle East tensions, the French foreign minister said on Friday.
* At least 15 people died and more than 25 injured in a mishap involving a passenger bus and a truck late on Friday night in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, confirmed a local police official to Xinhua over phone.
* An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 jolted 110 km southwest of Raoul Island, New Zealand at 22:54:26 GMT on Friday, the US Geological Survey said. The epicenter, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 29.8401 degrees south latitude and 178.8287 degrees west longitude.
* The UNICEF urged on Friday Lebanon to give priority to children amid the ongoing economic crisis in the country, the National News Agency reported.
* The Lebanese army said on Friday that 14 soldiers were injured in the clashes a day earlier with protesters who closed roads in a town north of Tripoli against increased power rationing, the National News Agency reported. The soldiers were injured by stones and petrol bombs protesters threw at them.
