Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to rally divided groups of Palestinians together to "free their land," according to his official website on Friday.

"All Palestinian groups should be united, because then they will have more chance of freeing their land," Ahmadinejad told Abbas, who was making his first visit to Tehran to participate in a two-day Non-Aligned Movement summit.

Health officials and a consulting surgeon are reviewing a living-donor kidney transplant program that's been temporarily suspended by a northwest Ohio hospital, where a donated kidney apparently was put with medical waste instead of going to the intended recipient in what medical experts describe as a rare accident.

The University of Toledo Medical Center apologized and put two nurses and an administrator of surgical services on paid leave without public explanation following the Aug. 10 error. It also sent letters notifying 975 patients and potential organ donors and recipients that they may need to make other arrangements for services typically provided through the program under review.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to order a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites, the newspaper Haaretz reported on Friday.

The article, citing an Israeli official on condition of anonymity, said Merkel had called Netanyahu 10 days ago amid a wave of reports of an imminent Israeli attack, to give a "clear message as to her opposition" to such action.

The United States and Israel are responsible for the conflict scorching Syria by "flooding weapons" to rebels there, the supreme leader of Iran -- the main ally of Syria's regime -- said on Friday, according to his official website.

"The main and behind-the-scenes operators behind the painful issues in Syria are America and the Zionist regime," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is recalling more than 31,000 units of a chemotherapy drug after discovering one vial was overfilled, putting patients at risk of an overdose.

The company's action affects 10 lots of BiCNU, an injection of the drug carmustine, used to treat brain tumors, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Iran on Friday rejected allegations in a new International Atomic Energy Agency report that it was frustrating U.N. inspection of a suspect military site by apparently scrubbing it clean.

"These statements have no technical basis. Anyone who has expertise in this area knows that these statements are mere pretexts and that one cannot clean a site" of nuclear work, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the ISNA news agency.

The head of the German central bank or Bundesbank has threatened to resign amid a festering fight with the European Central Bank over its anti-crisis measures, the daily Bild reported Friday.

The Bundesbank declined to comment on the article.

Julian Assange expects to remain holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for up to a year as the two countries struggle to resolve a diplomatic row over the controversial WikiLeaks founder.

Assange took shelter in the embassy in June after exhausting all appeals against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over sexual assault allegations. Earlier this month Ecuador granted him asylum.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim will visit Ivory Coast and South Africa next week on his first official foreign trip since taking over as head of the global lender in July.

Kim will visit the two countries on September 4-6 to discuss how the World Bank can help African nations achieve higher economic growth, reduce poverty, and create jobs, the international organization said in a statement Thursday.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has called on Iran to free all its political prisoners, in a speech obtained by Agence France Presse on Friday and delivered in Tehran on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement summit.

"I have urged the authorities during my visit this time to release opposition leaders, human rights defenders, journalists and social activists to create the conditions for free expression and open debate," Ban said, according to the text of the address delivered late Thursday to an Iranian diplomats' college.