Interior ministers from European Union nations experiencing pressure from unauthorized migration asked Friday for more action to strengthen and protect the bloc's external borders.

Ministers from countries that included Greece, Poland, Italy, Austria and France, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, participated in a border security security conference in Lithuania's capital along with European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.

Israel's attorney general said Thursday he was launching an investigation into Israeli police's use of phone surveillance technology following reports that investigators improperly tracked targets without authorization.

In a four-page letter, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said he had not yet found evidence substantiating the claims in the Israeli business daily Calcalist, which said police monitored the leaders of a protest movement against then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mayors and other citizens without court approval. But Mandelblit said many questions remained unanswered, and that he was forming an investigative committee headed by a top deputy.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold their first formal talks on Friday as the two leaders face fresh concerns about North Korea's nuclear program and China's growing military assertiveness.

The virtual meeting comes after North Korea earlier this week suggested it might resume nuclear and long-range missile testing that has been paused for more than three years.

Retired general Yair Golan spent a significant part of his military career serving in the occupied West Bank, protecting Jewish settlements. Today, he is one of their most vocal critics.

Golan, a former deputy military chief, is now a legislator with the dovish Meretz party, where he has repeatedly spoken out against settler violence against Palestinians.

Yemen lost its connection to the internet nationwide early Friday after Saudi-led airstrikes targeted the contested city of Hodeida, an advocacy group said, plunging the war-torn nation offline.

NetBlocks said the disruption began around 1 a.m. local and affected TeleYemen, the state-owned monopoly that controls internet access in the country. TeleYemen is now run by the Houthi rebels who have held Yemen's capital, Sanaa, since late 2014.

The United States and Russia tried Friday to avert another devastating conflict in Europe, but the two powers' top diplomats warned no breakthrough was imminent as fears rise that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine.

Armed with seemingly intractable and diametrically opposed demands, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva at what the American said was a "critical moment."

Militants from the Islamic State group launched sophisticated attacks in Syria and Iraq, including an attempt to break into a prison where suspected extremists are being held by U.S.-backed fighters, officials said Friday. Dozens of people were killed.

The separate attacks are believed to be some of the largest since IS lost the final sliver of territory it held nearly three years ago. In recent months, IS sleeper cells have become more active in both countries, claiming attacks that killed scores of Iraqis and Syrians.

A rocket attack on a northern Syrian town controlled by Turkey-backed opposition fighters has killed six civilians and wounded over a dozen people, Syrian rescuers and a war monitor said. Both blamed U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces for the attack.

The town of Afrin has been under control of Turkey and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkey-backed military operation that pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that talks with Iran over its nuclear program are at a "decisive moment," and warned that Washington and its allies may change tactics if a deal isn't reached in the coming weeks.

Blinken said that the longer Iran fails to comply with the 2015 Vienna accord — intended to rein in Tehran's nuclear program — the closer it would get to being able to build an atomic weapon.

Iran, Russia and China on Friday began a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean aimed at boosting marine security, state media reported.

Iran's state TV said 11 of its vessels were joined by three Russian ships including a destroyer, and two Chinese vessels. Iran's Revolutionary Guard will also participate with smaller ships and helicopters.