Iran and Saudi Arabia's rivalry has played out in proxy wars across the region, and escalated further after the two severed diplomatic and trade ties last month. Yet in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, popular Iranian restaurants are outselling feverish calls for a boycott and stand as a reminder of when ties between the two countries held promise.

In the 1990s, inside steaming kitchens in Riyadh, Iranian chefs taught their counterparts how to season and cook Persian dishes for a Saudi-owned Iranian restaurant called Shayah. The food proved so popular that nearly 20 years later, Shayah is a chain with 13 outlets in the kingdom, 11 of them in Riyadh.

At a time of simmering Mideast tensions and rising malaise, a group of French chefs recently visited the West Bank to bring a little joie de vivre to Palestinian kitchens.

The eight chefs visited restaurants in Ramallah, Hebron, Nablus and east Jerusalem in a weeklong event earlier this month sponsored by the French government, which prides itself on culinary diplomacy and has held similar events in Japan, Brazil, India, Morocco and elsewhere.

Finance officials of the world's biggest economies promised Saturday to use "all tools" to shore up sagging global growth and to avoid devaluing their currencies to boost exports, but made no pledges of joint action.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the Group of 20 rich and developing countries tried to reassure jittery financial markets that the global economy is healthy, though they acknowledged in a statement that they "need to do more" to boost growth.

The U.S. military has launched a newly aggressive campaign of cyberattacks against Islamic State militants, targeting the group's abilities to use social media and the Internet to recruit fighters and inspire followers, U.S. officials told The Associated Press.

The surge of computer-based military operations by U.S. Cyber Command began shortly after Defense Secretary Ash Carter prodded commanders at Fort Meade, Maryland, last month to ramp up the fight against the Islamic State group on the cyber front.

Czech Justice Minister Robert Pelikan has agreed to extradite an Ivory Coast national of Lebanese origin to the United States to face weapons charges although another alleged accomplice remains in Lebanese custody.

The Czech Justice Ministry spokeswoman, Tereza Schejbalova, confirmed the decision Thursday.

Saudi Arabia has lashed out at Lebanon, cutting off billions of dollars of aid and telling its citizens to leave the country, after Beirut sided with Iran in the fallout over the execution of a Saudi Shiite cleric, in a diplomatic dispute that threatens Lebanon's struggling economy.

The tension reflects the worsening Sunni-Shiite conflict in the Middle East, which is driven by regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran, who are fighting proxy wars in Syria, Yemen and, to a lesser extent, in Iraq.

Ten-man PSV Eindhoven battled to a 0-0 draw with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday, comfortably surviving more than 20 minutes after a red card for striker Gaston Pereiro.

PSV coach Phillip Cocu said before the match that both sides would likely settle for 0-0, but he was far happier than Diego Simeone with the goalless stalemate after PSV held on following Pereiro's dismissal for two senseless fouls.

Sergio Aguero scored one goal and helped create another as Manchester City powered to a 3-1 first-leg win over Dynamo Kiev in the last 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday.

Aguero and David Silva's goals gave City a 2-0 cushion at the break before Vitaliy Buyalskiy pulled one back for Dynamo and Yaya Toure secured a valuable third away goal for City.

The powerbrokers of Asian football have long claimed that the sport's future rests in Asia, and given the recent spending boom by Chinese clubs, that future appears closer than even they dared predict.

Chinese Super League clubs have splashed out close to $300 million in the winter transfer window -- which closes Friday — on big names from Europe and South America such as Ramires, Alex Teixeira, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Jackson Martinez and Gervinho. This has led to speculation as to whether it can become one of the leading domestic football competitions in the world and help propel the global balance of power eastwards.

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini had their bans from football reduced from eight years to six by FIFA's appeal body on Wednesday, two days before the sport's ruling body tries to turn the page on years of scandals by electing a new president.

Blatter and Platini were initially found guilty of wrongdoing by FIFA's independent ethics committee, which is led by a German judge, over a previously-secret 2011 financial transaction.