U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned on Sunday of the growing links between organized crime and extremist violence, saying they are feeding off each other "like never before."

Speaking in Doha at the opening of a U.N. anti-crime meeting, Ban said more needed to be done to tackle both crime and extremism, especially to stop either from becoming attractive options for young people.

A Boeing 777 bound from Miami to Doha was forced to make an emergency landing in Newfoundland after a pregnant passenger gave birth mid-air to a baby boy, officials said Wednesday.

The birth took place just hours after the Qatar Airways flight took off from Florida on Sunday morning and before the pilot was able to make the emergency landing in Gander, Newfoundland, eastern Canada.

Qatar has informed General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim that they have reached a breakthrough in the case of the Lebanese servicemen taken hostage by jihadists, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper said Ibrahim traveled to Doha recently after Qatari officials told him that they reached a partial deal with al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front.

Qatar will likely renew its mediation with al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front on the case of Lebanese soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists last year, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

Qatar said in December that it suspended its negotiations with the militants after its envoy failed to resolve the crisis.

The Qatari envoy who is in the outskirts of Arsal to negotiate in the case of kidnapped soldiers by extremist groups since last August, received on Friday the list of demands of the abductees.

According to LBCI: “The Qatari envoy, who is in the outskirts of Arsal, received the list of demands of the soldiers' kidnappers.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has informed the Lebanese government that Ankara is not willing to act as a mediator in the case of the soldiers and policemen who were kidnapped by jihadists last month, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

Turkish officials have also informed the Lebanese authorities that their rejection to mediate stems from the “sensitivity” of the case, Lebanese ministerial sources said.

Qatar's envoy, who is tasked with mediating the release of Lebanese soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists from a border town, is expected to arrive in Beirut on Friday amid hopes by their families that the hostages will escape beheading.

The envoy, a Syrian, is scheduled to meet with members from the Muslim Scholars Committee and officials close to al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front away from media spotlight.

A Qatari delegation is expected to arrive on Tuesday in Lebanon after a short one-day visit to Doha by a Lebanese delegation headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

The delegation, according to An Nahar newspaper, is set to follow up the case of the Lebanese soldiers and policemen abducted by jihadists.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has been invited to the Gulf Cooperation Council's interior ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Doha next week, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Al-Mashnouq will be the “guest of honor” in the meeting that would also be attended by five cabinet ministers from the GCC countries, the daily said.

Israeli warplanes killed three top Hamas commanders in southern Gaza on Thursday, inflicting a heavy blow on the movement's armed wing after failing to kill its top military chief.

As the six-week war between Israel and Hamas raged on, leaving Egyptian mediated truce talks in tatters, warplanes pounded Gaza killing three members of the Islamist movement's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.