An Egyptian court sentenced three Al-Jazeera reporters to three years in prison on Saturday, in a shock ruling that sparked international condemnation.

Canadian Mohamed Fahmy and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed were in court for the verdict, while Australian journalist Peter Greste was tried in absentia after his deportation early this year.

Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated against corruption in Baghdad's Tahrir Square on Friday, including supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Protesters have taken to the streets of Baghdad and cities in the Shiite south for weeks, railing against rampant corruption and abysmal services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day during the scorching summer heat.

A U.N. envoy urged Libya's warring factions Friday to speed up peace talks to help curb accidents in which hundreds of migrants have drowned off its shore as well as persistent bloodshed at home.

Bernardino Leon told a news conference in Skhirat near the Moroccan capital that the target was to sign an agreement on the formation of a unity government by September 20.

Syria's four-and-a-half year conflict has driven half of the country's people to flee their homes, with the number of those who have left the country approaching 20 percent of the pre-war population.

At least 7.6 million people are displaced within Syria, which counted 23 million inhabitants at the start of the civil war.

Pakistani teenager Shefaz Hamza spent nine hours at sea clinging to the wreckage of a migrant boat that sank off Libya. By the time the coast guard arrived his mother and young sister were dead.

They were among at least 76 people to die when their boat went down Thursday off the western Libyan port of Zuwara, Red Crescent spokesman Mohamad al-Misrati told AFP.

Russia on Friday hosted the newly appointed U.S. special envoy for Syria as world powers intensify efforts to end the four-year civil war raging in the country.

The new envoy, Michael Ratney, who was appointed to his position last month, had previously worked for the State Department in the Middle East.

At least 76 people have died after a ship carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees sank off the coast of Libya, a spokesman for the Libyan Red Crescent said Friday.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said as many as 200 people on two boats were feared dead.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered security forces to prepare to open Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone government and embassy area to the public, his office said Friday.

The order comes in the third week of a reform drive by Abadi aimed at combating rampant corruption and streamlining the bloated government, in response to weeks of protests and calls from top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

The Yemeni army has recruited 4,800 southern fighters following a presidential decision to integrate loyalist militiamen who helped push Iran-backed rebels out of second city Aden, a military official said Friday.

"This brigade has 4,800 fighters, including soldiers and officers. Most of the recruits are former fighters of the Popular Resistance" pro-government militia, Colonel Fadel Mohammed Hassan told AFP at a military base in Aden.

Syria's Al-Qaida offshoot and other rebel groups advanced Friday towards a military airport that is the last remaining government-held facility in the northwestern province of Idlib, a monitor said.

Al-Qaida-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist groups "seized the entrance" to the Abu Duhur airport after carrying out several suicide bombings on motorbikes and "seizing several positions on its outskirts," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.