A prominent Jewish figure urged the United States on Tuesday to beware surging anti-Semitism in Europe and warned that seven decades after World War II Jews on the continent are having to look over their shoulders once more.

World Jewish Congress (WJC) president Ronald Lauder told a congressional committee in Washington that the United States could not sit by quietly, with events such as the recent attack in France underlining the growing threat.

Yemen's descent into chaos has undermined the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida there, forcing Washington to abandon a strategy once touted as a model for counter-terrorism efforts.

President Barack Obama's decision last week to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops in Yemen from a base in the south underlined the gravity of the situation, with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) now potentially posing an even greater danger to the West, experts and former intelligence officials said. 

A French court on Tuesday sentenced two Kurds to five years in prison and seven others to lesser terms in an extortion case linked to the Kurdish armed group PKK.

Investigators probed an extortion racket linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) campaign to raise funds among the Kurdish diaspora through a so-called revolutionary tax.

NATO jets were scrambled Tuesday to escort Russian fighters and nuclear-capable bombers flying near the Baltic states and Sweden with their transponders switched off, sparking protests over the danger they posed to civil aviation.

Lithuania's defense ministry spokeswoman Asta Galdikaite said NATO air policing aircraft identified two Tu-22 type bombers and two SU-27 jets. The Swedish military also confirmed the aircraft showed up on their ground radar.

The European Union's chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini, visited Cuba Tuesday to give impetus to negotiations on normalizing relations between Brussels and Havana.

On her arrival late Monday, Mogherini said she had come to "advance" the negotiations on an agreement of political dialogue and cooperation, the official news website Cubadebate said.

The U.N. representative for disarmament who was involved in the agreement to destroy Syria's chemical weapons is stepping down, the international body announced Tuesday.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed Angela Kane's "crucial contribution" to help rid the world of chemical weapons, disarm conflict zones and stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The top Republican in Congress said Tuesday he was "shocked" by a report that Israel spied on Iranian nuclear talks but insisted he did not know whether information was shared with U.S. lawmakers.

The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday that in addition to Israelis spying on the highly-sensitive negotiations between Tehran and world powers, details were back-channelled to U.S. legislators in an effort to sabotage the deal intended to limit Iran's nuclear program.

The head of France's far-right National Front party has said she will ask the French people to vote on pulling out of the EU if she is elected president in 2017. 

"My idea is to tell the French people that if they elect me," in 2017, "six months later there will be a referendum," Marine Le Pen told Greek TV channel Mega. 

U.S. President Barack Obama said Tuesday that his disagreement with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over how to pursue a Middle East peace deal was substantive, not personal.

Netanyahu's declaration just ahead of his latest election victory that he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state angered the White House, which is still seeking a "two state" solution to the conflict.

U.S. ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones has said she will stop communicating through her Twitter account after receiving a barrage of online abuse.

The abuse began after Jones tweeted on Monday about an air strike southeast of the capital Tripoli.