Did mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin have inside help from the military and political elite in his armed rebellion that rattled Russia?

The Biden administration's special envoy for Iran has been placed on unpaid leave and had his security clearance suspended pending a review of allegations he may have mishandled classified information, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Without reforms, Lebanon will continue to see triple-digit inflation, and public debt in the small, crisis-ridden country could reach nearly 550% of GDP by 2027, the International Monetary Fund warned in a report.

The report came as a follow-up to a nine-day visit by IMF officials in March.

European Union leaders broke off migration talks early Friday as Poland and Hungary blocked progress after they were outvoted earlier this month on a plan to share out refugees arriving in Europe among the 27 member countries.

Few leaders spoke to reporters as they left the summit venue after talks long into the night. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander DeCroo put on a brave face after what he described as a "rather difficult" discussion. Poland and Hungary refused to endorse a summit statement, which requires unanimity.

Protesters erected barricades, lit fires and shot fireworks at police in French streets overnight as tensions grew over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old that has shocked the nation. More than 600 people were arrested and at least 200 police officers injured as the government struggled to restore order on a third night of unrest.

Armored police vehicles rammed through the charred remains of cars that had been flipped and set ablaze in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot the teen identified only by his first name, Nahel. On the other side of Paris, protesters lit a fire at the city hall of the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and set a bus depot ablaze in Aubervilliers. The French capital also saw fires and some stores ransacked.

The ambush had been postponed three times before Ukrainian commanders decided one recent night that conditions were finally right. Cloaked in darkness, a battalion of Kyiv's 129th brigade pressed ahead, advancing stealthily on unsuspecting Russian soldiers.

By the time the Russians situated along the front line realized they were under attack, it was too late.

The baby sea turtle flapped its flippers as it was lowered into the ocean, only to be pushed back ashore by the strong tide. It tried again, and this time it made it, swimming fast and deep into Persian Gulf waters lapping at a string of beachfront tourist resorts.

Scientists hope the turtle will thrive back in its natural habitat, joining about 500 sea turtles that have been rescued, rehabilitated and released since Abu Dhabi's Environment Agency launched a program three years ago to aid turtles distressed by climate change and other issues.

Dozens of Israeli air force reservists have said they'll refuse to show up for duty if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government moves ahead with a contentious plan to overhaul the country's judiciary.

The threat comes after Netanyahu said his government would proceed with the overhaul after talks with the opposition to find a compromise faltered. Coalition legislators have since been advancing a legal change to what's known as the "reasonability standard" that critics say would allow the government to pass arbitrary decisions and grant it too much power.

At the funeral for Sadeel Naghniyeh, 15, her closest friends hoisted her dead body over their small shoulders. Wearing their school uniforms — tight black hijabs and oversized striped shirts — they staggered through the Palestinian refugee camp, crying and choking out the Islamic funeral prayers.

Last week's tribute by the schoolgirls was a striking departure from the stream of funerals that have become a grim routine in this flashpoint West Bank town. The death of Sadeel — killed by suspected Israeli fire when a raid into the northern Jenin refugee camp ignited the territory's fiercest Israeli-Palestinian fighting in years — drew attention to the rising number of children killed in the heightened violence and the extraordinary risks they face.

UNESCO's 193 members states are gathering Thursday for a two-day meeting in Paris aimed at voting on the United States' plans to rejoin the U.N. cultural and scientific agency after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organization's move to include Palestine as a member.

The U.S. announced earlier this month, that it wanted to return, five years after it withdrew from the agency during the presidency of Donald Trump.