Iran's Foreign Ministry on Friday took aim at Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, describing him as "adventurous" and accusing him of "scandalous intervention in Lebanese domestic affairs."

"The mistakes by the adventurous Saudi crown prince, the latest of which is the scandalous intervention in Lebanese domestic affairs, have caused trouble even for their traditional allies," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said, suggesting that MBS was behind Prime Minister Saad Hariri's surprising Nov. 4 resignation announcement, which the PM reversed on Wednesday.

Iranian state TV is reporting a magnitude 4.3 earthquake has injured 36 people in the western province of Lorestan.

TV reported the depth of the quake a 10 kilometers (6 miles).

Pakistani authorities acting on a court order released a U.S.-wanted militant Friday who allegedly founded a banned group linked to the 2008 Mumbai, India attack that killed 168 people, his spokesman and officials said.

Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, was released before dawn after the court this week ended his detention in the eastern city of Lahore.

Papua New Guinea authorities on Thursday removed dozens of asylum seekers and ratcheted up pressure on more than 300 others to abandon a decommissioned immigration camp, where refugees reported their shelters, beds and other belongings have been destroyed.

Police Commissioner Gari Baki said 50 police and immigration officials entered the Manus Island camp Thursday morning and "peacefully relocated" 50 asylum seekers among the 378 men to alternative accommodation in the nearby town of Lorengau.

U.S. and Japanese ships and aircraft were searching in the Philippine Sea on Thursday for three sailors missing since a U.S. Navy aircraft crashed a day earlier.

Eight people were rescued about 40 minutes after the crash of the C-2 "Greyhound" transport aircraft Wednesday afternoon, the Navy said. They were taken aboard the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and were in good condition.

The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran met Wednesday to discuss ways to advance a political settlement in Syria as the Islamic State group is nearing its defeat, while disparate Syrian opposition groups met in Saudi Arabia in a bid to form a united front for Syrian peace talks in Geneva.

"Militants in Syria have received a decisive blow, and there is a real chance to put an end to the civil war that has raged for many years," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the start of talks with Turkish and Iranian counterparts in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Lebanon is celebrating its Independence Day with a military parade attended by President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri who resigned from Saudi Arabia earlier this month in a move that stunned the country.

Wednesday's parade comes hours after Hariri returned to Lebanon after a three-week absence that was described by Lebanese officials as forced upon him by his Saudi allies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in early December to discuss threats against Israel from Hizbullah and Iran and "ideas to stabilize the situation in Lebanon."

The prime minister told his Likud party at a meeting Monday that he spoke with the French president "at length" the previous day.

A stampede erupted while food aid was being distributed in a Moroccan village Sunday and at least 15 people died and 10 were injured, authorities said.

The crush took place in Sidi Boulalam as a local association was handing out food at a local weekly "souk," or market, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The town is in Essaouira province, which abuts the Atlantic coast southwest of Casablanca.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged early Monday to maintain stability after the Free Democratic Party pulled out of talks on forming a new government with her conservative bloc and the left-leaning Greens, raising the possibility of new elections.

Merkel told reporters that the parties had been close to reaching a consensus on how to proceed with formal coalition talks but that the Free Democrats decided abruptly to pull out just before midnight Sunday — a move she said she respected, but found "regrettable."