Hizbullah, whose fighters are among Iranian-backed forces pushing toward Syria's Deir Ezzor, congratulated Wednesday the Syrian leadership for breaching a siege by the Islamic State group on parts of the eastern city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel is enjoying its greatest relations ever with the Arab world, even without a peace accord with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu was addressing Foreign Ministry personnel ahead of the Jewish new year, saying the extent of relations has yet to fully be made public. He said their scope was greater than "any other period in Israeli history."

United Nations war crimes investigators on Wednesday said they had evidence that Syrian government forces were behind the chemical attack that killed dozens of people in Khan Sheikhun in April.

In the first U.N. report to officially lay blame for the attack on Damascus, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Syria said it had gathered an "extensive body of information" showing Damascus was behind the horrific sarin gas attack in Khan Sheikhun on April 4 that killed at least 83 people.

A trawler carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar capsized, drowning at least five people, as the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi blamed a misinformation campaign for fueling a crisis that the U.N. says has now pushed more than 125,000 refugees into Bangladesh.

Residents of Shah Porir Dwip fishing village recovered five bodies from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, hours after the boat capsized around midnight, said police official Yakub Ali.

Pope Francis is heading to Colombia on Wednesday to try to help heal the wounds of Latin America's longest-running conflict, bolstered by a new cease-fire with a holdout rebel group but fully aware of the fragility of the country's peace process.

During a deeply symbolic five-day visit starting Wednesday, Francis is expected to press Colombian leaders to address the social and economic disparities that fueled five decades of armed rebellion, while encouraging ordinary Colombians to balance their need for justice with forgiveness.

The Latest on North Korea's nuclear test and the world reaction:

12:30 p.m.

The U.S.-led coalition says a convoy of hundreds of Islamic State militants and civilians is still stranded in government-held territory in Syria after it prevented them from being relocated from the Lebanon-Syria border under a deal with Hizbullah.

The coalition said that it has passed a message to the Syrian government through Russia asking it to separate the fighters from civilians. It says it has not taken any action to prevent food and water from being brought to the evacuees.

Wildfires forced thousands to flee their homes across the U.S. West during a sweltering, smoke-shrouded holiday weekend of record heat.

The fires Sunday caused evacuations in Glacier National Park in Montana and many other parts of the West; compelled crews to rescue about 140 hikers who had spent the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge Trail in Oregon; and led firefighters to step up efforts to protect a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia encroached by flames near Yosemite National Park in California.

The U.N. Security Council is holding its second emergency meeting in a week about North Korea on Monday after a powerful nuclear test explosion added another layer of urgency for diplomats wrestling with what to do about the North's persistent weapons programs.

Scheduled after North Korea said it detonated a hydrogen bomb underground Sunday, the emergency session comes six days after the council strongly condemned Pyongyang's "outrageous" launch of a ballistic missile over Japan. Less than a month ago, the council imposed its stiffest sanctions so far on the reclusive nation.

Dozens of Islamic State group members and their families have crossed into areas controlled by the extremists despite U.S. threats to bomb the convoy days after they left the Lebanon-Syria border, Syrian opposition activists say.

The opposition activists' announcement came after the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS said the 17-bus convoy of IS militants and their families that left the Lebanon-Syria border six days ago is still stranded in the Syrian desert.