Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman says the Islamic Republic and its regional rival Saudi Arabia can and should cooperate to resolve regional crises.

Bahram Ghasemi told reporters in his weekly briefing that the recent OPEC agreement to cut oil production and the Lebanese presidential election were both recent examples of Iran-Saudi cooperation.

Rebel shelling of Syrian government-held part of Aleppo killed a Russian nurse in a makeshift Russian hospital in the city on Monday while the Defense Ministry in Moscow said a Russian fighter jet crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after returning from a sortie over Syria.

The developments were a blow to Russia, which has been one of the staunchest supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's bitter civil war, now in its sixth year.

Iraqi officials say the death toll from a Nov. 24 suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group has risen to 92, including about 40 Iranians.

The hospital and police officials said Saturday that another 105 people were wounded in the bombing at a gas station near the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad.

Iran's foreign minister is condemning the U.S. Senate's extension of a piece of anti-Iran legislation.

On Thursday the Senate voted to extend the Iran Sanctions Act by 10 years. The measure will now be sent to outgoing President Barack Obama to sign. The Saturday report on Iranian state television quotes Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that the extension "shows the lack of credibility of the U.S. government."

All along the street, houses have been reduced to rubble in the central Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The work of Kurdish security forces retaliating against Sunni Arabs after a recent Islamic State group attack, residents say.

Kurdish security forces moved in with bulldozers and excavators and demolished at least 100 homes in the Huzeiran neighborhood of Kirkuk in the week after a deadly suicide bombing in October, according to residents interviewed by The Associated Press and a report by Human Rights Watch.

Clashes are continuing for the second day among heavily-armed militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli in what appears to be the worst outbreak of violence there in two years.

Witnesses on Friday say gun battles are rocking the southeastern Nasr Forest district and adjacent neighborhoods between militias vying for power and control over the city.

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen says the spring election will pit nationalists and patriots like herself against those in favor of globalization, the European Union and immigration.

Speaking on Friday at an annual horse fair outside Paris — where she donned a cowboy hat and mounted a horse — Le Pen said Socialist President Francois Hollande's decision, announced the previous evening, not to seek a second term won't change her strategy.

Taliban militants have killed 23 civilians in Kandahar Province in the last 48 hours, an Afghan police official said.

Gen. Abdul Raziq said Friday that the killings took place in different areas of the Nash district. He did not provide further details.

The Republican-led House is pushing ahead with a $611 billion defense policy bill that prohibits closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, forbids the Pentagon from trimming the number of military bases and awards U.S. troops their largest pay raise in six years.

Lawmakers are scheduled to vote Friday on the legislation, which authorizes military spending for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The defense bill includes an agreement that prevents the Defense Department from forcing thousands of California National Guard troops to repay enlistment bonuses and benefits they received a decade after they signed up to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Israel's new ambassador to Turkey has arrived in Ankara as the two countries seek to mend relations that soured after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a Turkish ship headed for Gaza.

Eitan Naeh arrived Thursday morning in the Turkish capital as part of a reconciliation deal clinched in June, ending six years of animosity.