The European Commission said Friday it welcomes a meeting in Budapest between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin if it can help end the Ukraine war.

Hamas insisted it was committed to returning all the hostage remains still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins, as a Turkish official said specialists dispatched to help find bodies were awaiting Israel's authorization to enter.

Hungary's foreign minister said on Friday that his country would ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin can enter and "hold successful talks" with the U.S. despite an ICC arrest warrant against him.

A 48-hour ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan expired on Friday evening, with no clear indication of what comes next.

A Lebanese judge on Friday ordered the release of the son of Libya's late leader Moammar Gadhafi on condition that he pay $11 million bail.

Hannibal Gadhafi has been imprisoned in Lebanon for a decade without being charged.

A strike by U.S. forces on a boat in the Caribbean on Thursday left survivors for the first time since Washington started targeting alleged drug-smuggling vessels from Venezuela, U.S. media reported.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday he had met with officials from a U.S. firm making the Tomahawk missiles and Patriot systems that Kyiv has been requesting to ramp up defenses against Russia.

"We discussed Raytheon's production capacity, potential avenues for our cooperation to strengthen Ukraine's air defense and long-range capabilities, and the prospects for Ukrainian-American joint production," Zelensky said on social media.

Iran on Friday condemned strikes by its arch-foe Israel on southern Lebanon, a stronghold of its close ally Hezbollah.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the strikes were a "blatant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity," in a statement.

Lebanon's economy minister has said that the country was turning the page to growth after years of crisis but called for greater reforms.

Lebanon expects five percent growth this year, the highest since 2011, Economy Minister Amer Bisat said Thursday as he attended fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

A series of violent Israeli airstrikes targeted south Lebanon on Thursday afternoon and evening, killing one person and wounding seven others, with media reports describing them as among the fiercest since the November ceasefire.