After artillery bombardment killed nine people in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, Baghdad called for a withdrawal of Turkish forces and said Ankara should handle its "domestic problems" with PKK rebels far from Iraq's borders.

But with Turkey a regional economic, military and diplomatic power, can a weakened Iraq extricate itself from the decades-old war between Ankara and Kurdish rebels?

The Lebanese prime minister on Friday warned that a massive grain silo risks collapse due to an ongoing fire that's expanding amid summer heat and humidity at the Beirut port where a devastating blast two years ago tore through the Mediterranean city.

A fire in one of the port's two silos has been smoldering for the past two weeks due to 800 tons of grain inside fermenting in the hot weather. The government said the fire expanded after flames reached nearby electrical cables.

Major wildfires in Europe are starting earlier in the year, becoming more frequent, doing more damage and getting harder to stop.

And, scientists say, they're probably going to get worse as climate change intensifies unless countermeasures are taken.

Japan's Cabinet on Friday formally decided to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 for assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe amid national debate over the plan, which some criticize as an attempt to glorify a divisive political figure.

Abe was gunned down earlier this month during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara, shocking a nation known for safety and strict gun control. The alleged gunman was arrested immediately after the shooting and is being detained for interrogation as authorities seek to formally press murder charges.

A Rajapaksa political ally was appointed Sri Lanka's prime minister Friday, hours after army troops and police forcefully cleared the main protest site occupied for months by demonstrators angry at the Rajapaksas over the country's economic collapse.

The overnight raid occurred even though protesters had announced they would vacate the site on Friday voluntarily, and the U.N., U.S. and others denounced the heavy-handed force that was used. A lawyer said several protesters were hospitalized for injuries and that journalists and a lawyer were among people arrested.

Ukrainian emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school hit by a Russian strike in the east of the country, officials said Friday, as attacks continued in several parts of the nation.

The reported casualties follow a barrage Thursday on a densely populated area of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, that killed at least three people and wounded 23 others.

The top U.S. Air Force general in the Middle East has warned that Iran-backed militias could resume attacks in the region against the United States and its allies as tensions rise — assaults that could lead to a new Mideast escalation.

Speaking to journalists before stepping into his new role at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, with responsibility for military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and across the region, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich also expressed fears over Russian and Chinese influence taking hold as superpowers vie for economic and military influence in the Middle East.

Israel's prime minister has said he would send a delegation to Moscow in hopes of halting a Russian order to shutter the operations of a major nonprofit organization that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel.

Yair Lapid's decision came after a spokeswoman for a Moscow District Court was quoted as saying that Russia's Justice Ministry aims to "shut down" the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency. A court hearing in the case is scheduled for July 28.

Hundreds of angry Iraqis took to the streets late Thursday to decry deadly strikes on an Iraqi tourist resort the previous day that the government has blamed on Turkey. The protests erupted just hours after the families of those killed in the shelling buried their loved ones.

Turkey's foreign minister rejected accusations that his country's military carried out Wednesday's attack on the district of Zakho in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region. At least eight Iraqis were killed, including a child, and 20 were wounded.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were due on Friday to oversee the signing of a key agreement that would allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and Russia to export grain and fertilizers — ending a standoff that has threatened world food security.

Last week, the sides reached a tentative agreement on a U.N. plan that would enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of desperately needed grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Ukraine's Black Sea ports due to the war. The unblocking of the grain stockpiles will help ease a food crisis that has sent prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley soaring.