Russia's top diplomat said Friday that Moscow will not start a war but warned that it wouldn't allow the West to trample on its security interests amid fears it is planning to invade Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Ukraine's leader a day earlier that there is a "distinct possibility" that Russia could take military action against its neighbor in February.

The attack by Islamic State militants on a Syrian prison holding around 3,000 of its fighters and about 700 children is a predictable tragedy spotlighting the need for urgent international action to deal with those allegedly linked to the extremist group in prisons and camps in the country's northeast, the U.N. counter-terrorism chief said.

Undersecretary-General Vladimir Voronkov told the U.N. Security Council that the Islamic State group "has been highlighting and calling for jail breaks," and "there have been previous instances in Syria and elsewhere in the world."

Japan's government said Friday it will watch the World Health Organization's investigation into staff complaints over racism and abuse by a top Japanese official at the agency but denied it inappropriately received sensitive vaccine information from him.

WHO staffers have alleged that Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the U.N. health agency's top director in the Western Pacific, engaged in unethical, racist and abusive behavior, undermining their efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic, according to an internal complaint filed last October.

The Australian government on Friday pledged to spend another 1 billion Australian dollars ($704 million) over nine years on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef after stalling a UNESCO decision on downgrading the natural wonder's World Heritage status.

Critics argue the investment is a bid to improve the ruling conservative coalition's green credentials ahead of looming elections while doing nothing to change the greatest threat to the coral: rising ocean temperatures.

Major global stock markets fell Friday ahead of data on U.S. employment costs that might influence Federal Reserve decisions on interest rate hikes to cool inflation.

London and Frankfurt opened lower. Tokyo and Seoul advanced while Shanghai and Hong Kong declined.

Doubt about the timing of a key report into lockdown-breaching parties within the British government deepened Friday when police said they wanted parts of it to remain unpublished until they finish a criminal investigation.

The Metropolitan Police force said it had asked for civil servant Sue Gray's report to make only "minimal reference" to the events being investigated by detectives, "to avoid any prejudice to our investigation."

Filipe Orfao, a 37-year-old emergency room nurse in Lisbon, voices grievances that have long been heard in Portugal.

The familiar gripes include a tradition of low pay, a public service career structure that thwarts ambitions to get ahead in life, the nagging enticement of going to work abroad instead of staying at home, and politicians' broken promises of improvement, especially for health workers like Orfao who have weathered the coronavirus pandemic.

In a classroom in northern Iraq, Zhiwei Hu presides over his students as a conductor would an orchestra. He cues with a question, and the response from his students resounds in perfect, fluent Chinese.

The 52-year-old has been teaching the cohort of 14 Iraqi Kurdish students at the behest of the Chinese consulate in the northern city of Irbil.

At least three rockets struck near Baghdad's international airport and an adjacent military base that hosts U.S. and other coalition advisors on Friday, damaging an abandoned commercial plane but causing no casualties, Iraqi officials said.

The rockets struck in the early morning hours, and landed between the civilian and military areas of the airport, two security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press.

Iran became the first team from Asia to qualify for this year's World Cup in Qatar with a 1-0 win over Iraq in Tehran on Thursday.

Medhi Taremi's goal early in the second half at the Azadi Stadium secured a third straight World Cup appearance for Iran with three Group A games still remaining.