As dozens of heads of state convene for the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York this week, the lingering conflict in Syria is taking a back seat while tensions in the Persian Gulf and global trade wars take center stage.

Now in its ninth year, many Syrians fear the unresolved war has become a footnote in a long list of world crises, with weary leaders resigned to live with President Bashar Assad ruling over a wrecked and divided country for the foreseeable future.

Nissan will pay $15 million and former chairman Carlos Ghosn will pay $1 million to settle allegations by U.S. regulators that they hid more than $140 million of Ghosn's retirement benefits from investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday the settlement of civil fraud charges with the major Japanese automaker and its former chairman, who also will be barred for 10 years from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Ghosn, 65, is awaiting trial in Japan on financial misconduct charges in a criminal case.

Syrian authorities captured and dismantled Saturday a drone rigged with cluster bombs near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, state news agency SANA said.

SANA gave no further details about the drone but posted several photos of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

The leader of Hizbullah on Friday called for Saudi Arabia to stop its war in Yemen, or else face more attacks on its soil.

In a televised speech, Hassan Nasrallah warned Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates not to incite war "because your houses are made of glass."

Lebanese authorities have released a Lebanese-Australian man detained for more than two years over an alleged plot to bring down a passenger plane bound for the United Arab Emirates from Sydney.

Australian-Lebanese dual citizen Amer Khayyat was freed Friday after a military court found he was innocent.

As the United States and Israel escalate their push to contain Iranian influence in the Middle East, countries in Tehran's orbit are feeling the heat.

Pro-Iranian militias across Lebanon, Syria and Iraq are being targeted, both with economic sanctions and precision airstrikes hitting their bases and infrastructure. This is putting the governments that host them in the crosshairs of an escalating confrontation and raising the prospect of open conflict.

The Pentagon will present a broad range of military options to President Donald Trump on Friday as he considers how to respond to what administration officials say was an unprecedented Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia's oil industry.

In a White House meeting, the president will be presented with a list of potential airstrike targets inside Iran, among other possible responses, and he also will be warned that military action against the Islamic Republic could escalate into war, according to U.S. officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that America backs Saudi Arabia's "right to defend itself" after a weekend attack targeted the heart of its oil industry, comments coming after he described the assault as an "act of war."

The attacks have reignited fears over a wider conflagration in the region, as tensions remain high over Iran's collapsing nuclear deal with world powers.

In the face of criticism that Facebook is not doing enough to combat extremist messaging, the company likes to say that its automated systems remove the vast majority of prohibited content glorifying the Islamic State group and al-Qaida before it's reported.

But a whistleblower's complaint shows that Facebook itself has inadvertently provided the two extremist groups with a networking and recruitment tool by producing dozens of pages in their names.

Iran warned the U.S. that any action taken against it following an attack on Saudi oil installations will "immediately" be met with a response from Tehran, its state-run news agency reported Wednesday, further raising Mideast tensions.

Iran's president and foreign minister also may skip next week's high-level meetings at the United Nations as the U.S. has yet to issue them visas, IRNA reported.