Billionaire financier George Soros is pledging $1 million for humanitarian efforts in war-ravaged Syria.

Soros announced the pledge to the International Rescue Committee on Wednesday night after receiving its Freedom Award in recognition of his lifelong support for human rights and an open society.

Albania confirmed Thursday it was asked by the U.S. to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal on its soil, as protesters gathered outside the parliament in Tirana to demonstrate against any such plans.

"We were contacted by the United States, but no decision has been made yet," parliamentary speaker Ilir Meta said late Thursday in an interview to Top Channel television.

Two people were killed and 29 others wounded in deadly clashes between rival Libyan militias in Tripoli sparked by the death of one of their leaders, the health ministry said Friday.

Libya has been plagued by deadly unrest since NATO-backed rebels toppled the regime of now slain veteran dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Jordan is expected to take up a U.N. Security Council seat that Saudi Arabia won and then rejected, diplomats said Thursday.

Envoys said Jordan had been reluctant to take up the Asia-Pacific seat on the 15-nation council but had been persuaded by the Saudis.

Twin suicide car bombings at an Iraqi army base just north of Baghdad killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more, security and medical officials said.

The late-night blasts struck the base in Tarmiyah, a predominantly Sunni Arab town about 45 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital.

Moroccan lawmakers have drafted a bill threatening jail terms for sexual harassment that will soon be submitted to parliament, media reported on Thursday.

The proposed law would affect the author of "any unwelcome act against a third party in public spaces, whether an act, remark or gesture of a sexual nature, or intended to obtain a sexual act," said Arabic-language daily Al-Massae.

U.S. President Barack Obama will welcome King Mohammed VI of Morocco to the White House later this month, officials said Thursday.

The talks on November 22 will highlight Washington's support for Morocco's "democratic and economic" reforms, a White House statement said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday he believed Syrian peace talks could still be held in the coming weeks, although Washington and Moscow have failed to set a date.

U.N.-Arab League special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said earlier this week that, after a three-way meeting in Geneva, it had not been possible to agree on when to hold the talks which had been proposed for the end of November.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered on Thursday a grim warning to Israel that failure to make peace with the Palestinians could trigger a new uprising.

"The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos," Kerry said in a joint interview with Israel's Channel 2 and the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation.

A Palestinian man was shot dead Thursday by Israeli forces after attacking Israelis with fireworks at a junction south of the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli police said.

The man "opened fire with large fireworks in the direction of the junction where (Israeli) people stood," spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France Presse.