At least five people, including a child, drowned on Friday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants trying to reach Greece capsized off western Turkey, the coastguard said.

The sinking is the latest fatal tragedy in European waters that has aroused calls for action over the vast tide of illegal immigration from the Middle East and Africa.

The U.S. suggested a new proposal to end the dispute between Lebanon and Israel over the two countries Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

According to the newspaper, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Diplomacy Amos Hochstein paid a quick visit to Beirut on November 9 in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute.

A Jordan-based scientific research project whose members include Iran and the Palestinian Authority has chosen an Israeli as vice president, the candidate's university confirmed.

Scientists from states participating in the project elected Eliezer Rabinovici, a physics professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, as vice-president of the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), the university told AFP.

Turkey's ambassador to Cairo has returned home after being expelled in a diplomatic spat over Ankara's support for Egypt's ousted Islamist president, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

The row erupted at the weekend after Turkish Prime Minister Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan again criticized the military "coup" in Egypt that ousted president Mohamed Morsi in July.

Germany's Turkish community expressed disappointment Wednesday over an accord clinched by top political parties to partially lift a ban on dual nationality under a "grand coalition" deal.

Kenan Kolat, president of the Turkish Community in Germany, complained that the agreement, which applies to children born and raised in Germany to foreign parents, did not go far enough.

Iran's top diplomat said Wednesday that Tehran and Ankara would press for a ceasefire in Syria ahead of peace talks planned for January, the Mehr news agency reported.

"All our efforts should be carried out to finish the conflict and reach a ceasefire even before Geneva 2," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

Hundreds of Turks have crossed the border into Syria to fight with al-Qaida linked jihadists against the Damascus regime, according to a Turkish interior ministry report.

Turkey's government, which is fiercely opposed to President Bashar Assad, has come under fire for allegedly turning a blind eye to militants and weapons crossing the long border into Syria.

Oil exports from Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan to Turkey could start next month, the region's prime minister said, despite a dispute with Baghdad over how to divide the spoils from its energy resources.

Necirvan Barzani told reporters in Ankara late Tuesday that a pipeline from the Kurdish region could start carrying oil "before Christmas", without elaborating.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday defended his latest tirade against the military rulers of Egypt which sparked a new diplomatic row between Ankara and Cairo.

"We will not stop saying what is right and standing by the Egyptian people just because the coup-installed government in Egypt is disturbed," Erdogan said in parliament.

Lebanese marijuana grower Abu Sami is practically rubbing his hands together with glee: the Syrian conflict has paralyzed authorities at home and left the nearby border virtually uncontrolled.

"This year, the harvest was abundant, and the authorities have left us alone because they are otherwise occupied," he tells Agence France Presse in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region.