Dozens of Tunisians who had been detained in Libya by a militia were set free in the capital Tripoli on Thursday, officials said.

Mohamed Abdelsalam al-Kuwiri, who heads a unit in the Tripoli-based government that combats illegal migration, said his officers helped secure the release of 42 Tunisians.

Two ultra-Orthodox news outlets concealed the faces and bodies of female ministers in pictures of Israel's new cabinet Thursday, renewing public debate over the practice.

Members of the newly sworn in 34th government posed for the traditional group photo at the presidential compound in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

A jet carrying Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski made an emergency landing in Zurich on Thursday due to technical problems but no one was hurt in the incident, a spokesman said.

"The (technical) failure manifested as a strong noise, from an unknown origin, and it was followed by perturbation of the cabin pressure," a government spokesman told reporters in Skopje.

Protesters in Burundi fought intense battles with police Thursday in violent anti-government demonstrations against a third term bid for power by the president, a week on since a failed coup.

At least two protesters were shot dead and eight were wounded in clashes with police in the capital Bujumbura, the Red Cross said, the latest victims of the unrest triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term, in which more than 20 people have died. 

The Islamic State group seized positions from Iraqi security forces east of Ramadi Thursday as it tried to keep its momentum after capturing the city, officials said.

The jihadists pressed their offensive along the Euphrates to attack positions held by the government in Husaybah, seven kilometers (4.5 miles) east of Anbar's provincial capital.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday said the world must respond to Islamic State jihadists' seizure of Palmyra amid fears they could destroy the Syrian city's world renowned ancient monuments.

"We have to act because there is a threat against these monuments which are part of humankind's inheritance and at the same time we must act against Daesh," Hollande said, referring to the Islamic State group by its Arabic name.

Iraqi forces retreated from Ramadi in the face of an assault by Islamic State group fighters partly because they assumed -- incorrectly -- that a sandstorm prevented U.S.-led aircraft from coming to their aid with bombing raids, the Pentagon said Thursday.

The IS group on Sunday seized full control over the Anbar provincial capital in a major blow for the Baghdad government and the international coalition fighting the jihadists.

U.S. President Barack Obama offered Tunisia closer security ties Thursday, in a bid to ensure jihadists do not extinguish the brightest democratic light to emerge from the Arab Spring.

Hosting President Beji Caid Essebsi at the White House, Obama declared Tunisia a "non-NATO ally," which would allow for enhanced military cooperation and the transfer of advanced weapons. 

A London taxi driver who made bombs targeting coalition troops in the Iraq war was on Thursday convicted in a British court of murdering a U.S. soldier eight years ago.

Anis Sardar, 38, built an improvised explosive device (IED) which killed Sergeant First Class Randy Johnson of 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment when it exploded under his armored vehicle outside Baghdad on September 27, 2007.

The family of an unarmed black father, shot dead by a rookie police officer last year, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of New York on Thursday.

The lawsuit names the city, the two officers involved and the housing authority, which runs the apartment building where Akai Gurley, 28, was killed in November 2014.