African countries along with China, Russia and Venezuela refused on Friday to back a U.N. resolution on curbing the spread of small arms, but it was still adopted after much wrangling.

Six countries abstained from the vote at the 15-member Security Council, but the resolution still garnered the required nine votes for adoption.

Since extremists from the Islamic State group (IS) seized Syria's al-Tanaf crossing with Iraq, the Syrian regime has effectively lost control of all of its borders except those with Lebanon.

Of Syria's 19 border posts with Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey, government forces now control just seven -- five with Lebanon, and two more, both closed, with Turkey.

The United Nations voiced outrage Friday about a questionnaire distributed last week in Hungary suggesting a link between immigration and terrorism, warning it could boost xenophobia in the country.

"We are shocked by the prime minister's introductory message, which suggests a link between migration and terrorist attacks, including the attack which took place in Paris in early January this year," Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights agency, told reporters.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday he was "confident" of striking an EU reform deal to put before British voters by 2017 but warned of "ups and downs" in the process.

On his first overseas trip since winning a general election two weeks ago, Cameron kicked off months of negotiations to persuade other European leaders of the need for reforms which he says will require treaty change.

Hundreds of Sudanese Islamists protested outside a U.N. office in central Khartoum Friday against the death sentence handed down to Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi by a court last week.

Morsi was among more than 100 defendants ordered by an Egyptian court on Saturday to face the death penalty for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

South Sudanese government tanks backed by helicopter gunships have pushed back rebels from a key oil town, state television showed on Friday, as the U.N. accused both sides of targeting one of its bases sheltering civilians.

The TV footage showed tanks firing as a helicopter gunship -- believed to belong to the Ugandan army which is fighting alongside government troops -- swooped over the burning town of Melut in the key northern oil state of Upper Nile.

The United Nations said Friday that around 55,000 people had fled Ramadi since a surge by the Islamic State group in mid-May that landed the Iraqi provincial capital in the hands of jihadists.

The IS jihadists seized the Iraqi city, the capital of Iraq's largest province, Anbar, earlier this week, marking their most significant victory since mid-2014.

Iraqi government and allied forces will launch an offensive aimed at retaking the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State group in the coming days, a spokesman said on Friday.

"Preparations for the Anbar operations are needed because this operation will not be easy," Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for the Popular Mobilization (Hashed al-Shaabi) forces, said.

A young Moroccan man arrested in Italy on Tuesday for allegedly helping in the attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis in March insisted Friday he was innocent and opposed his extradition to Tunisia, his lawyer said.

Abdelmajid Touil, 22, claimed his arrest was "a mistake", Silvia Fiorentini said after an preliminary extradition hearing.

Iran and world powers are to resume talks in the Austrian capital next week on drafting a final accord on the country's nuclear program, a senior Iranian negotiator said Friday.

"The discussions are to resume on Tuesday in Vienna," said Abbas Araghchi, quoted by Mehr news agency from Vienna at the end of three days of talks at which he led the Iranian team.