An Afghan official says at least four police officers have been shot to death in southern Helmand province.

Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, provincial police chief, said Saturday that all four had been killed the night before at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.

The Russian plan to create safe zones in Syria, which came into effect Saturday, is the latest in a string of efforts to ease the country's horrendous violence. After past failures, this deal provides for the first time a mechanism to observe the cease-fire: Russian, Iranian and Turkish troops are to monitor compliance on the ground.

But there are also worrisome flaws that could doom the deal to the same fate as its predecessors.

Aliyah Hussein and the 25 family members sheltering with her in Mosul's western Mahatta neighborhood are surviving by picking wild greens growing in a park near their home. Hussein mixes the vegetables with small amounts of rice and tomato paste to make a thin soup that is often her family's only meal.

Her cousin Zuhair Abdul Karim said on a recent day that even with the wild greens, the food ran out.

A new study by the World Food Program has quantified the impact of food insecurity and conflict on cross-border migration, showing a direct correlation between food scarcity and people fleeing for more secure destinations.

According to the study released Friday, every 1 percentage point increase in food insecurity compels 1.9 percent more people to migrate. In addition, each year of conflict drives 0.4 percent more people to flee a country.

Eleven men including Lebanese nationals have been indicted in the case of the deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated in the back of a refrigerated truck in 2015, Hungarian authorities said Thursday.

Lebanon's Nejmeh SC was one of three clubs disciplined by the Asian Football Confederation over "discrimination and spectator misconduct" at recent matches.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said his first meeting with President Donald Trump left him hopeful, even though they did not discuss specifics about how to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Abbas said he believes the Trump administration can play an important role as a mediator.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated on Wednesday that an extension of the parliament's term is “absolutely impossible.”

Addressing lawmakers during his Wednesday meeting with deputies in Ain el-Tineh, he said: “Rest assured, I speak on behalf of the council. A parliament mandate extension is absolutely inconceivable.

A rights advocacy group says more than 250,000 people have signed an online petition urging Turkey to release some 120 journalists who were jailed following last summer's failed coup.

Amnesty International says the petition, signed by journalists, cartoonists and artists, also calls for Turkey to end its "ruthless" crackdown on freedom of expression. Details of the campaign were released Wednesday, to coincide with World Press Freedom Day.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Gaza's Hamas rulers to release two Israeli citizens with a history of mental illness believed to have been detained by the militants, saying their extended detention and isolation was "cruel and indefensible."

In a detailed report based on interviews with the men's families and with Israeli and Palestinian officials, the New York-based group said Avera Mangistu and Hisham al-Sayed likely wandered into Gaza on foot and had no connection to hostilities between Israel and Gaza. Hamas has indirectly acknowledged holding them but will not provide confirmation until Israel releases dozens of its jailed members.