U.S. armored vehicles are deploying in areas in northern Syria along the tense border with Turkey, a few days after a Turkish airstrike that killed 20 U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, a Syrian war monitor and Kurdish activists said Friday.

Footage posted by Syrian activists online showed a convoy of U.S. armored vehicles driving on a rural road in the village of Darbasiyah, a few hundred meters from the Turkish border. Clashes in the area were reported between Turkish and Kurdish forces Wednesday a day after the Turkish airstrike which also destroyed a Kurdish command headquarters.

Syria's military said Israel struck a military installation southwest of Damascus International Airport before dawn Thursday, setting off a series of explosions and raising tensions further between the two neighbors.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat touched on the presidential elections in France and cautioned against far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's win in the second round of the elections.

“Be careful of Le Pen she has not been defeated yet. (Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc) Melenchon and the so-called far-left are dangerous, opportunists and have no principles,” said Jumblat in a tweet.

France's troubled wartime past is taking center stage Friday in the country's highly charged presidential race, as centrist Emmanuel Macron visits a Nazi massacre site and Marine Le Pen's far-right party suffers a new blow over alleged Holocaust denial.

The two candidates facing a May 7 runoff offer starkly different visions of France's future — Macron's embrace of a globalized, diverse nation within an open-bordered Europe contrasts with Le Pen's protectionist, tightly policed France independent of the EU. After courting blue-collar voters earlier this week around the campaign's No. 1 issue — jobs — the candidates are increasingly focusing on their opposing views of French identity.

Yemen's internationally backed president has fired a Cabinet minister and the governor of the southern port city of Aden, two figures known to be close to the United Arab Emirates, a key member of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen since 2015.

The firing late Thursday of Minister of State Hani Bin Braik and Aden Gov. Aidarous al-Zubaidi appears to be the latest chapter in a stand-off between President Abded Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the UAE.

Two-time Asian Champions League winner Guangzhou Evergrande has been charged by the sport's continental governing body after supporters unfurled an offensive banner aimed at a Hong Kong opponent this week.

Turkey's highest administrative court has rejected the main opposition party's bid to appeal the result of the April 16 referendum on boosting the president's powers.

The Republican People's Party, or CHP, is contesting the referendum due to a number of voting irregularities, in particular an electoral board decision that accepted ballots without official stamps. International monitors have also noted irregularities in the voting, which resulted in a narrow win for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "yes" camp.

President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday the Lebanese must adhere to their right to choose their representatives at the parliament, otherwise Lebanon would become a “totalitarian regime,” the National News Agency reported.

“We will be in a totalitarian regime shall the Lebanese relinquish their right in electing lawmakers at the parliament,” said Aoun, addressing a delegation from the Administrative Decentralization Committee led by Lawyer Antonio al-Hashem.

A relative and supporters of two Iranian-American citizens imprisoned in Iran are turning to U.S. President Donald Trump and a U.N. panel in efforts to secure their release.

Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer Namazi, are both serving 10-year prison sentences on convictions of "collusion with an enemy state" — the United States. Their supporters deny the charges and say the two are being held as pawns to exert leverage on the U.S.

Kenyan police say 27 people have been killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a trailer truck.

Police say the accident took place along the major road linking two of Kenya's biggest cities, capital Nairobi and the port of Mombasa.