The United Nations envoy to war-torn Syria said Friday that he will know by the end of June if there is any appetite among the opposing sides to find a peaceful way out of the conflict.

During closed discussions with the 15-member U.N. Security Council, Staffan de Mistura acknowledged that the "odds and conditions for launching a political transition are no better now than six months ago," diplomats at the briefing said.

Syria's former political intelligence chief Rustom Ghazaleh has died, after being fired for a quarrel with another regime official in which he was beaten up, a source close to his family said Friday.

Ghazaleh, an ex-stalwart of President Bashar Assad's regime, had been in hospital since the dispute with another intelligence official early in March.

Actress Angelina Jolie on Friday criticized the U.N. Security Council's failure to end the war in Syria, as she appealed for urgent help for the growing ranks of Syrian refugees.

The Hollywood star spoke at the council in her role as special envoy of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which has seen her visit camps hosting victims of the Syrian crisis 11 times.

The Islamic State shot down a regime aircraft near a key military airport in southern Syria Friday, with pro-IS Twitter accounts saying the jihadist group had captured the pilot, a monitor said.

The plane went down east of Khalkhalah airport, the only air base in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority that has largely avoided the bloodshed of Syria's war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  

Saudi Arabia said Friday it had foiled a bomb plot by the Islamic State group and blamed the jihadists for shooting dead two policemen in the capital earlier this month.

The authorities said three bomb-laden cars had been seized during investigations into the killings.

An Algerian jihadist sympathizer arrested in connection with a thwarted attack on a church in France was charged with terror-related murder Friday after five days of police questioning.

Sid Ahmed Ghlam, 24, was taken into custody Sunday after he accidentally shot himself in the leg, a fluke occurrence that led to police uncovering an alleged plot to attack at least one church in the town of Villejuif, just south of Paris.

The United Nations said Friday it would host separate talks with rival sides in Syria from May 4 in a bid to kickstart stalled negotiations to end the four-year conflict.

"The Geneva consultation invitations have gone out a couple of days ago," U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters, saying the talks would last between four and six weeks and would be at "mostly ambassadorial level and expert level."

Syria's entrepreneurs, suffering from crippling losses after four years of civil war, have launched a drive to encourage consumers hit by burgeoning inflation and a shortage of imports to "buy Syrian".

A first instalment of the "Made in Syria" fair in Damascus this month attracted around 60 local companies to showcase products that are both easier to acquire and far cheaper than whatever imports are available.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks Friday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Washington and noted that his Mustaqbal movement is fighting the “extremism” of Hizbullah and other groups.

A statement issued by Hariri's office said the White House meeting focused on the situation in Lebanon and the latest developments in the region, “particularly what is happening in Syria, Iraq and Yemen."

Shopping malls in Saudi Arabia have tightened security after the interior ministry issued a warning over possible attacks.

At the upscale Kingdom Center Mall in central Riyadh, security guards inspected bags and scanned visitors with metal detectors before they entered, an Agene France Presse reporter witnessed.