Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned on Wednesday that there was a real risk that Islamic State (IS) terrorists could raise their again in Syria, the state RIA news agency reported.IS is designated as a "terrorist group" by authorities in Russia, who have banned it.

Israeli action in Syria violates a 1974 treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the Yom Kippur war, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, calling Israeli air strikes on Syria a matter of serious concern.Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that his country aims to impose a "sterile defense zone" in southern Syria as the Israeli military said a wave of its air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria's strategic weapons stockpiles.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Israel's actions did not serve to stabilize the situation in Syria and called on it to show restraint.

Former South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, who is accused of playing a lead role in the failed imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, has attempted to take his own life inside a detention center, a justice ministry official told parliament.

Attackers of the Amsterdam pogrom are expected to stand trial on Wednesday, and the Israeli victims are returning to the Netherlands to testify, Brooke Goldstein, founder of the Lawfare Project, an organization designed to provide pro bono legal defense for Jews around the world, announced at the Jerusalem Post conference in Miami on Tuesday night.

The Biden administration has urged the rebel group that led the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to assume automatic leadership of the country but instead run an inclusive process to form a transitional government, according to two US officials and a congressional aide briefed on the first US contacts with the group.The communications with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with al Qaeda and designated a terrorist organization by the United States, are being conducted in coordination with Washington's Middle East allies, including Turkey.The administration is also in touch with President-elect Donald Trump's team about the matter, one of the officials said.