While Putin urged Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at a summit on Thursday to work out ways to ?completely destroy the terrorist hotbed? in the Idlib region, a joint statement after the talks referred only to the need for ?concrete steps? to restore a September truce shattered by the Islamist takeover last month. Erdogan said he?d ?relayed our expectations? to Putin and Rouhani for Syrian government forces to ?abide by the cease-fire? agreed in September, and for Russia and Iran to support Turkey?s demand for a buffer zone inside northern Syria to counter U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in the region.

LONDON (AP) ? The family of a pregnant British teenager who ran away to join the Islamic State group urged the government Friday to help bring her home.

At least one person was killed and several others, including police officers, were wounded on Friday when a gunman opened fire in an industrial area on the outskirts of Chicago. US media reported that the suspected gunman was killed soon after police and federal agents flooded a manufacturing complex in Aurora, Illinois -- 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of central Chicago. Witnesses said they had locked themselves into nearby buildings as a man in his 30s or 40s began firing off rounds.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's chief state prosecutor said on Thursday an investigation had been opened into directors of state-run oil firm PDVSA, and its U.S. refiner Citgo, that the opposition-controlled congress appointed on Wednesday. Prosecutor Tarek Saab, in comments broadcast on state television, announced "the opening of an investigation against people designated illegally as directors of PDVSA and Citgo." Saab also said they would investigate foreign ambassadors named by opposition leader Juan Guaido, who on Jan 23 invoked constitutional provisions to assume an interim presidency. ...