Blinken is urging calm on both sides after last week's killing by a Palestinian gunman outside a Jerusalem synagogue and anger among Palestinians over actions by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank.

It is time for people everywhere to take the initiative personally and collectively.

Tensions have been further stoked by a flag march due to be held by nationalist Jews in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday, marking its capture by Israel in a 1967 war.

These weapons are essentially 'killer robots', formerly the stuff of science fiction.

Heavily-armed criminal gangs in northwest and central Nigeria have stepped up attacks in recent years, kidnapping for ransom, raping and pillaging.