An assistant professor at a Turkish university has appealed to the government for help after his three teenage sons left to fight with Islamic State group jihadists in Iraq and Syria, the Hurriyet daily reported Friday.

The professor, named only as Dr M. Sefik I., first lost his elder son, a dentistry student at Hacettepe University in Ankara, who on March 10 sent his parents a message asking them to pray for him before leaving Turkish territory.

Lebanon reportedly rejects to include Arab inmates in a prisoners swap deal with al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front in exchange for the release of servicemen taken hostage by the group.

Diplomatic sources told As Safir newspaper published on Friday that al-Nusra Front, which handed over a list that include 40 inmates, is open to negotiations.

A British woman detained in Turkey on suspicion of seeking to join Islamic State (IS) insurgents in Syria was returned home on Thursday and promptly arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses, police said.

The 21-year-old, identified by Turkish media as Jalila Nadra H., was arrested at Luton airport near London on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said.

The U.N. envoy for global education called Wednesday for a multimillion-dollar fund to provide education for children in emergencies and urged donors to start with $163 million to educate half a million Syrian children who are refugees in Lebanon.

Gordon Brown told a news conference Wednesday that it's time for decisive action to prevent millions of children from falling through the cracks and losing out on an education.

U.S. lawmakers introduced a resolution Wednesday urging President Barack Obama to recognize mass killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as "genocide," a move sure to anger Turkey ahead of the tragedy's 100th anniversary.

The bipartisan Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice resolution was sponsored by more than 40 members of the House of Representatives.

A fistfight erupted Wednesday at the ABC mall in Ashrafieh after a number of young Lebanese Armenian men tried to stop the showing of the Turkish film Son Mektup at a Grand Cinemas movie theater.

Despite the objections, the show went on as scheduled, in the presence of the Turkish ambassador, MTV reported.

A top U.S. envoy has assured Turkey that Washington is seeking a settlement to the conflict in Syria that excludes President Bashar Assad, the U.S. embassy said on Wednesday.

John Allen, who is coordinating the international coalition against the Islamic State group, held talks with Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu on Tuesday in Ankara on "our shared efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL," the embassy said, using an alternative name for IS.

Since the Syrian civil war erupted four years ago, tens of thousands of refugees have poured into the southern Turkish port town of Mersin, fearing they may never return home and yearning for a better life.

Between 200,000-350,000 Syrian refugees are now estimated to live in the workaday Mediterranean city, swelling its population of around one million by about a quarter.

Five Syrian migrants were found dead on Tuesday after their boat sank en route from Turkey to EU waters, the latest tragedy off the Turkish coast, reports said.

Eight migrants were rescued from the boat, which was carrying 15 people from Syria and Iraq, the official Anatolia news agency said, with rescue efforts continuing to find the remaining missing.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday rubbished suggestions that talks should be held with President Bashar Assad, saying negotiating with the Syrian leader was no different to shaking hands with Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a weekend interview that Washington would have to talk with Assad eventually if peace was to be forged, in comments that drew a strong rebuke from Ankara which said there was nothing to negotiate with Assad.