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By Aaron Maasho ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Talks to end more than a year of fighting in South Sudan broke up on Friday without a deal or an agreement when to meet again, as mediators said they had failed to persuade either side to make a compromise. The adjournment was the latest impasse in peace efforts in the world's youngest country -- where a political row between President Salva Kiir and his sacked deputy Riek Machar triggered a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. "I regret to inform you that the talks did not produce the necessary breakthrough," Hailemariam Desalegn, Ethiopia's prime minister and the chairman of regional body IGAD which is hosting the talks in Addis Ababa, said in a statement. His comments echoed widespread frustration at the lack of progress in South Sudan, an oil-producing country which seceded from Sudan in 2011 with promises of good will and support from most world powers.

The military chief and several top commanders of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front have been reported killed in northwestern Syria, where the jihadist militia has been making major gains in recent months. Syrian state media, a monitoring group and a local activist reported that Abu Hammam al-Shami had been killed, but provided contradictory information on the circumstances of his death. Official Nusra sources did not announce the death of the jihadist, a Syrian national believed to have fought with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, also said the commander had been killed but that the circumstances of his death were unclear.

DETROIT (AP) — A prosecutor says a federal judge who was shot in the leg outside his Detroit home was trying to protect his family during a robbery attempt.