Jila Mossaed fled Iran for Sweden in 1986, a 38-year-old poet who spoke no Swedish. Three decades later, she became the first foreigner inducted into Sweden's highest language authority, the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Now she writes in Farsi and Swedish, but Mossaed struggled for years to learn Swedish and still stumbles over pronunciation, she told AFP in the halls of the Academy, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III to promote the Swedish language and literature.

Kais Saied, who has been re-elected president of Tunisia, was first elected democratically in 2019 before staging a power grab in 2021.

He sees himself as a man on a divine mission, but critics see him as ushering in a new authoritarian regime.

Clean-shaven, with an unwaveringly upright and slender figure, Saied has a stiff demeanour.

He gives very few media interviews, and limits his public comments to monologues in videos published on Facebook in which he speaks in stern classical Arabic, at times with perceptible anger.

Kais Saied has been re-elected president of Tunisia with 90.69 percent of votes cast, electoral authority ISIE said Monday, although low turnout reflected widespread discontent in the cradle of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings.

Three years after Saied made a sweeping power grab, rights groups fear his re-election will entrench his grip on the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 protests.

Saied, 66, won Sunday's vote by a landslide with 2.4 million votes -- but with turnout at only 28.8 percent of nearly 10 million eligible voters.

Families and relatives of those killed or abducted during Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel gathered late Monday in Tel Aviv, where musicians performed as victims' images flashed on screens.

The ceremony was broadcast live and interspersed with pre-recorded video clips of relatives recalling their lost loved ones, and telling the tragic stories of their deaths.

"The whole nation is waiting for the next stage, for our rehabilitation," said Nitza Corngold, whose son Tal Shoham was seized by militants during last year's attack.

Police arrested several pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam Monday, as tensions erupted around events in the city to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.

Riot officers carrying shields and batons deployed in force in the Dutch capital as people gathered in the Dam central square to mourn those killed one year ago.

While the pro-Israeli group was listening to speeches and concerts, counter-demonstrators began to shout slogans.

Mourners and leaders around the world on Monday voiced horror and a desire for peace at tearful memorials remembering the unprecedented October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked a year of devastating war in Gaza.

People from Sydney to Rome and Warsaw to Washington grieved for those killed and urged freedom for those taken hostage one year ago, while rallies also called for peace in the Palestinian territories.

The Hamas onslaught left 1,206 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.

President Joe Biden and US election rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump marked the first anniversary on Monday of Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel, as the Middle Eastern conflict threatens to weigh on November's presidential vote.

In a solemn Jewish ceremony of mourning at the White House, Biden lit a candle while a rabbi chanted a prayer for the victims, with the president calling for peace even as the region teeters on the edge of all-out war.

Waving Hamas flags and carrying portraits of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, hundreds rallied in support of the Palestinian struggle in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah Monday, the first anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel.

About 400 Palestinian protesters of all ages and representing various political factions marched in the de-facto Palestinian capital, which is controlled by long-time Hamas rival the Palestinian Authority, an AFP correspondent reported.

President Kais Saied was poised Monday to win Tunisia's election by a huge margin, though low voter turnout reflected widespread discontent in the cradle of the Arab Spring pro-democracy uprisings.

Three years after Saied staged a sweeping power grab, rights groups fear his re-election will entrench his grip on power in the only democracy to emerge from the 2011 protests.

Exit polls showed Saied, 66, expected to rout his challengers with 89 percent of the vote.

Human Rights Watch on Monday said Israeli strikes near the main Lebanon-Syria border crossing were putting civilians at "grave risk" as they prevented them from fleeing and hampered humanitarian operations.

The Israeli military said Friday its jets struck Hezbollah positions near the Masnaa border crossing in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley.

Syrian transport ministry official Sleiman Khalil told AFP on Monday the road was still "completely cut off to vehicle traffic", but people could still cross on foot.