UN member states debated Tuesday a push by the Palestinians to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months.

The text, which has faced fierce criticism from Israel, is based around an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice calling Israel's occupation since 1967 "unlawful."

"Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible," read the opinion, requested by the General Assembly.

A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty Monday to plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.

A court document showed that Merchant pleaded not guilty to all counts, with a next hearing scheduled for November 6, 2024.

Nothing justifies Israel's collective punishment of the people of Gaza as they endure "unimaginable" suffering, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP on Monday.

Guterres lashed out at Israel's handling of its war in the devastated Palestinian territory, now almost in its second year, as the UN prepares to host world leaders starting next week.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called Monday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a Gaza truce deal immediately, as he met top US officials in Washington.

"I believe that any political interests should be set aside for this. This is way more important," Lapid told reporters outside the State Department after meeting Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"Israel as a nation will not heal unless we will bring them back home," Lapid said of the hostages. "This is essential to our existence."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Monday to ensure the morality police would no longer "bother" women, in remarks to the media on the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death in custody.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died in police custody on September 16, 2022, days after the morality police arrested her in Tehran for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Her death triggered months-long protests nationwide, with hundreds of people killed, including dozens of security personnel. Thousands of demonstrators were arrested.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday expanded the country's goals for the war in Gaza, vowing to allow Israelis who fled areas near the Lebanon border to return to their homes.

Nearly a year after Hamas's October 7 attack sparked war in the Gaza Strip, cross-border fire has been traded almost daily between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which says it is supporting its Palestinian ally.

The exchanges have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens of civilians and soldiers on the Israeli side.

Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told a visiting US envoy on Monday that prospects were dimming for a halt to nearly a year of fighting with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Iran-backed Lebanese armed group has traded regular cross-border fire with Israeli forces since Hamas's October 7 attack sparked war in the Gaza Strip, in a campaign Hezbollah has said was in support of its Palestinian ally.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer praised his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Monday for her efforts in reducing illegal migration, saying his "government of pragmatism" sought new approaches to the hot-button topic.

On his first visit to Italy since his centre-left Labour Party's landslide victory in July, Starmer expressed interest in the immigration policies of far-right leader Meloni -- including plans to operate Italian-run migrant centres in Albania -- and stressed the importance of cross-border cooperation.

Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use.

Negotiators hope to reach the world's first treaty on plastic pollution this year, but across five very different countries, AFP found single-use plastic remains hugely popular as a cheap and convenient choice, illustrating the challenges ahead:

Bangkok

On a Bangkok street lined with food vendors, customers line up for Maliwan's famed traditional sweets.

Conservationists at Persepolis, Iran's most iconic ancient site, are waging a delicate battle against an unlikely adversary: tiny but persistent lichens eroding the millennia-old monuments.

The fight, which began years ago, is aimed at stopping the threat to the integrity of the site's structures and its intricate carvings from lichens, organisms that grow on surfaces like stone and can slowly break them down over time.