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Qatar beat Iran 3-2 in thriller to reach Asian Cup final

Hosts and holders Qatar squeezed into an Asian Cup final with Jordan after beating Iran 3-2 with an 82nd-minute winner in a frenetic encounter on Wednesday.

Almoez Ali struck in Doha to send Qatar into their second consecutive final, further exorcising the demons of their first-round exit at the 2022 World Cup.

Qatar lost all three of their World Cup games on home soil just over a year ago, the worst record of any host in the competition's history.

Almoez Ali (C) celebrates with his Qatar teammates after scoring the winner

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon kill civilian: state media

Israeli strikes on a southern Lebanese village killed one civilian and wounded two others on Wednesday, Lebanon's state media said.

Since the outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a Hamas ally.

"Two civilians were wounded and a third killed in an enemy drone strike on a house in Khiam" about six kilometres (around four miles) from the border, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Smoke billows over the south Lebanon border village of Khiam where Israeli strikes have killed a civilian

Macron remembers French victims of Hamas's 'anti-Semitic massacre'

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday described the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel as the "biggest anti-Semitic massacre of our century" as he hosted a ceremony paying tribute to the French victims.

Images of those killed or taken hostage by Hamas were held up by members of Macron's guard as their families looked on, in the only such state event held outside Israel so far to mark the attack.

Members of the presidential guard held up images of the victims

Oil slicks blamed on Turkish strikes blight northeast Syria river

Farmer Nizar al-Awwad has stopped irrigating his land in northeast Syria from a local river polluted by an oil spill that residents and officials in the Kurdish-held area blame on Turkish strikes.

"All the farmers in the area have stopped using the river for irrigation," said Awwad, 30, from a village near Tal Brak, in Hasakeh province.

"We'd be killing our land with our own hands if we used the polluted water," he said.

"Farmers already suffer from a lack of fuel and drought -- the polluted river has only added to our woes," Awwad added, standing near his wheat crops.

Oil pollution has been a growing concern in Syria since the 2011 onset of civil war

Despite strikes, US still faces threats from Iran-backed forces

US military action has so far failed to halt attacks by Iran-backed groups on Washington's forces in the Middle East and shipping in the Red Sea, with the threats persisting despite recent heavy air strikes.

The attacks by militants -- which the armed groups that claim them say are driven by the Israel-Hamas war -- have been launched from or hit four different countries, posing a multi-front challenge for the United States, which aims to curb the unrest while avoiding direct conflict with Iran.

Members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces carry portraits on February 4, 2024 showing people killed the previous day in US strikes in western Iraq

Israel PM dismisses Hamas demand for ceasefire, sets sights on Rafah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed Hamas's demand for a ceasefire and ordered troops to prepare to move on the city of Rafah in Gaza's far south, where more than one million Palestinians have sought refuge.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Tel Aviv hours after meeting Netanyahu, said he still saw "space for agreement to be reached" and that he had warned the Israeli leader against actions and talk that "inflame tensions".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Israel will 'continue until victory'

Israeli wineries near Lebanon fear ruined crop as war looms

Black clouds loom over grapevines in northern Israel on hills that stretch to the Lebanese border, where months of violence have raised fears of a wider war.

The tense border area -- where the Israeli army has traded deadly fire with the Hezbollah militant group for months -- can be seen from atop the Dalton Winery's fermentation vats.

Alex Haruni, the vineyard's owner, worries that if a full-scale war were to break out, it could also ruin the coming vintage.

"That's quite a lot of wine," he said.

Almost four months of conflict have heaped new challenges on Israel's wine industry, a year after extreme heat caused a poor harvest

Civilians among 11 dead in Israel strikes on Syria: monitor

Seven civilians were among 11 people killed in Israeli air strikes on the central Syrian city of Homs early Wednesday, a war monitor said.

"Eleven people including seven civilians" and two Hezbollah fighters were killed in "Israeli bombardment" of a building in the Hamra neighbourhood of Homs, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll of 10 dead.

Emergency services search through the rubble of a building in the central Syrian city of Homs after it was flattened by an air strike the government blamed on Israel

Argentina's Milei feted and criticised for Jerusalem embassy plan

Argentina's President Javier Milei delighted his Israeli hosts but upset Hamas on Tuesday by announcing moves to shift his country's embassy to Jerusalem, almost as soon as he touched down.

Milei had barely set foot on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv when he told Israel's awaiting Foreign Minister Israel Katz: "My plan is to move the embassy to west Jerusalem."

Argentina's President Javier Milei visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem -- the holiest place Jews can pray

US lawmakers reject $17.6 billion Israel aid bill

US lawmakers voted Tuesday to reject a standalone Israel aid bill denounced by critics as a "cynical" bid to thwart a cross-party border security and foreign assistance package that would include cash for war-torn Ukraine.

Republicans in the House of Representatives scheduled the vote after the Democratic-led Senate released a bipartisan bill Sunday pairing billions of dollars for Israel and Ukraine with some of the strictest immigration curbs in decades.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the standalone Israel aid bill