More than 1,000 people have died at this year's hajj pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia, an AFP tally showed on Thursday.

The pilgrimage involved hours of walking and praying in a country where temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 Fahrenheit) this week.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has calculated that heat kills at least half a million people every year but warns that the real figure could be up to 30 times higher.

Here a scientist explains how extreme heat damages the body and how physical activity outdoors raises the risk.

New tensions emerged this week between President Joe Biden's administration and Benjamin Netanyahu over the Israeli premier's criticism of US weapons deliveries -- comments the White House described Thursday as "vexing" and "disappointing."

The issue began when Netanyahu claimed in a video posted on social media earlier this week that the US administration -- Israel's main military backer -- has been "withholding weapons and ammunitions" from his country in recent months.

Activists said Thursday they were filing a torture complaint against an Iranian citizen held in France who was reportedly a former senior figure in state television in the Islamic republic.

Bashir Biazar has been held in administrative detention in France since June 3 pending expulsion from the country for separate reasons, at a time of strained relations between Paris and Tehran.

His lawyer has denounced his detention and planned expulsion as "political" while officials in Iran have condemned France over his arrest and urged his release.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Thursday criticised an Iranian court's decision to slap an additional one-year jail term on imprisoned 2023 Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, called it "a flagrant violation of human rights and a travesty of justice".

Mohammadi, 52, has been jailed since November 2021 over several past convictions relating to her campaigns against the obligatory hijab for women and capital punishment in Iran.

Kuwait has announced temporary power cuts in some parts of the country during peak consumption hours, saying it is struggling to meet increased demand spurred by extreme summer heat.

In a statement on Wednesday, Kuwait's Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the scheduled cuts would occur for up to two hours a day, in the first such step for the OPEC member state as climate change causes temperatures to rise.

In the sizzling Baghdad heat, Mussa Abdallah takes to the Tigris river during the day to cool off, while others opt for ice skating to escape the relentless temperatures.

"At the end of the day, I'm sweaty and exhausted because of the sun," said Abdallah, a 21-year-old house painter in the Iraqi capital.

"At home, there's no electricity. If I want to wash, the water is scalding hot," he added, describing how water stored above ground virtually boils at this time of year.

Fears of a regional war rose Thursday after Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement said none of Israel would be spared in a full-blown conflict, and Israel said it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive.

Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed a Hezbollah operative.

Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions on Thursday.

The death toll from this year's hajj has exceeded 1,000, an AFP tally said Thursday, more than half unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

The new deaths reported Thursday included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.

Around 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once.

Deadly heat that blanketed the United States, Mexico and Central America recently was made 35 times more likely due to global warming, an international network of climate scientists said on Thursday.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group of scientists also said that extreme highs witnessed over that region in May and June were four times as likely to occur today as a quarter of a century ago.

A Stockholm court on Thursday acquitted a Syrian former general of war crimes charges, saying prosecutors had not proved his involvement in the attacks carried out during the country's civil war.

Former brigadier general Mohammed Hamo, 65, who lives in Sweden and was one of the highest-ranking Syrian military officials to stand trial in Europe. He stood accused of "aiding and abetting" war crimes in the first half of 2012.