Iraq reopened on Friday what was once the country's largest oil refinery, a step the government hopes will lead to an end to its dependence on fuel imports.

The North Refinery in the city of Baiji, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of Baghdad, was heavily damaged in some of the fiercest battles with the Islamic State group (IS) after it swept across a third of Iraq in 2014.

After the facility's full rehabilitation, "the refinery's effective capacity is 250,000 barrels per day," Assem Jihad, the spokesman for Iraq's oil ministry, told AFP.

Kiryat Shmona, in the hills of Israel's far north, is virtually empty, with few shops open and mostly military traffic on the roads to and from bases up the valley near the Lebanese border.

On the streets, cats seem to outnumber pedestrians but down a deserted lane a handful of call centre workers at a telecoms firm are gathered at the open windows of their office kitchen.

Coffees and mobile telephones in hand, they peer out, as if looking for signs of life.

Omer Sharar had just received the first delivery of his new GPS anti-jamming technology when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7.

Since then he and his team at InfiniDome, a start-up based in Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, have been working around the clock to prevent the Israeli army's mini-drones from being intercepted by cheap and simple jamming in Gaza.

A woman stripped of her British citizenship after leaving the country as a teenager to marry an Islamic State group fighter lost her appeal against the decision on Friday.

London's Court of Appeal rejected all five arguments presented by Shamima Begum, 24, although she can still take the case to the supreme court.

"It could be argued that the decision in Miss Begum's case was harsh, it could also be argued that Miss Begum is the author of her own misfortune," said judge Sue Carr as she delivered the decision.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled a plan for post-war Gaza that drew criticism from key ally the United States and was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas on Friday.

The new plan came after air strikes targeted homes in southern Gaza, and as an Israeli delegation arrived in Paris hoping to "unblock" truce discussions.

Netanyahu's plan envisages civil affairs in a post-war Gaza being run by Palestinian officials without links to Hamas.

Online retailer Amazon said Friday it had paid $1.9 million to more than 700 contracted workers in Saudi Arabia as reimbursements for unlawful recruitment fees, among other alleged violations.

In October, Amnesty International accused Amazon of a range of abuses against workers in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom, prompting the US-based multinational to launch an investigation.

The Israeli army said Friday that a Palestinian militant on his way to carry out a shooting attack was killed in a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin a day earlier.

Yasser Hanun from the Islamic Jihad group had previously been detained for his involvement in the "terrorist organisation's military activities", the army said in a statement.

The resident of Jenin refugee camp "was eliminated while en route to carry out another shooting attack", the statement said, without elaborating.

Attacks by Yemen's Huthi rebels on commercial ships in the Red Sea have sent insurance premiums surging, exacerbating costs already stretched by soaring freight rates and longer alternative trade routes.

The Huthis have carried out relentless attacks since November on shipping transiting the Red Sea, a maritime hub through which 12 percent of global trade usually passes.

Maritime container transport has sunk by almost one third so far in 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to IMF data.

The Tunisian town of Haffouz lies in an impoverished region known for high rates of joblessness and suicide, but every Friday traditional music and techno beats lift spirits in a dilapidated classroom.

Local children and teenagers come together in the afternoon to compose and rehearse music for a creative break from their bleak surroundings in the dust bowl of central Tunisia.

A judgement is expected Friday in the appeal case of a woman who lost her British citizenship after leaving as a teenager to marry an Islamic State group fighter.

Shamima Begum, 24, took her case against the revocation of her citizenship to the Court of Appeal in London in October last year.

Her lawyer told the court that the Home Office had failed to consider its legal duties to Begum as a potential victim of trafficking.

Begum, whose family is of Bangladeshi origin, was 15 years old when she left her east London home for Syria with two school friends in 2015.