Rwandan government critic Paul Rusesabagina, whose efforts to save people during the 1994 genocide were portrayed in hit Hollywood film "Hotel Rwanda", has been freed from prison after more than 900 days behind bars.

Rusesabagina was released late Friday and will return to the United States after the Kigali government commuted his 25-year sentence on terrorism charges.

His detention sparked criticism in the West and among rights groups, and highlighted Rwanda's record of crushing political dissent and free speech under President Paul Kagame.

Tens of thousands of worshippers attended Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the first in the holy month of Ramadan, AFP correspondents said, amid heightened tensions in the region.

Authorities said the prayers at Islam's third holiest site passed peacefully despite concerns over a recent surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The mosque compound in the Israeli-annexed Old City of east Jerusalem has previously seen clashes and violence between Palestinians and Israelis, particularly during Ramadan.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak emphasised the need to protect "democratic values" in a Downing Street meeting Friday with his under-fire Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, the UK leader's office said.

Netanyahu landed in London after weeks of escalating protests in Israel over his government's judicial reform programme, which would increase politicians' power over the courts and critics argue is a threat to democracy.

The death toll from US strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria following a deadly drone attack has risen to 19, a war monitor said Saturday, as Damascus accused Washington of lying about its "vicious attack".

Further rocket attacks by Iran-backed militias took place late Friday, prompting more strikes by coalition warplanes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman once compared Iran's supreme leader to Hitler, but has now green-lit a reconciliation deal intended to usher in a new era of regional prosperity.

As a 29-year-old defence minister, he launched a ferocious assault on Huthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen, but is now pursuing back-channel talks that could ultimately remove Saudi forces from the conflict.

He has also worked to mend bitter rifts with regional rivals like Qatar and Turkey, and even offered up the Gulf kingdom as a possible mediator for the war in Ukraine.

She was executed for killing the man who was trying to rape her. Now the subject of a devastating documentary, her mother says there are seeds of hope in her terrible story.

Reyhaneh Jabbari was 26 when she was hanged for murder in 2014, having become an international symbol of injustice in Iran.

She had spent seven years in prison for stabbing to death an ex-intelligence ministry official, Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi.

Despite being offered a reprieve if she retracted her rape allegation, she refused to lie -- even at the cost of her life.

Iran on Thursday allowed female football fans into a stadium for a national team match for the first time in more than a year.

Hundreds of Iranian women cheered on the home side during the friendly against the Russian national team at the Azadi Stadium in the capital Tehran.

"I came from the (northeastern) city of Neyshabur for the love of Team Melli," said Fatemeh, a 29-year-old university student, referring to the national squad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Thursday to restore unity in Israel where divisions have widened over his government's judicial reform programme and police fired water cannon at protesters blocking a highway in Tel Aviv.

Demonstrators fear the proposed reforms, which would increase the power of politicians over the courts and are already moving through parliament, are a threat to Israeli democracy.

Israel's allies abroad have also raised concerns about the overhaul.

Israeli police on Thursday fired water cannon at protesters blocking a highway in Tel Aviv, an AFP journalist said, as demonstrators across the country rallied against the government's judicial reform programme.

Tens of thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv and other cities, according to crowd estimates by Israeli media, decrying what they view as a threat to the country's democracy.

Demonstrator Nadav Golander warned of a "dictatorship" if the government presses forward with its controversial programme that would give politicians more power over the courts.

Crisis-hit Lebanon is "at a very dangerous moment", a visiting International Monetary Fund delegation said Thursday, criticising slow progress on reforms needed to unlock billions in loans.

Lebanon and the IMF reached a conditional agreement in April 2022 on a $3-billion-dollar loan needed to save the country's economy, in free fall since 2019.

But nearly a year after Beirut signed the agreement, officials have yet to enact the substantial changes required to kickstart the 46-month financing programme.