Tunisia's former parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi appeared in court Tuesday on new terror-related charges after being accused of calling police officers "tyrants", his party said.

Ghannouchi, who leads President Kais Saied's arch-foes the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha, had already faced court in late November over allegations his party helped jihadists travel to Iraq and Syria.

The latest hearing comes amid a series of arrests of high profile figures that have prompted criticism from rights groups in the North African country and abroad.

Dubai's airport welcomed 66 million passengers in 2022, more than double the previous year, it said Tuesday, a spike its chief executive attributed to "huge growth" in Russian travellers.

The main business hub of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates is home to one of the world's busiest airports.

The airport "welcomed a total of 66,069,981 passengers during 2022", representing year-on-year growth of 127 percent, according to a statement.

In 2021, around 29.1 million passengers passed through Dubai, and the authorities had expected 57 million visitors for the year 2022.

Israel's parliament took a step towards approving a controversial judicial reform Tuesday despite weeks of mass protests against the legislation critics see as a threat to democracy.

President Isaac Herzog -- who has been attempting to broker dialogue on the divisive issue, which would boost the powers of politicians over the courts -- said there was widespread "fear for the nation's unity".

High in Lebanon's rugged mountains, hatmaker Youssef Akiki is among the last artisans practising the thousand-year-old skill of making traditional warm woolen caps once widely worn against the icy winter chill.

Akiki believes he may be the last commercial maker of the sheep wool "labbadeh" -- a named derived from the Arabic for felt, or "labd" -- a waterproof and warm cap coloured off-white, grey, brown or black.

"The elders of the village make their own labbadehs", said Akiki, who also dresses in the traditional style of baggy trousers.

Germany condemned as "inhuman" a death sentence an Iranian court handed down Tuesday against an Iranian-German national who supporters say was abducted abroad and forcibly returned to Iran for a show trial.

The Tehran Revolutionary Court convicted Jamshid Sharmahd, 67, in connection with the deadly bombing of a mosque in 2008, the judiciary's Mizan Online website reported.

The Israeli parliament backed a key part of a controversial judicial overhaul at first reading Tuesday despite protests across the country against a bill critics see as a threat to democracy.

Lawmakers voted by 63 to 47 to give more weight to the government in the committee that selects judges, and to deny courts the right to rule on legislation they deem in conflict with so-called Basic Laws, Israel's quasi constitution.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake has rocked Turkey's southern province of Hatay and northern Syria, killing six people and sparking fresh panic after a massive February 6 tremor left over 45,000 dead in both countries.

The quake hit the Turkish town of Defne on Monday at 8:04 pm (1704 GMT) and was strongly felt by AFP teams in the nearby city of Antakya. It was also felt in Lebanon and Cyprus.

More than 300 people were injured in Turkey and at least 150 were hurt in northwestern Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Oman on Monday, his first official trip to the Gulf country in more than a decade of civil war at home, the Omani foreign ministry said.

The one-day trip to meet with Sultan Haitham bin Tareq came two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, killing more than 44,000 people across both countries.

The February 6 quake sparked Arab outreach to the internationally-isolated Assad government, which was expelled from the Arab League after war broke out in 2011.

The director of "Golda" on Monday dismissed a controversy over casting Helen Mirren as Israel's only woman prime minister Golda Meir, saying the British Oscar winner had "Jewish chops".

Israel's Guy Nattiv told reporters at the Berlin film festival ahead of the movie's world premiere that it took only one conversation with Mirren to convince him she was "authentic" enough to play the iconic political leader.

"When I met Helen I felt like I'm meeting a family member," he said, saying he had been "surprised" by the uproar.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said Turkey would build almost 200,000 new homes in the country's southeast region, devastated by a massive earthquake two weeks ago.

A 7.8-magnitude tremor on February 6 and its aftershocks have killed more than 41,000 people in Turkey and left millions without homes.

Erdogan is keen to show his government will do everything for those impacted as he faces his biggest political test in elections planned for May.