Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the visiting Iranian foreign minister discussed the need for "vigilance in defending their national interests against external pressures," according to a statement released Saturday.

The Caracas visit Friday by Foreign Minister Ossein Amir-Abdollahian underlined the strength of an alliance between two countries seen as outcasts by much of the international community, both of them subject to US sanctions.

Young girls in colourful dress and traditional jewellery sing at a festival in Libya's Ghadames, an oasis city that was relatively unscathed by the past decade's chaos and is seeking to attract visitors.

Under tents strung up with red and ochre patterned material, baskets were on display as a woman sat weaving one together with a large wooden needle, silver rings tracing the movements of her hands as she worked.

Ghadames, known as the "pearl of the desert", is located nearly 500 kilometres (310 miles) southwest of the capital Tripoli.

US computing giant Microsoft said Friday that it had identified Iranian state actors as those behind the recent cyberattack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Clint Watts, the general manager of Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center, said that the hackers, who called themselves "Holy Souls," were Iranian cybersecurity firm Emennet Pasargad.

In early January Holy Souls announced they had obtained the personal information of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo customers, and published a sample of the data as proof.

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said, in what the army described as an "attack" by an unarmed "suspect" on a military outpost.

Abdullah Sami Qalalweh, 26 was killed by "Israeli occupation bullets near the town of Huwara, south of Nablus", the Palestinian ministry said in a statement.

An AFP photographer saw Qalalweh's body at the morgue of a Nablus hospital.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been released on bail after starting a hunger strike to protest against his almost seven-month detention, supporters said on Friday.

The director, a winner at all the big European film festivals, had been arrested months before the current anti-regime protests erupted. But his imprisonment became a symbol of the plight of artists speaking out against the authorities.

President Joe Biden on Thursday underlined his support for the legal "status quo" of Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound in a meeting at the White House with Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Biden, the king and Crown Prince Hussein had a private lunch in which the US president "reaffirmed the close, enduring nature of the friendship between the United States and Jordan," the White House said. They also both spoke with Iraq's prime minister by phone.

Cycling is the newest gem in Saudi Arabia's expanding collection of sporting jewels as the conservative Gulf monarchy and its neighbours invest hugely in sport to burnish their international image and diversify their economies.

This week's Saudi Tour is the first of three stage races in the Arabian Peninsula in February, with competitions also scheduled in Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who has been jailed for the past six months, said he has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention, according to a statement published by his wife Thursday.

Panahi, whose films have won prizes at all of Europe's main film festivals, was arrested in July even before the current wave of protests that have shaken the regime started in September.

There were expectations last month that the judiciary could order his release, but he remains behind bars in Tehran's Evin prison.

Sudan and Israel said they agreed on Thursday to move towards normalising relations during the first official visit by an Israeli foreign minister to Khartoum.

Sudan in January 2021 formally agreed to normalise relations with Israel in a quid pro quo for the United States removing it from its list of "state sponsors of terrorism", but ties were never formalised.

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, then the intelligence minister, led that same month the first official delegation to the Muslim-majority northeast African country.

The second Emirati to journey into space, martial arts enthusiast Sultan AlNeyadi, weighed up Thursday performing Ramadan in orbit -- and promised to pack his jiu-jitsu suit for the ride.

AlNeyadi, 41, dubbed the "Sultan of Space" by his alma mater, will blast off on February 26 for the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

During his six months in orbit -- a record time for any Arab astronaut -- AlNeyadi said he would like to observe the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims typically fast from dawn to sunset.