Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez kicked off a visit to Morocco on Wednesday, on a trip aimed at mending ties following a deep diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

"The better the relations are between Morocco and Spain, the better it is for Spain, for Morocco, for Europe, for business, and for the citizens of both countries," Sanchez said at an economic forum in Rabat.

He and a dozen ministers are set to meet with top members of the Moroccan government on Thursday.

The discovery of dozens of beakers and bowls in a mummification workshop has helped reveal how ancient Egyptians embalmed their dead, with some "surprising" ingredients imported from as far as Southeast Asia, a study said Wednesday.

The exceptional collection of pottery, dating from around 664-525 BC, was found at the bottom of a 13-metre (42 feet) well at the Saqqara Necropolis south of Cairo in 2016.

Israeli warplanes struck Gaza early Thursday, drawing retaliatory rocket fire from Palestinian militants, as violence flared despite US calls for "urgent steps" to restore calm.

Israel said the pre-dawn strikes were in response to an earlier rocket launch and targeted military training camps used by Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.

A statement from the Israeli military said fighter jets had "struck a production site for raw chemical material production, preservation and storage along with a weapon manufacturing site" belonging to Hamas.

Hundreds of global figures from Nobel laureates to actors have issued a joint plea urging "unstinting" support for Iranians protesting against their country's regime in defiance of a bloody crackdown.

Demonstrations erupted in September last year over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's dress code for women.

But protests rapidly expanded into a movement calling for the ousting of the theocratic regime that has ruled Iran since the fall of the shah in 1979.

Saudi Arabia was confirmed as host of football's 2027 Asian Cup on Wednesday, an expected prelude for a World Cup bid as the oil-rich kingdom spends big on sports in an attempt to improve its image.

The three-time winners' successful bid, a formality after their sole rivals India withdrew, was rubber-stamped at the Asian Football Confederation Congress in Bahrain, held just weeks after Gulf neighbours Qatar hosted the first World Cup in the Middle East.

From his rooftop in the Syrian city of Raqa, Youssef Nasser watches nervously as hundreds of heavily armed Kurdish-led fighters sweep the streets of what was once the de facto capital of the Islamic State group.

The fighters are on guard against another guerrilla-style ambush after six of their comrades were killed in an IS attack in December on a local security complex that aimed to free hundreds of fellow jihadists from a prison there.

Short movies nominated for an Oscar often don't get wide public attention. But when one is about an Iranian girl seeking freedom from male domination by taking off her veil, interest is sure to spike.

That's the premise of "The Red Suitcase", a 17-minute movie that, at the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles on March 12, will shine a bright light on the protests that have gripped Iran since last September.

Braving the bitter cold, Lebanese villagers have been patrolling a mountainside in the country's north, trying to protect trees from loggers who roll in under the cover of darkness.

Near his village of Ainata, "nearly 150 centuries-old oak trees have been felled" in the past year, said Ghandi Rahme, pointing at the tree stumps in the rocky ground around him.

The municipal police officer, 44, is among around a dozen locals who make the rounds on a volunteer basis, seeking to deter loggers who arrive in off-road vehicles and take to the trees with chainsaws.

Iraq's premier said Tuesday that new banking regulations had revealed fraudulent dollar transactions made from his country, as the fresh controls coincide with a drop in the local currency's value.

Iraq has in recent months been making efforts to ensure its banking system is compliant with the international electronic transfer system known as SWIFT.

One of the world's biggest solar plants will become fully operational this year in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, months before it hosts UN climate talks, a partner company said Tuesday.

The UAE, a major oil exporter, is spending billions to develop enough renewable energy to cover half of its needs by 2050, and is targeting net-zero domestic carbon emissions by that year.