Thousands of members of the Iranian diaspora from all over Europe on Monday demonstrated in the EU parliament host city of Strasbourg to urge the bloc to list Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terror group.

Pressure is growing among opposition exiles and activists for the European Union and United Kingdom to follow the United States and blacklist the Guards over the crackdown on the four months of protests since the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

Dubai recorded real estate transactions worth more than $143 billion in 2022, the official Dubai Media Office said Monday, calling it a "milestone" for the United Arab Emirate's main business hub.

The property boom comes amid an influx of Russians who have purchased properties in some of Dubai's most popular areas, after Moscow faced a tightening of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.

"Dubai's annual real estate transactions have crossed the milestone of half a trillion dirhams for the first time," the Dubai Media Office said in a statement.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy Monday near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, where the army said they opened fire after people threw Molotov cocktails.

Omar Khmour, 14, was shot in the head early Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and "succumbed to his wounds", the ministry said.

The Israeli military said Monday that troops opened fire after "suspects hurled rocks, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers."

Major General Herzi Halevi was appointed Israel's new military chief of staff Monday, in a ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We will prepare the army for war on fronts near and far," Halevi vowed at the ceremony, at the start of his three-year term.

A former military intelligence chief, Halevi was serving as deputy to his predecessor, Aviv Kohavi, until taking the helm.

Netanyahu said Israel will not get dragged into "pointless wars, but on decisive days we will fight."

An Egyptian military court on Sunday sentenced in absentia a Spain-based critic of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to life in prison over calls for anti-government protests, state media reported.

Mohamed Ali, a construction contractor and fledgeling actor, burst onto Egypt's political scene in 2019 when videos he posted on social media accusing Sisi and the military elite of corruption went viral.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) said Sunday it will investigate comments made at the African Nations Championship in Algeria to "free" the disputed Western Sahara, that have sparked Moroccan fury.

Neighbouring Morocco and Algeria are locked in a bitter rivalry partly over Western Sahara, where the Algiers-backed Polisario movement seeks an independence referendum.

Rabat sees Western Sahara as an integral part of the kingdom and a highly sensitive issue of security and national pride.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani defended the open-ended presence of US and other foreign troops in his country, in an interview published Sunday.

"We think that we need the foreign forces," Sudani told The Wall Street Journal in his first US interview since taking office in October.

US and NATO forces have been training Iraqi soldiers on how to fight the Islamic State group.

"Elimination of ISIS needs some more time," Sudani added.

Palestinian officials Sunday condemned what they labelled the "execution" of a Palestinian man at an Israeli checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, while the army said he was shot during a "violent confrontation".

The ministry slammed the "heinous execution" of Ahmad Kahla, 45, who was shot dead in the morning by troops near the village of Silwad north of Ramallah.

The Israeli military said soldiers opened fire during a "violent confrontation" in which an unnamed person had "attempted to take hold of one of the soldiers' weapons".

Qatari driver Nasser Al-Attiyah on Sunday won his fifth Dakar Rally driver's title and second in a row with Argentina's Kevin Benavides securing his second motorbike crown.

The 52-year-old won three stages and had more than an hour's advantage in the overall standings over Frenchman Sebastien Loeb, who also finished runner-up last year.

Al-Attiyah's Toyota team-mate Lucas Moraes of Brazil finished third in the iconic test of endurance which reached its climax in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Tending to his camels in Petra, Jordan's spectacular archaeological marvel hidden deep in a desert canyon, Hussein Bdoul is all smiles: the tourists are back.

After years in which the Covid pandemic turned the storied "Rose City" into a ghost town, the father of seven is back at work, offering visitors rides on his decorated animals.

"Tourism has returned and the numbers are even greater," said Bdoul, 35, wearing Bedouin garb with a red keffiyeh scarf over his long black hair, reflecting on a resurgence last year.