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Two dead, 200 rescued in Lebanon migrant boat sinking: army

Two migrants died and another 200 were rescued Saturday when their boat sank off Lebanon's northern coast, from where increasing numbers make the risky journey to flee a collapsed economy.

An AFP correspondent in the impoverished port city of Tripoli said men, women and children -- mostly refugees from Syria but also about 50 Lebanese -- were on board the vessel when it got into difficulty.

"Three naval ships, accompanied by another from UNIFIL (the UN mission in Lebanon), arrived at the site... off Selaata and personnel saved some 200 people," the army said on Twitter.

A photo provided by the Lebanese Army shows the distressed migrant boat in Mediterranean waters off the country's northern coast

'Historic moment': Saudis flock to buy Ronaldo shirts after Al Nassr deal

Only hours after Cristiano Ronaldo penned a two-year contract with Saudi Arabia's Al Nassr, crowds flocked to a football kit store in Riyadh to buy the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's new club jersey.

Abdulmohsen al-Ayyban, 41, and his nine-year old son, Nayef, were among those queueing at Al Nassr club's official kit store on Saturday where clerks where busy pressing Ronaldo's name onto t-shirts.

"We are witnessing a historic moment," al-Ayyban told AFP of the deal which he believes "will elevate the Saudi football league".

Cristiano Ronaldo posing with his new Al Nassr number seven jersey

Iranian killed at memorial for slain protesters: rights group

Iran's security forces fired on a crowd in the Kurdish-populated west on Saturday, killing a 22-year-old, a rights group said, more than 100 days after the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini sparked nationwide protests.

The Islamic republic has been rocked by demonstrations since Amini died in custody on September 16 following her arrest for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women.

A protestor in Paris holds a portrait on October 29, 2022 of Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died in custody in September after her arrest by morality police in Tehran

General Assembly refers Israeli occupation to UN court

The UN General Assembly on Friday asked the International Court of Justice to consider consequences for Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories, a day after the Jewish state's most right-wing government ever took over.

The General Assembly voted 87-26 with 53 abstentions on the resolution, with Western nations split but virtually unanimous support in the Islamic world -- including Arab states that have normalized relations with Israel -- and backing from Russia and China.

Construction work at Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-annexed eastern sector of Jerusalem

Ronaldo signs for Al Nassr in deal worth 'more than 200m euros'

Cristiano Ronaldo on Friday signed for Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia, the club announced, in a deal believed to be worth more than 200 million euros.

The 37-year-old penned a contract which will take him to June 2025.

"I can't wait to discover a new football league in a different country," said the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus player.

The Portuguese star was pictured on the Al Nassr Twitter feed holding a blue and yellow shirt with his favoured number seven printed on the back.

Saudi signing: Cristiano Ronaldo in action at the World Cup in Qatar

Three Egypt police killed in attack in Suez Canal city

Three Egyptian policemen were killed and four others, including a police officer, wounded Friday in an attack in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security and medical sources said.

Two cars approached a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood of the city and two armed assailants opened fire at the policemen, the security source said.

The policemen responded, killing one of the assailants while the other fled.

The Egyptian city of Ismailia sits on the Suez Canal and has largely been spared the deadly insurgency in the nearby Sinai peninsula

Al-Aqsa mosque compound: Jerusalem's flashpoint holy site

The Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is a site sacred to both Islam and Judaism in the Old City of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem that has long been a lightning rod in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

On Wednesday, Israeli riot police stormed the mosque to dislodge what it called Palestinian "agitators" who barricaded themselves inside after the last prayers of the day with fireworks, sticks and stones.

The third-holiest site in Islam, situated next to the holiest site accessible to Jewish worshippers, the Al-Aqsa mosque complex is a powder keg where the slightest incidents can degenerate into sometimes deadly clashes

Israeli press gives Netanyahu government critical reception

The Israeli press gave a tentative, if not cold, reception to Benjamin Netanyahu's new government on Friday, fearing changes to judicial powers as the prime minister's ongoing corruption trial proceeds.

After winning the November 1 election, and following weeks of negotiations with ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties, Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister on Thursday, heading the most right-wing government in Israel's history.

While many of Bennett's partners share Netanyahu's hawkish views, they broke with him over fears he was undermining state institutions to serve his own ambitions

Hundreds of Syrians protest signs of Damascus-Ankara thaw

Hundreds of Syrians in the rebel-held north protested Friday against signs of a thaw between Ankara and Damascus after their defence ministers met in Moscow for the first time since 2011.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Al-Bab, a town controlled by rebel factions long backed by Ankara, brandishing banners reading: "The revolution is an idea, you can't kill an idea," an AFP photographer reported.

"We will not reconcile, we cannot reconcile, we don't want to reconcile," said Sohbi Khabiyeh, one of the demonstrators who had been displaced from the suburbs of Damascus.

Demonstrators raise Syrian opposition flags and placards as they rally against a potential rapprochement between Turkey and the Syrian regime

Syria attacks blamed on jihadists kill fighter, 12 oil workers

Attacks in eastern Syria killed 12 oil field workers and a Kurdish fighter, a war monitor said Friday, a day after Syrian Kurdish-led forces announced an offensive against jihadists.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which draws on extensive sources inside Syria, gave the toll of a dozen dead in one assault near an oil field west of Deir Ezzor.

In a separate ambush near Al-Shaddadi, south of the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a fighter of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was killed and five more wounded, the Observatory said.

US troops, shown on patrol in Syria's Hasakeh province, back  Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces which regularly carry out operations against jihadists