Islamic State group jihadists said Sunday they had carried out an attack in northern Iraq killing nine police officers, setting off a roadside bomb before machine-gunning survivors.

The attack in the Kirkuk area -- which police said left nine federal officers dead -- is one of the deadliest in Iraq in recent months.

IS fighters attacked "a police patrol... detonated an explosive device then attacked them with machine guns and hand grenades," the group said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

French-Palestinian human rights lawyer Salah Hamouri, held without charge in Israeli prisons since March accused of security offences, arrived in Paris on Sunday following his expulsion from Israel condemned by Paris.

Hamouri, 37, had been held in Israel under a controversial practice known as administrative detention, which allows suspects to be detained for renewable periods of up to six months.

He arrived at the French capital's Charles de Gaulle airport on Sunday morning, an AFP correspondent saw, the culmination of a lengthy judicial saga after his deportation.

Syrian student Ziad al-Ezz can no longer get to university as severe fuel shortages cripple the capital Damascus, pushing residents to seek alternatives for heating and shuttering businesses.

With the country's economy battered by more than a decade of war, authorities have announced four fuel price hikes since the start of the year as well as rationing of petrol and fuel oil supplies.

"Our struggle for fuel starts at home and doesn't end" in the classroom, said Ezz, 20, who studies literature at the University of Damascus.

In an annex of Iraq's national museum, a conservator pores over a 17th-century manuscript, carrying out delicate restoration work as part of efforts to preserve and digitise 47,000 precious texts.

"Some manuscripts date back almost 1,000 years," said Ahmed al-Alyawi, who heads the House of Manuscripts body.

"There are writings in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Kurdish," he added, noting the texts' "immense cultural diversity".

A Saudi town best known for a fierce battle between the Prophet Mohammed and Jewish tribes is remodelling itself as an upscale tourist draw in line with the kingdom's rebranding efforts.

Situated in an oasis amid a volcanic field north of Medina, the settlement of Khaybar was once home to thousands of Jews, who were defeated in a decisive seventh-century battle with the Prophet's army as Islam expanded across the Arabian Peninsula.

Lionel Messi and his teammates set off for Argentina with the most coveted prize in football as millions of compatriots waited to welcome them home on Monday and catch a glimpse of the World Cup trophy.

In the capital Buenos Aires and throughout the country, millions took to the streets to celebrate Sunday's remarkable penalty shoot-out victory over France in the World Cup final in Qatar.

Iran arrested a prominent actor Saturday after she voiced support for the three-month-old protest movement triggered by the death of a woman in custody, the judiciary said Saturday.

Taraneh Alidoosti, 38, was arrested "by order of the judicial authority" as she "did not provide documentation for some of her claims" about the protests, reported the judiciary's Mizan Online news website.

Germany on Saturday inaugurated its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, built in record time, as the country scrambles to adapt to life without Russian energy.

The rig in the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven was opened by Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a ceremony on board a specialist vessel known as an FSRU, named the Hoegh Esperanza.

"It's a good day for our country and a sign to the whole world that the German economy will be able to remain strong," Scholz said from the boat.

Jordan has arrested dozens of people accused of involvement in protests against rising fuel prices in which a senior police officer was gunned down, the country's security agency said Saturday.

Colonel Abdul Razzaq Dalabeh, the deputy police chief of Maan province, died of a gunshot to the head in the town of Al-Husseiniya on Thursday while confronting what the authorities called "riots".

Tunisians on Saturday overwhelmingly boycotted an election for a new parliament which will have virtually no authority following a power grab by President Kais Saied in the birthplace of the Arab Spring.

Electoral board president Farouk Bouasker said that by close of polls at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), just 8.8 percent of the nine-million-strong electorate had cast votes.

That would be the lowest participation in any poll since the revolution.