A court in Iran has sentenced prominent movie director Saeed Roustaee to six months' prison for the screening of his film "Leila's Brothers" at the Cannes Film Festival last year, local media reported Tuesday.

"Leila's Brothers", a rich and complex tale of a family struggling with economic hardship in Tehran, has been banned in Iran since its release last year.

The movie was in competition for the Palme d'Or at last year's Cannes festival. It missed the top prize but won the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award.

Saudi Arabia has emerged as a force in the football transfer market this year, offering eye-watering salaries that have lured a host of big names including Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.

Here, AFP Sport takes a look at some of the biggest names to make the move:

The stars

Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival in January to play for Riyadh-based Al-Nassr is what first drew global attention to ongoing efforts to boost the Saudi Pro League.

Iranian authorities have re-arrested a journalist who interviewed the father of the woman whose custody death sparked months of protests, just two days after her release from jail, activists said on Tuesday.

Nazila Maroufian walked out of Tehran's Evin prison on Sunday, posting on social media a picture of herself without a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

"Don't accept slavery, you deserve the best!" she wrote in her posts.

Neymar said he was relishing "new challenges and opportunities in new places" after he joined Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain on a two-year deal Tuesday, becoming the latest big name lured to the oil-rich Gulf state.

The Brazil forward, 31, ends a six-year stay in the French capital and follows in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane in swapping Europe for the Middle East.

Gun battles between the two leading armed groups in Tripoli killed two people and forced the closure of the Libyan capital's only civilian airport, officials said on Tuesday.

Libya has seen more than a decade of stop-start conflict since the 2011 NATO-backed revolt that toppled strongman Moamer Kadhafi, with a myriad of militias forming opposing alliances backed by foreign powers.

A period of relative stability had led the United Nations to express hope for delayed elections to take place this year, and the latest fighting triggered international calls for calm.

An Iranian immigrant to the United States who was jailed in Tehran and his son camping outside the White House have together gone on hunger strikes to win the elder's freedom after he was not included in a deal to free US citizens.

Shahab Dalili -- who is a US permanent resident but not a citizen -- was jailed in 2016 after he said he returned to Iran for his father's funeral. He was handed 10 years in prison on espionage-related charges he strongly denies.

The leader of Lebanon's powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Monday his group could send Israel "back to the stone age", in tit-for-tat threats following similar Israeli remarks as border tensions brew.

During a tour of the Lebanese-Israeli border last week, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had threatened to send Lebanon "back to the stone age" should Hezbollah escalate tensions at the border.

Egypt's president on Monday welcomed the Palestinian and Jordanian leaders, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's spokesman said, with a source adding they discussed speculations over Saudi Arabia moving to normalise ties with Israel.

Sisi met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the northern coastal city of El Alamein, Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said.

Fighting between the forces of Sudan's rival generals rocked Monday the capital Khartoum and a major city in the western Darfur region, witnesses told AFP, displacing thousands within days.

Residents of violence-wracked Nyala, Sudan's second city and state capital of South Darfur, awoke to "the sound of artillery strikes", witnesses said

Hundreds had on Sunday fled paramilitary attacks in the city as fighting intensified in recent days in the restive region bordering Chad.

At least five people died Monday and seven others are missing after their Europe-bound migrant boat sank off Tunisia's coast, a judicial official in the city of Sfax told AFP.

Sfax has emerged as a major hub for migrants from Tunisia and other parts of Africa attempting perilous voyages across the Mediterranean, often in rickety boats in hopes of a better life.

Court spokesman Faouzi Masmoudi said "35 people, most of them Tunisians" including women and children were on board the boat that went down "shortly after departing from the coast of Sidi Mansour" near Sfax.