Tunisia's powerful UGTT trade union chief took aim Saturday at legislative elections due later this month, claiming they serve no purpose in light of constitutional reforms that neutered political parties.
President Kais Saied last year sacked the government and suspended parliament, then this year extended his power grab with a constitutional referendum marred by an official turnout of barely 30 percent.
Iran's parliament and the judiciary are reviewing a law which requires women to cover their heads, and which triggered more than two months of deadly protests, the attorney general said.
The demonstrations began after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin, died in custody on September 16 after her arrest by Iran's morality police for an alleged breach of the dress code.
Russia on Saturday denounced a $60 price cap on its oil agreed by the EU, G7 and Australia, even as Ukraine suggested it was not tough enough and might have to be revisited.
"We will not accept this price cap," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told domestic news agencies, adding that Russia, the world's second-largest crude exporter, was "analysing" the move.
The $60 oil price cap will come into effect on Monday or soon after, alongside an EU embargo on maritime deliveries of Russian crude oil.
Black-clad women in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province on Friday joined nationwide protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death, in what a rights group called a "rare" move in the staunchly conservative region.
Online videos showed dozens of women on the streets of the provincial capital Zahedan holding banners that declared "Woman, life, freedom" -- one of the main slogans of the protest movement that erupted in mid-September.
A US-led coalition fighting jihadists resumed regular patrols in Kurdish-held areas of northeast Syria on Friday after earlier Turkish air strikes, an AFP correspondent and a Kurdish military source said.
Patrols were reduced following the Turkish strikes that began on November 20 in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria and Iraq, in response to a deadly Istanbul bombing that Ankara blamed on Kurdish groups.
The Kurds denied responsibility.
Hundreds of American troops are in Syria as part of the fight against remnants of the Islamic State group.
Major oil producers are expected to stick to their current output strategy or even slash production further when they meet on Sunday in the face of falling prices, a Russian oil price cap and an embargo on Russian crude shipments.
At their last ministerial session in October the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries headed by Riyadh and its 10 allies led by Moscow, collectively known as OPEC+, agreed to reduce output by two million barrels per day (bpd) from November.
A new law gives Turkey fresh ammunition to censor the media and silence dissent ahead of elections in which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to prolong his two decades in office, journalists and activists say.
Since 2014, when Erdogan became president, tens of thousands of people, from high-school teens to a former Miss Turkey have been prosecuted under a long-standing law that criminalises insulting the president.
The law, passed in parliament in October, could see reporters and social media users jailed for up to three years for spreading what is branded "fake news".
Thousands of Moroccan fans poured into Doha's oldest market on Thursday to celebrate their country's success in becoming the only Arab nation to reach the World Cup second round.
Crowds gathered around a giant golden thumb sculpture in Souq Waqif market that has become a magnet for fans of winning teams to show national pride.
Argentinian, Tunisian and Saudi fans have also jammed the narrow alleys around the sculpture by French artist Cesar Baldaccini on earlier nights to blow horns, bang drums and make noise.
Ecstatic Moroccans celebrated on Thursday after their team qualified for the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
"We've waited 36 years," one fan cried after the Atlas Lions beat Canada 2-1 to storm into the round of 16 as winners of their group.
In 1986, the football-obsessed North African nation became the first African or Arab country ever to reach the knockout stages, before many of the current players were born.
Ecstatic Moroccans celebrated on Thursday after their team qualified for the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
"We've waited 36 years," one fan cried after the Atlas Lions beat Canada 2-1 to storm into the round of 16 as winners of their group.
In 1986, the football-obsessed North African nation became the first African or Arab country ever to reach the knockout stages, before many of the current players were born.
