Qatar coach Felix Sanchez hopes his team can bring their "A Game" against Senegal as the host nation battle to avoid setting an unwanted World Cup record.

Defeat on Friday would mean the earliest-ever exit for a host nation -- South Africa also went out at the group stage in 2010 -- but were still alive heading into their third match.

Reigning Asian champions Qatar became the first hosts to lose their opening game after freezing in a dispiriting 2-0 defeat to Ecuador.

At least two people died on Thursday as heavy rains hit western Saudi Arabia, including the coastal city of Jeddah, delaying flights and forcing schools to close, officials said.

"Two deaths have been recorded so far, and we call on everyone not to go out unless necessary," the Mecca regional government said on its Twitter page.

The Mecca region includes Jeddah, the kingdom's second-largest city of roughly four million people, and Mecca city, the holiest city in Islam where millions perform the hajj and umrah pilgrimages each year.

Relatives of death-row inmates in Saudi Arabia fear each day could be the last for their loved ones as the Gulf kingdom picks up the pace of executions.

After a nearly five-month lull in which no one was put to death, 24 people have been executed since early October, 18 of them in the past two weeks, according to an AFP tally based on state media reports.

They include 16 people convicted of drug-related offences, ending a moratorium on administering capital punishment for such crimes that was announced in January 2021.

Jamil al-Juburi, 53, has never left his village in northern Iraq, where his family has worked the land for generations -- but a dam will soon swallow his home, forcing them out.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis are threatened by the Makhoul dam, which the government hopes will be operational on the mighty Tigris in five years.

"I was born here and I grew up here," said Juburi, whose village of Al-Messahag is set in pasture land on the banks of the river.

"It's difficult to leave for somewhere else. It is a whole past that we leave behind us."

The body of an Israeli teenager snatched by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank was returned to his relatives Thursday, following intense talks to avoid an escalation of violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid had on Wednesday threatened tough reprisals against those who had taken the body of Tiran Fero, a 17-year-old Israeli Druze who was critically wounded in a car accident a day earlier.

The Israeli military said his body was released "as a result of the efforts of the security forces and in coordination with the Palestinian authorities."

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday condemned Iran's repression of peaceful demonstrators following the death of Mahsa Amini, and voted to create a high-level investigation into the deadly crackdown.

Despite heavy lobbying by Tehran and a last-minute effort by China to undercut the resolution, a broader-than-expected majority of the 47-member council backed launching a probe of Iran's response to the ongoing protests.

Favourites Brazil begin their bid to win a sixth World Cup on Thursday when they take on Serbia, while Cristiano Ronaldo will hope to put his acrimonious departure from Manchester United behind him as Portugal enter the fray against Ghana.

Brazil will be wary of a dangerous Serbian side when the teams meet at Lusail Stadium, especially after seeing Argentina suffer a shock defeat against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday at the same venue and Germany lose to Japan on Wednesday.

Iran voiced hope Wednesday that European Union negotiators are trying to break the deadlock in talks to revive its frayed nuclear deal with major powers.

The landmark 2015 deal promised Iran sanctions relief in return for limits on its nuclear programme, but has been on life support since then US president Donald Trump pulled out from it three years later.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian pointed to tensions with four parties -- the United States, Britain, France and Germany -- to the accord also agreed with China and Russia.

Saudi Arabia's unexpected World Cup victory over giants Argentina triggered a rare moment of joint celebration across the fractured Arab world including among Qataris -- less than two years after a seething regional dispute.

A caravan of Qatari cars, horns honking, paraded through the streets of Doha after the Saudis' famous 2-1 win over the South American champions, one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history.

Turkey said Wednesday it was more determined than ever to secure its Syrian border from attacks by Kurdish forces, threatening a ground operation "at the most convenient time".

Ankara launched a campaign of air strikes across parts of Iraq and Syria on Sunday as part of Operation Claw-Sword, following a bombing in Istanbul on November 13 that killed six people.