As the World Cup brings some of the best-known names in sports to Qatar, youth football academies in neighbouring Saudi Arabia expect a spike in registrations but urge more investment.
The Gulf kingdom has long been obsessed with football, but interest in playing -- not just watching -- has surged in recent years amid a government push to promote physical activity under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 reform agenda.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday threatened to launch a ground operation into Syria, following cross-border air strikes on Kurdish positions and deadly fire on Turkey.
"There is no question that this operation be limited to only an aerial operation," Erdogan told reporters on a flight home from Qatar after attending the opening of the World Cup.
"We will make those who disturb us on our territory pay," he added.
The Turkish leader has threatened a new military operation into northern Syria since May.
Qatari media laid into a "weak" performance by the national team on Monday after the hosts' much-heralded World Cup debut ended in a tame 2-0 defeat by Ecuador.
Any buzz from the opening ceremony soon fell flat as Qatar shipped two goals in the first half, with thousands of fans leaving Al Bayt Stadium well before the game had finished.
While Qatar's press praised the opening ceremony, which included US actor Morgan Freeman and a severely disabled Qatari man, they were critical of coach Felix Sanchez's team.
Iran, already one of the world's most prolific users of the death penalty, is planning to use capital punishment as a means to quell the protest movement by spreading a climate of fear in the population, activists warn.
The judiciary has already confirmed six death sentences over the protests, with Amnesty International saying that based on official reports at least 21 people currently on trial are charged with crimes that could see them hanged.
Iran currently executes more people annually than any nation other than China, according to rights groups.
Iranian security forces on Monday intensified a crackdown in western Iran's Kurdish-populated regions that killed a dozen people over 24 hours, directly shooting at protesters and using heavy weapons, rights groups said.
The Kurdish-populated provinces of western and northwestern Iran have been hubs of protest since the September death in custody of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22, after she was arrested by morality police in Tehran.
Israel's prime-minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu won a lawsuit against ex-premier Ehud Olmert on Monday when a judge ruled Olmert defamed the Netanyahu family by branding them mentally ill.
The legal spat between the former leaders has made headlines in Israel.
The verdict came as Netanyahu, 73, tries to build a coalition after winning November 1 elections, which left him poised to reclaim power after 14 months in opposition.
A woman who was stripped of her British citizenship after joining the Islamic State group in Syria was the victim of propaganda and should be treated as a child trafficking victim, a court in London heard on Monday.
Shamima Begum, now 23, is one of hundreds of Europeans whose fate following the 2019 collapse of the Islamist extremists' self-styled caliphate has proved a thorny issue for governments.
Aged 15 in 2015, she left her home in east London with two school friends to travel to Syria where she married an IS fighter and had three children, none of whom survived.
European heavyweights England and the Netherlands launch their World Cup campaigns on Monday as the tournament in Qatar shifts into a higher gear after a dispiriting defeat for the hosts.
Asian champions Qatar became the first home nation to lose their opening World Cup match as Ecuador cruised to a 2-0 victory on Sunday, with veteran forward Enner Valencia scoring twice.
England, who meet Iran in Group B, will be desperate to start strongly as they target an end to their decades-long trophy drought after two near misses in recent years.
Kurds in northern Syria who woke to deadly Turkish air strikes overnight expressed fear and anger on Sunday, accusing the United States of abandoning them after they spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State group.
In the small city of Al-Malikiyah, in Syria's far northeastern corner, shops were closed and streets were deserted.
"We are scared because we've already been through this," said Mohammed Rajab, who already fled the northern city of Afrin during a Turkish offensive four years ago.
Iran has arrested two prominent actors who expressed solidarity with the protest movement and removed their headscarves in public in an apparent act of defiance against the regime, state media reported Sunday.
Hengameh Ghaziani and Katayoun Riahi were both detained after being summoned by prosecutors in a probe into their "provocative" social media posts and media activity, the state-run IRNA news agency said.
