Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas vowed to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp during a rare and brief visit Wednesday, a week after a deadly Israeli raid destroyed much of the camp in the occupied West Bank.

Abbas, 87, hailed the Jenin camp as an "icon of struggle" during his first trip to the area in more than a decade, a period during which armed groups have gained popular support at the expense of his Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is due Wednesday to visit the northern West Bank city of Jenin for the first time in over a decade, a week after the largest Israeli raid there in years.

Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed in the two-day raid on Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, a regular site of fierce fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups.

The raid on the camp, which Israel views as a "terrorism hub", employed hundreds of troops as well as drone strikes and army bulldozers that tore up streets and damaged scores of houses.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday launched into a condemnation of Western attitudes on homosexuality during a visit to Uganda which has just introduced some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world.

Raisi, on a mission to strengthen ties with the first trip by an Iranian leader to Africa in 11 years, called out the West at a press conference with President Yoweri Museveni after talks with the veteran Ugandan leader.

Iran President Ebrahim Raisi held talks with his Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he kicked off the first Africa tour by an Iranian leader in 11 years.

The visit, which was delayed by a day, comes as the Islamic republic tries to shore up diplomatic support to ease its international isolation, with Raisi also due to travel to Uganda and Zimbabwe this week.

In addition to meeting Ruto, Raisi will hold talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Iraq will start paying for its Iranian gas imports with oil, to circumvent the complicated mechanism agreed with Washington in order not to contravene US sanctions, the prime minister said Tuesday.

Iranian gas is crucial for Iraq's electricity generation, but US sanctions on Iranian oil and gas impose restrictions on how Baghdad can pay for the imports.

Iraq cannot directly hand over cash to Iran, but payments must be held in a bank account and be used by Tehran to fund imports of food and medicines.

The UN Human Rights Council is heading towards a divisive vote on Wednesday on religious hatred following recent Koran burnings, with some Western nations reluctantly feeling the draft resolution encroaches too far on free speech.

Pakistan and other Organisation of Islamic Cooperation countries secured an urgent debate at the UN's top rights body on Tuesday after a Koran was burnt outside Stockholm's main mosque, triggering a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world.

The United Arab Emirates promised Tuesday to do more to help keep global warming below the 1.5 degrees tipping point after falling short in its latest plan to slash emissions.

The oil-rich Gulf monarchy, which will host this year's COP28 UN climate talks, last week unveiled plans to cut domestic emissions by 19 percent of 2019 levels by 2030.

US and Saudi officials discussed proposals to completely transform professional golf as they negotiated the biggest merger in the sport's history, a trove of documents released on Tuesday showed.

Among the items on the table in the talks between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia's LIV Golf were the firing of two-time British Open champion Greg Norman as LIV boss and a new "World Golf Series" that would climax in the kingdom.

Police evicted a Palestinian family from their home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem Tuesday to make way for Jewish settlers after a long legal battle, officials and an AFP correspondent said.

Since 1978, the Sub Laban family had fought in the Israeli courts against their eviction from their home in the Muslim Quarter of the walled Old City.

But early on Tuesday, police arrived to remove the family from their home following a court order.

"They do not have the right to expel me from my house," Nora Abu Laban, 68, told AFP.

The largest casino resort in Europe opened on the east Mediterranean island of Cyprus on Tuesday, with the authorities hoping it will attract an extra high-spending 300,000 tourists annually.

The City of Dreams Mediterranean is the brainchild of Hong Kong-based gambling firm Melco, whose CEO Lawrence Ho said he first got the idea to build the resort when he visited Cyprus 16 years ago for a wedding.

The complex, in the southern coastal city of Limassol, took three years to build at a cost of more than 637 million euros ($700 million), and currently employs 2,000 staff.