Paris Fashion Week welcomed its first Saudi designer into the fold on Thursday, with a haute couture show full of daringly revealing looks.

Ashi Studio has been a big name in fashion for years, dressing celebrities including Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Deepika Padukone.

But Thursday was the first time its founder Mohammed Ashi was included in the official Paris Fashion Week line-up, marking "the peak of his career," he told AFP.

Modest and unassuming, he has rarely put his Saudi nationality up front.

The Emirati oil executive chairing this year's UN climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, told private and national oil and gas companies on Thursday they must slash their planet-warming emissions.

Sultan al-Jaber, head of the UAE national oil company ADNOC, told ministers from countries of the OPEC oil producers' grouping the industry must "urgently decarbonize its operations and take collective action to eliminate operational emissions".

The Israeli army said Thursday it struck southern Lebanon after a mortar round launched from its northern neighbour exploded in the border area between the two foes.

The latest military action was launched three months after the two countries saw their worst cross-border fire in years.

It also comes at a time of rising tension between Israel and Arab countries after Israel carried out its biggest military operation in years in the occupied West Bank targeting the Jenin refugee camp, a densely populated urban area and militant stronghold.

On the shores of Lake Issyk Kul in mountainous Kyrgyzstan, a group of divers show off their haul for the day -- a boat engine, car tyres, bottles, clothes and plastic items.

"We would love to dive and not find any waste," said Anvar Shamsutdinov, the moustachioed 59-year-old leader of a dozen-strong team of volunteer scuba enthusiasts.

"The beach looks clean but people don't realise what's underwater," he said, as tourists stopped to look.

Saudi Arabia is continuing its multi-billion-dollar entry into all aspects of global culture, hitting a new milestone on Thursday with the first Saudi designer presenting at Paris Fashion Week.

Mohammed Ashi's haute couture show -- his first as part of the official roster after years of dressing top celebrities -- is "the peak of my career," he told AFP at a cocktail soiree at the Ritz Hotel in Paris this week, part of a lavish Saudi PR campaign throughout this fashion season.

Sporting a white cap and apron, Rachid Ibersiene bustles around vats at his dairy in Algeria's Atlas Mountains where he has brought the tradition of artisanal cheesemaking back from Switzerland.

"We started with a butane gas bottle and stove," the cheesemonger said, alluding to the growth of his factory since it opened.

In a matter of 15 years, Ibersiene's "Tamgout" cheese -- a blend of the Swiss Gruyere and Dutch Gouda styles -- has become a source of honour for the north African country.

The families of four Israelis missing in Gaza since 2014 and 2015 came together in Geneva on Wednesday to seek the Red Cross and the UN's help in advancing their cases.

Israeli soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin were killed during Israel's 2014 invasion of the Gaza Strip, and their remains are in the hands of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas -- although the militant group has never confirmed their deaths.

The US military said Wednesday it had blocked two attempts by the Iranian navy to seize commercial tankers in international waters off Oman, including one case in which the Iranians fired on the tanker.

Tehran has stepped up actions against tankers in the region since the United States tightened sanctions on Iran's own oil exports and other sections of its economy.

Racial tensions in the Tunisian coastal city of Sfax flared into violence targeting migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, dozens of whom were forcibly evicted from the city or fled, witnesses said Wednesday.

Amid the disturbances late Tuesday, police detained some migrants and deported them as far as the Libyan border more than 300 kilometres (over 200 miles) away, according to a local rights group.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday dismissed talk of discord with oil ally Russia, praising their coordinated decisions to remove barrels from the market in efforts to prop up prices.

Oil producers are grappling with falling prices and high market volatility amid fears of global economic slowdown and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has upended economies worldwide.

On Monday, Riyadh said that it would extend a production reduction of one million barrels per day (bpd), which began in July, to August to boost prices.