A sister of Egypt's jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah quickly disputed a claim by the prosecutor Thursday that the hunger striker was in "good health," as fear mounts that he is being force-fed.

Relatives have repeatedly demanded information on the health of the British-Egyptian activist in recent days, after he escalated his months-long hunger strike and stopped even drinking water as the COP27 climate summit opened in the North African nation on Sunday.

Fossil fuel lobbyists have flooded UN climate talks in Egypt, a report by watchdog groups said Thursday, even as calls grow at the summit for a windfall tax on oil majors' bumper profits.

More than 600 lobbyists from some of the world's biggest polluters have registered to the climate talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, up 25 percent from last year, the analysis by groups including Global Witness and Corporate Accountability found.

That is more than the number of representatives from the 10 most climate-affected countries combined, they said.

US President Joe Biden returns to the world stage with a spring in his step after midterm elections he sees proving that, in the global contest between democracy and autocracy, good guys don't always come last.

Biden is scheduled to leave Washington on Thursday for the COP27 climate summit in Egypt the next day, an ASEAN regional summit in Cambodia at the weekend and the gathering of G20 major economic powers in Indonesia next week.

The tense midterms campaign had left the world wondering which Biden would show up.

Religious and far-right politicians, who have compared gay people to animals and demanded an end to Pride rallies, are poised to enter the next Israeli government sparking fear among the LGBTQ community.

After veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu topped the polls earlier this month, he is expected to form a coalition with two ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and the extreme-right Religious Zionism alliance.

One far-right lawmaker, Avi Maoz, set the tone last week, telling army radio: "We're going to study the legal avenues to cancel Gay Pride."

US climate envoy John Kerry urged Pacific island states on Thursday to join global efforts to cut methane emissions in hopes it would sway major emitters China and India to follow suit.

Speaking at the UN's COP27 summit in Egypt, Kerry said 20 countries have yet to count methane as part of their pledges to cut emissions in global efforts to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"In those 20 states are China and India, and that's a massive amount of methane," he said at the event on protecting the oceans.

An Iranian general claimed Thursday that the Islamic republic had developed a hypersonic missile capable of penetrating all defence systems, raising concerns from the UN nuclear watchdog.

Hypersonic missiles, which like traditional ballistic missiles can deliver nuclear weapons, can fly at more than five times the speed of sound.

"This hypersonic ballistic missile was developed to counter air defence shields," General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps aerospace unit, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

The number of malnourished children starving in northeastern Syria, an area ravaged by more than a decade of conflict, has risen by 150 percent, aid group Save the Children said Thursday.

"Every day we have to deal with more malnourished children than the day before," the aid agency said, in an urgent appeal to donors.

"Malnutrition is life threating to children. Poverty and the inability to afford food are the main reasons families are giving for this increase."

In 2017, the two brightest stars in football history were united in Moscow at the draw for the following year's World Cup in Russia.

Ignoring Vladimir Putin's attempt to photobomb the moment, Diego Maradona stooped to kiss a smiling Pele who held up a phone as he took a selfie of the occasion.

The two men may have occasionally sniped at each other in the debate over which was the greatest of all time, but it was a happy moment that provided a reminder of the shared glory the former winners brought to the World Cup and which the World Cup bestowed on them.

Dazzling installations have been lighting up the Saudi capital, bringing a taste of the kingdom's push to become a global arts destination to ordinary Saudis -- not just habitual museum-goers.

A massive red orb glowing outside the national library, illuminated rods dotting the riverside at a popular picnic spot, and Arabesque designs projected onto the mud-brick walls of a 130-year-old fort -- these are all part of Noor Riyadh, a city-wide festival.

US President Joe Biden Wednesday said that Elon Musk's ties with foreign countries were "worthy" of scrutiny, amid questions over the Saudi acquisition of a stake in Twitter as part of the tycoon's blockbuster takeover.

"I think that Elon Musk's cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at," Biden said, answering a question from a reporter after a long pause.

"Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I'm not suggesting that... That's all I'll say," he said.