US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Thursday for Egypt to free political prisoners as leaders prepare to visit for the global climate summit.

Rights groups estimate that some 60,000 political prisoners are behind bars in Egypt, which starting next week will welcome more than 90 world leaders including President Joe Biden for COP27.

In a call with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Blinken discussed climate and said that US-Egypt cooperation "is strengthened by tangible progress on human rights," the State Department said.

Israel's hawkish right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dominated his country's politics since the 1990s but has now left its society more bitterly divided than it has been in decades.

The silver-haired and gravel-voiced 73-year-old is known by his nickname "Bibi" to his loyal Likud party followers who revere him for his stated mission to defend the Jewish people against all threats, from Arab militants to arch-foe Iran.

After the fifth vote in under four years, veteran Israeli hawk Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies have secured a clear victory, according to results released late Thursday with 99 percent of votes counted.

The return of 73-year-old Netanyahu comes as talks to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict have long since stalled, and as violence soars in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Iran stands accused by Western powers of supplying drones to Russia for its war against Ukraine, with analysts saying such military cooperation is of immense interest for Tehran at a delicate moment for its theocratic leadership.

The United States has denounced as "appalling" Russia's use of Iranian drones after residents of Kyiv and other cites were shaken by a spate of recent attacks.

Ukraine has said around 400 Iranian drones have already been used against the civilian population of Ukraine, and Moscow has ordered around 2,000. Tehran has rejected the allegations.

Cafes in Doha's West Bay district teemed with people anticipating the upcoming football World Cup, but in the darkened streets outside workers collected debris from a just-finished 30-storey tower block.

Across the Qatari capital, new hotels are opening, spectacular street art has gone on display and the flags of the 32 competing nations dominate avenues that will be filled with hundreds of thousands of fans after the tournament starts on November 20.

Driving back home from a holiday, Shirin Alizadeh found herself in the middle of a violent crackdown on a protest in northeastern Iran.

"I hope that they don't shoot towards the car," she says as shots resound around the vehicle in the town of Salmanshahr in Mazandaran province on the Caspian Sea, while she films the events on her mobile phone.

Alizadeh, her husband who was driving the car, and two other travel companions saw people being shot dead in the street as they sought to drive back to their home city of Isfahan through the throng of protesters on September 21.

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians Thursday, including an alleged attacker and Islamist fighter, medics and security officials said, as violence flared across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Jenin -- named as 14-year-old Mohammed Samer Khalouf and 28-year-old Farouq Salameh -- while four others suffered gunshot wounds, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Major new protests erupted in Iran on Thursday as people mourned victims of a deadly crackdown by the authorities, with police opening fire on stone-throwing protesters in deadly clashes outside Tehran.

Iran has for over six weeks been gripped by protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini who had been arrested by the notorious morality police -- a movement that poses the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

Life supporting English football club Newcastle United was once a lonely undertaking for Alwaleed Aldebasi, who spent years watching matches by himself at his home in the Saudi capital.

But that changed dramatically when a consortium backed by the kingdom bought the club a year ago, giving rise to a new community of Saudi fans motivated as much by nationalism as by any deep-rooted fealty to the Magpies.

Pope Francis, leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics, departed Thursday for the Gulf state of Bahrain to foster ties with Islam in a trip overshadowed by criticism of human rights abuses.

His second voyage as pope to the Arabian Peninsula after a 2019 trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is similarly aimed at encouraging interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians, and will include the pontiff leading a prayer for peace at a vast modern cathedral opened last year.