US oil giant ConocoPhillips on Sunday agreed to take another major stake in Qatar's expansion of natural gas production, the Gulf state's energy minister said.
Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi also said Qatar was talking with Asian nations -- the major market for Qatari gas -- over a share in its campaign to increase annual production by 60 percent to 126 million tonnes a year by 2027.
Lebanon's outgoing head of state, Michel Aoun, left the presidential palace Sunday, a day before his mandate expires without a designated successor, deepening the country's political crisis.
His six-year term was marred by mass protests, a painful economic downturn and the August 2020 mega-explosion of ammonium nitrate that killed hundreds and laid waste to swathes of Beirut.
Iraq has long drilled the desert for oil, but now climate stress, drought and reduced river flows are forcing it to dig ever deeper for a more precious resource: water.
The war-scarred nation and major crude exporter is one of the world's five countries most impacted by key effects of the climate crisis, says the United Nations.
Compounding the water stress, upstream dams, mainly in Turkey, have vastly reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates, the once mighty rivers that gave birth to Mesopotamian civilisation.
Little rainfall, aggressive heatwaves and worsening drought make the Middle East the most water-stressed region in the world, with climate change threatening to displace millions of people.
Hussein Abu Saddam, head of the farmers' syndicate in Egypt which is hosting the COP27 global climate summit in November, told AFP he is already witness to a climate-induced exodus from the countryside.
Former premier Benjamin Netanyahu's record run as Israel's leader would not have been possible without the unwavering support of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties. But are they getting ready to part ways?
Party leaders say no, insisting they will not join any prospective anti-Netanyahu coalition after Tuesday's election, as it would not protect their deeply religious values.
The two parties representing the ultra-Orthodox community in parliament were booted out of government in June 2021 when a motley coalition of Netanyahu's rivals ousted him and took power.
Days ahead of its general election, Israel is on alert for possible cyberattacks or influence campaigns from foreign rivals, notably Iran, aimed at sowing further tensions within its bitterly divided population.
Election day on Tuesday is a "desirable target for influence campaigns", Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel's office said before Israel holds its fifth vote in less than four years, as its era of unprecedented political deadlock grinds on.
A Palestinian assailant shot dead an Israeli in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and wounded four others, including another Palestinian, before being killed by a security guard.
The shooting comes just days before Israel holds its fifth election in less than four years and with violence surging in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Extreme-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Religious Zionism alliance is eyeing major gains in elections on Tuesday, claimed on Twitter that his Hebron home was the target.
Some 3,000 protesters in Khartoum on Saturday rejected UN mediation efforts between civilian and military leaders as "foreign interference" and called for Islamist rule in Sudan, an AFP correspondent said.
A military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan last year derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule after the 2019 ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
Students led the way Saturday in protests across Iran over Mahsa Amini's death, even as the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards told them: "Do not come to the streets."
Security forces had targeted a hospital and a student dormitory overnight, a rights group said, as the protest movement that flared over the 22-year-old's death entered a seventh week.
Amini died in custody on September 16 after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of Iran's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law.
Mourners gathered Saturday in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz to bury the victims of a deadly assault on a shrine, while chanting slogans against nationwide "riots" over Mahsa Amini's death.
At least 15 people were killed Wednesday in a key Shiite Muslim shrine in the city, according to official media, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
The shooting at the Shah Cheragh mausoleum came on the same day that thousands of people across Iran paid tribute to Amini, 40 days after her death in police custody.
