Saudi Arabia's energy minister on Tuesday blasted the release of emergency oil stocks as an attempt to "manipulate markets", the latest apparent salvo in a spat with Washington over oil production.

"People are depleting their emergency stocks, had depleted it, used it as a mechanism to manipulate markets while its profound purpose was to mitigate shortage of supply," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an investor conference in the Saudi capital.

"However, it is my profound duty to make it clear to the world that losing emergency stock may become painful in the months to come."

Saudi Arabia's energy minister on Tuesday blasted the release of emergency oil stocks as an attempt to "manipulate markets", the latest apparent salvo in a spat with Washington over oil production.

"People are depleting their emergency stocks, had depleted it, used it as a mechanism to manipulate markets while its profound purpose was to mitigate shortage of supply," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told an investor conference in the Saudi capital.

"However, it is my profound duty to make it clear to the world that losing emergency stock may become painful in the months to come."

Iranian students protested Tuesday at multiple universities, defying a bloody crackdown as tensions mount on the eve of planned ceremonies marking 40 days since Mahsa Amini's death.

"A student may die but will not accept humiliation," they chanted at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, in an online video verified by AFP.

Young women and schoolgirls have been at the forefront of protests sparked by Amini's death last month, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Qatar's ruler on Tuesday hit out at "double standards" unleashed in an "unprecedented campaign" of criticism over his country's rights record ahead of this year's football World Cup.

Just 26 days from the first game, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani gave a rare public airing of the Islamic country's frustration following years of attacks over its treatment of foreign workers and over LGBTQ and women's rights.

When Michel Aoun became president in 2016, putting an end to a two-year power vacuum due to political wrangling, he vowed to be the "strong" president Lebanon so desperately needed.

But as his mandate draws to a close next week, the country is reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis, with Beirut having been ravaged in 2019 by one of the world's biggest non-nuclear explosions.

The blast was preceded by a 2019 mass protest movement that demanded Aoun's departure, along with the rest of Lebanon's entrenched ruling class.

Already reeling from three years of economic meltdown, Lebanon faces the prospect of its multi-faceted crisis deepening further when President Michel Aoun's mandate expires in a week from now.

The deadline looms as the country is headed by a caretaker administration, since key parties have been unable to agree on a proper government to replace one whose mandate expired in May.

Parliament has held four rounds of voting since last month, with no candidate garnering enough support from parties to succeed Aoun, prompting fears of a protracted power vacuum.

A protester was killed in Sudan Tuesday, medics said, as pro-democracy demonstrators marked the first anniversary of a coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule.

Waving Sudanese flags, thousands of protesters in Khartoum and its suburbs defied security forces who have carried out deadly crackdowns on past rallies, demanding that "soldiers go back to the barracks".

Security forces responded with tear gas in some areas.

"No partnership, no negotiation with the putschists," protesters chanted, in what has become a pro-democracy rallying cry.

In the Arab-Israeli town of Rahat, a few trampled political party flyers on the pavement are the only sign that the country is about to go to the polls.

While the campaign ahead of Israel's fifth election in four years has been somewhat lacklustre nationwide, the apathy is especially acute among the Arab minority where turnout is feared to be low.

"The top issue is how do we get Arab citizens from their house to the ballot box," said Fayez Abu Souhaiban, mayor of Rahat, ahead of the November 1 polls.

"This is a big issue and a very big dilemma."

Moroccan rapper ElGrande Toto was taken into custody on Monday evening, following several complaints filed against him for public statements he made about using cannabis, a judicial source said.

The Casablanca-born rapper, who is a massive star in the Arabic-speaking music world, had in late September told reporters who gathered after one of his concerts, "I smoke hash -- so what?... It does not mean I set a bad example."

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into possible war crimes committed in August by both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants during deadly fighting in Gaza.

Thirty-one civilians were among the 49 Palestinians killed in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip during the three-day conflict, the global rights group said in a new report.

The London-based organisation pressed the ICC to "urgently investigate any apparent war crimes committed during the August 2022 Israeli offensive" in the Palestinian enclave.