If it were up to voters in the Turkish-occupied north of the island of Cyprus, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would already be out of office, but they may not get their way.

Turkey's veteran leader is tipped as the frontrunner in Sunday's runoff election, seen as crucial for his country but also important for the island that has been divided for almost half a century.

Conservative Erdogan is heading into the second-round vote after beating his secular and leftist challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu two weeks earlier but failing to win an outright majority.

In a dimly lit corner of Tehran's Grand Bazaar, Mohammad Rafi is surrounded by all colours of the rainbow in his tiny shop that sells nothing but art pencils.

The world may have gone digital, but Rafi has stayed true to his passion of the past 35 years, surrounded by thousands of pencils in every hue and shade imaginable.

With the pencils stacked from floor to ceiling, his tiny cubicle has become a photogenic splash of colour, hidden deep in the market known as a "city within a city".

Iran's defence ministry on Thursday unveiled a new ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) and a capacity to carry warheads weighing over a tonne.

The Kheibar missile -- the latest version of the Khorramshahr which is Iran's longest-range missile to date -- was unveiled alongside a replica of the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, in a live broadcast on state television.

From the scorching summer heat to war profiteers and bureaucratic foot-dragging, Sudanese fleeing battles at home have encountered many obstacles -- but also help from strangers -- on the long road to safety in Egypt.

Among the hundreds of refugee families waiting at the border, some had no passports.

Others would not go further until their husband, brother or son was granted a visa -- which women and children are exempt from.

One cold winter night, Syrian Ibrahim Othman went out to pray and came home cradling a baby girl, abandoned at the doorstep of the village mosque just hours after she was born.

"I took her home and told my wife, 'I brought you a gift'," said the 59-year-old resident of Hazano, in rebel-held northwest Syria.

He named the baby Hibatullah, meaning "gift of God", and decided to raise her as one of the family.

A Lebanese judge has banned the country's central bank governor Riad Salameh from travelling, days after Beirut received an Interpol Red Notice following a French arrest warrant, a judicial official said Wednesday.

Salameh has been the target of a series of judicial investigations both at home and abroad on allegations including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud and illicit enrichment, which he denies.

The grave of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman whose death sparked a protest movement that rattled Iran's clerical leadership, has been vandalised, according to activists and the family lawyer.

Amini, 22, died in September after being arrested by Tehran's morality police for purportedly flouting the strict dress rules for women in the Islamic republic.

The protests that began after her death challenged the Islamic system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution. They have weakened in amplitude over the last months but actions still continue.

Fighting eased in Sudan on Wednesday, the second full day of a ceasefire that has allowed beleaguered civilians to venture out, even as they await safe aid corridors and escape routes.

Sporadic air strikes and artillery fire still boomed across the capital, residents told AFP, but US and Saudi observers said "fighting in Khartoum appeared to be less intense" since the one-week humanitarian pause entered into force late Monday.

Iran has named an ambassador to Saudi Arabia, state media reported Wednesday, sealing a thaw in relations more than seven years after the regional rivals severed ties.

The new envoy, Alireza Enayati, previously served as Iran's ambassador to Kuwait, assistant to the foreign minister and director general of Gulf affairs at the foreign ministry, the English-language Iran Daily said.

There was no immediate confirmation of his appointment from the foreign ministry of the Islamic republic.

A Swiss court on Wednesday found Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan not guilty of rape and sexual coercion in a Geneva hotel 15 years ago, with his accuser immediately indicating she would appeal.

The court also decided to compensate the former Oxford University professor for his legal costs, awarding him up to 151,000 Swiss francs ($167,000), but rejecting his claim for moral damages.