Israel's agreement with foe Lebanon to demarcate their maritime border makes conflict with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah less likely, the Israeli premier said Wednesday, after his cabinet voiced support for the deal.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday announced that Israel and Lebanon had reached an "historic" US-brokered agreement, which potentially unlocks significant offshore gas production for the eastern Mediterranean neighbours.

Syria on Wednesday revealed a remarkably intact 1,600-year-old Roman-era mosaic including depictions of warriors in the Trojan War, with authorities hailing it as one of the "rarest" found.

The mosaic is the latest to be found in Rastan in northern Syria's Homs district, which the government seized back from rebels in 2018 after years of bloodshed.

Soldiers carrying swords and shields are seen with the names of Greek leaders who took part in the Trojan War, said Hammam Saad, who heads excavations and archaeological studies at Syria's General Directorate of Museums.

Qatar World Cup organisers on Wednesday warned fans to brace for "congestion" in the first two weeks of the tournament when the peak number of supporters will be packing the Gulf state's capital.

Private cars will be banned from many streets and residents near some stadiums will need permits to get to their homes, organisers and government officials told a press conference as they outlined measures to avoid a World Cup jam.

The tiny state of 2.9 million people will be the smallest to hold the World Cup that starts November 20.

A major exhibition of impressionist art opened Wednesday at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, featuring works from masters such as Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro and Renoir.

Billed as one of the most significant exhibitions on the 19th century art movement ever held outside France, it features more than 150 works on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

Claude Monet's "Women in the Garden" is among the masterpieces on show from the movement characterised by rapid dabs and brushstrokes that explore the transient effects of light and colour.

Saudi golf coach Faraj Mezhar hit his first shots on a sandy course in neighbouring Qatar three decades ago, an outing that changed his life forever.

After a long stint with the Saudi national team, these days he helps amateurs with their swing and short game, part of a national project to transform the Gulf state into an unlikely golf powerhouse.

Professional golf has this year been roiled by the emergence of LIV Golf, a Saudi-funded breakaway circuit that has lured stars from the US PGA Tour with eye-watering prize money of $25 million per tournament.

Palestinians launched a rare strike in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem Wednesday over a days-long operation by Israeli security forces in a refugee camp after a soldier was shot dead.

Businesses were shuttered in the Old City and along the main commercial street of the city's eastern sector, which is usually bustling with shoppers and traffic.

The strike follows the killing on Saturday of an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint near the Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp, which prompted a massive manhunt for the suspected attacker, who remains on the run.

Gunshots were fired as Iranian security forces confronted protests Wednesday over Mahsa Amini's death in a crackdown that rights groups say has already cost at least 108 lives with many children among the dead.

The crack of gunfire interrupted demonstrators' chants in the cities of Isfahan and Karaj and in Amini's hometown Saqez, in videos shared by two Norway-based human rights organisations.

"Death to the dictator," shouted female students who had defiantly taken off their mandatory hijab headscarves as they marched down a Tehran street, in a video verified by AFP.

Leading Iran reformist Mostafa Tajzadeh, who has made repeated public calls for "structural changes" to the Islamic republic, has been jailed for five years, his lawyer said late Tuesday.

The 65-year-old, who was arrested on July 8, before the wave of protests triggered by the death in morality police custody last month of Mahsa Amini, has begun serving his sentence after choosing not to appeal, lawyer Houshang Pourbabai said on Twitter.

Hundreds of mourners and survivors commemorated Wednesday the 20th anniversary of the bombings that killed more than 200 people on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, as Jakarta considers the early release of one of the attack's masterminds.

Grieving families, attack survivors and representatives from several embassies will attend a memorial in Bali's popular tourist hub of Kuta, where Al-Qaeda-linked militants detonated bombs at a bar and nightclub on October 12, 2002.

US President Joe Biden promised "consequences" for Saudi Arabia after a Riyadh-led coalition of oil-producing nations sided with Russia to slash output.

The 13-nation OPEC cartel and its 10 allies headed by Moscow angered the White House last week with its decision to cut production by two million barrels a day from November, raising fears that oil prices could soar.

"I'm not going to get into what I'd consider and what I have in mind. But there will be -- there will be consequences," Biden told CNN when pressed on possible responses in a rare televised interview.