Relatives of imprisoned or recently released activists in the Middle East, including in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, urged the United States this week to use its influence to secure progress on human rights in those countries.

Their talks in Washington with White House, State Department and congressional officials, led by the NGO Freedom Initiative, came almost three months after President Joe Biden's much-criticized visit to Jeddah, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

The mother of an Iranian teen who died after joining protests over Mahsa Amini's death accused the authorities of murdering her, in a video sent Thursday to foreign-based opposition media.

Nasrin Shahkarami also accused the authorities of threatening her to make a forced confession over the death of 16-year-old Nika, who went missing on September 20 after heading out to join an anti-hijab protest in Tehran.

A year since Iraq's last elections, it remains without not only a new government but a budget too, obstructing much-needed reforms and infrastructure projects in the oil-rich but war-ravaged country.

Iraq has raked in huge revenues from oil exports this year, but the profits are locked up in the central bank's coffers, which have amassed a colossal $87 billion in foreign exchange reserves.

The government can't invest that money without an annual state budget -- which Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi is not authorised to submit to parliament in his capacity as caretaker.

Israel said Thursday that it will reject Lebanon's amendments to a US-drafted proposal on resolving a long-running maritime border dispute over gas-rich waters off the countries' Mediterranean coasts.

A draft agreement floated by US envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend, following years of indirect negotiations.

Iranian security forces have massacred over 80 people in the southeastern city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchestan province, in a crackdown on protests that erupted as Iran is convulsed by nationwide demonstrations, rights activists charge.

President Ebrahim Raisi has ordered an investigation into the unrest that started on September 30 after Friday prayers, which officials have characterised as attacks by "extremists" on police stations.

Qatar wants the 2022 World Cup mascot of a flying white headdress to symbolise football's showcase tournament, just as the noisy vuvuzela horn did when South Africa hosted it in 2010.

A flying keffiyah headdress named La'eeb, meaning super skilful player in Arabic, is the official World Cup mascot and is omnipresent on billboards across Qatar and on television.

"La'eeb is a fun and mischievous character who comes from the mascot-verse, a parallel world where all tournament mascots live," world football's governing body FIFA said in its announcement.

Libya's Tripoli-based prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah has defended a deal signed earlier this week with Turkey over oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, which angered European nations.

The memorandum of understanding, three years after a controversial maritime border deal, sparked a sharp reaction from Greece as well as from Dbeibah's rivals in Libya, where two administrations are grappling for power.

From Ukraine to Chile, protesters worldwide have long rallied to the stirring Italian anthem "Bella Ciao", now being sung by demonstrators in solidarity with women in Iran.

The song, which talks of dying for freedom, was sung in Italy during World War II and became a symbol of resistance against the fascists.

It has since become a global rallying call including in support of Iranians protesting the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the feared morality police.

American forces killed a "senior" member of the jihadist Islamic State group Thursday in a pre-dawn raid on northeastern Syria, the US military's Central Command said.

The operation is the latest US effort to clamp down on IS jihadists who have been territorially defeated but still orchestrate attacks in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

"CENTCOM forces conducted a raid in northeast Syria targeting a senior ISIS official," spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said in an emailed statement to AFP.

Israel said Thursday that it will reject Lebanon's amendments to a US-drafted proposal on resolving a long-running maritime border dispute over gas-rich waters off the countries' Mediterranean coasts.

A draft agreement floated by US envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend, following years of indirect negotiations.

Lebanon and Israel have no diplomatic relations and their land border is patrolled by the United Nations. The two sides are technically still at war.