At least 77 migrants drowned when a boat they boarded in Lebanon sank off Syria's coast, Syria's health minister said Friday, in one of the deadliest such shipwrecks in the eastern Mediterranean.

Lebanon, which since 2019 has been mired in a financial crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times, has become a launchpad for illegal migration, with its own citizens joining Syrian and Palestinian refugees clamouring to leave their homeland.

Protests flared in Iran for an eighth straight night Friday over the death of a young woman arrested by morality police, verified social media posts showed, hours after counter-demonstrations mobilised by authorities.

At least 50 people have been killed by security forces in the anti-government protests, Iran Human Rights, an Oslo-based organisation, said -- more than three times the official death toll of 17, which includes five security personnel.

At a time when prickly questions are being asked about Qatar and its hosting of the World Cup, Khalifa Al Haroon offers a smile, a sigh and a shrug as he seeks to explain its mysteries.

Known to his growing number of followers as Mr Q, the 38-year-old has become a social media hit by partially lifting the veil over the tiny but mega-rich Gulf state that describes itself as a "conservative" Islamic country.

The first World Cup in an Arab nation has put a spotlight on Qatar's treatment of foreign workers, gender rights and even the use of air conditioning in stadiums.

One Israeli was wounded and an assailant shot dead by police on Thursday in a stabbing attack in the occupied West Bank, Israeli police said.

The Israeli was "lightly injured by a suspect who was neutralised at Shital junction" on route 443, near Ramallah, the police said in a statement.

The police did not immediately comment on the identity of the attacker.

A separate statement said that seven others were injured by tear gas sprayed by the assailant during the attack.

The international community should use military force if Iran develops nuclear weapons, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid told the United Nations on Thursday, as he reiterated support for creation of a "peaceful" Palestinian state.

Israel has been conducting an intense diplomatic offensive in recent months to try to persuade the United States and main European powers such as Britain, France and Germany not to renew the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

More than 90 percent of harmful air pollution in the Middle East and parts of North Africa comes from fossil fuels, according to research Thursday that showed the region "permanently exceeded" dangerous air quality levels.

The World Health Organization this year said the MENA region had some of the poorest air quality on Earth.

The long-standing assumption was that the smog choking most of the region's cities was primarily composed of desert sand, given their location on the world's "dust belt" where there are frequently more than 20 major sand storms each year.

Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour said Thursday that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was scrapped after he insisted she wear a headscarf, the focus of major protests in the cleric-run state.

Amanpour, the chief international anchor of CNN who also has a show on US public broadcaster PBS, said she was ready for the interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly when an aide insisted she cover her hair.

The United States placed Iran's morality police on its sanctions blacklist Thursday following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab headscarf improperly.

The US Treasury said the morality police were "responsible" for Amini's death, which has sparked an outpouring of popular anger, as it announced the sanctions "for abuse and violence against Iranian women and the violation of the rights of peaceful Iranian protestors."

Hamas threatened "repercussions" over Jewish visits to Jerusalem's super-sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in a warning issued Thursday, days before the start of the Jewish high holidays when visitor numbers increase.

The mosque compound in the Old City of Israel-annexed east Jerusalem has been the focus of tensions for years, but Palestinians have voiced increasing anger at the rising number of visits by Jews, who revere the compound as their holiest site, the Temple Mount.

Women setting their headscarves ablaze and chanting anti-regime slogans. Pictures of the leadership defaced and burned. Vehicles belonging to the security forces set on fire.

The images of the protests in Iran are indicative of the taboo-breaking nature of a movement that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by the notorious morality police.