A court in Iran has sentenced to death two gay rights activists on charges of promoting homosexuality, campaigners said Monday, urging pressure from the international community to stop the implementation of the verdicts.

The two women, Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were sentenced to death by the court in the northwestern town of Urmia, the Hengaw Kurdish rights organisation said.

They were convicted of "spreading corruption on earth" -- a charge frequently imposed on defendants deemed to have broken the country's sharia laws, it added.

Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead in May while covering clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, was widely hailed for her bravery and professionalism.

Her killing, which her employer the Al Jazeera network, eyewitnesses and Palestinian authorities blamed on Israeli forces, sparked widespread grief and outrage which were compounded when Israeli security forces beat mourners at her funeral.

The Israeli army conceded Monday for the first time that one of its soldiers had likely shot Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Akleh after having mistaken her for a militant.

"There is a high possibility that Ms Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) gunfire that was fired toward suspects identified as armed Palestinian gunmen," said the army's final investigation report into her May 11 death.

In a sun-baked cemetery in the central Iraqi city of Najaf, fresh are the graves of loyalists to Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr who were killed in clashes in Baghdad last week.

So too is seething anger following the face-off between the cleric's supporters, rival Iran-backed factions and the army that left more than 30 Sadrists dead and 570 others wounded.

Standing between tombstones, Moussa Abbas said the fight was far from over.

Iraq's top executive powers and major parties agreed Monday at a meeting boycotted by powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to work towards holding early elections, a week after deadly unrest, the prime minister's office said.

The president, prime minister and parliament speaker met with representatives of political parties to chart an exit from an 11-month-long political paralysis.

Germany on Monday sought "forgiveness" from families of victims in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack, admitting responsibility for a litany of failings that led to the deaths of 11 Israelis.

The apology by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on behalf of Germany 50 years on came after a bitter and long fight by bereaved relatives for appropriate compensation and for Berlin to own up to mistakes made that led to the massacre.

The OPEC+ oil cartel agreed Monday to cut production for the first time in more than a year as it seeks to lift prices that have tumbled due to recession fears.

The move could irk the United States as it has pressed the group to increase output in order to bring down energy prices that have fuelled decades-high inflation.

OPEC+, a 23-nation coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, had agreed to huge cuts in output in 2020 when the Covid pandemic sent oil prices crashing, but it began to increase production modestly again last year as the market improved.

A Turkish warship docked in Israel over the weekend for the first time since 2010, amid improving ties between the two countries, officials and witnesses said Sunday.

The TCG Kemalreis frigate was docked Sunday in the northern port of Haifa, headquarters of the Israeli navy, AFP reporters said.

A spokesperson for the Israeli army said the warship was making a stopover as part of "NATO activities".

In Ankara, the Turkish defence ministry said the frigate was to remain in the port of Haifa until September 6.

Palestinian and Arab-Israeli gunmen wounded six Israeli soldiers and a civilian on Sunday when they sprayed bullets at a bus in the occupied West Bank, the army said.

The attack in the Jordan Valley, near the city of Tubas, extends a recent spate of violence in the West Bank and follows a shooting spree last month targeting an Israeli bus in annexed east Jerusalem.

It also follows months of often deadly Israeli army raids in the West Bank, many targeting Palestinian militants in the Nablus and Jenin areas -- both near Tubas.

Germany's President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted on Sunday it was "shameful" that it took five decades for Berlin to agree compensation for the bereaved families of Israeli victims in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack.

"That it took 50 years to reach this agreement in the last days is indeed shameful," said Steinmeier, standing next to his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog, with whom he will be attending a commemoration ceremony in Munich on Monday.