Iran plans to commission three more versions of a satellite launched this week by Russia, Tehran's government spokesman said Friday.

The Khayyam blasted into orbit on Tuesday, prompting US accusations that it is intended for spying. Iran dismissed Washington's claim as "childish."

"The construction of three other Khayyam satellites with the participation of Iranian scientists is on the government's agenda," its spokesman Ali Bahadori-Jahromi said on Twitter.

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket sent the satellite into orbit from the Moscow-controlled Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Facing a bank of screens that look like NASA mission command, technicians counting down to the World Cup in Qatar control the temperature, gates, 15,000 cameras and much more in the eight stadiums.

The Aspire control and command centre will monitor all stadiums at once, as Qatar pulls out all the technical stops to keep an eye on the anticipated one million plus visitors from the moment they get off the plane to moment they leave.

Mohamed gave up farming because of successive droughts that have hit his previously fertile but isolated village in Morocco and because he just couldn't bear it any longer.

"To see villagers rush to public fountains in the morning or to a neighbour to get water makes you want to cry," the man in his 60s said.

"The water shortage is making us suffer," he told AFP in Ouled Essi Masseoud village, around 140 kilometres (87 miles) from the country's economic capital Casablanca.

FIFA on Thursday officially brought forward the opening match of this year's World Cup by one day to November 20 in a rare change so that hosts Qatar feature in the gala game.

Football's top officials universally approved the decision, FIFA said in a statement while Qatar said it would give unspecified help to fans affected by the change.

On the old schedule, Qatar against Ecuador was to be the official inauguration match on November 21 but Senegal against Netherlands would be the first match of the day. England against Iran would have been second.

Iraq has agreed to renew a one-year deal to provide Lebanon with fuel for its power plants in exchange for in-kind services, Lebanon's Prime Minister said in a statement Thursday.

Iraq signed an agreement in July 2021 to give cash-strapped Lebanon one million tonnes of fuel oil to help keep the lights on as the country grapples with power cuts up to 23 hours a day during an unprecedented economic crisis.

Bystanders hailed as a hero an armed customer who held bank staff hostage for hours Thursday in Lebanon because he couldn't access funds frozen after the country's economic collapse.

The suspect, identified only as Bassam, was armed with a rifle and had doused the interior of the bank with gasoline, security sources said.

But after eight hours the standoff ended peacefully.

"Bassam you are a hero!" cheering bystanders chanted outside the bank.

The UN rights chief voiced alarm Thursday at the number of Palestinian children killed and wounded this month and demanded those responsible be brought to account.

Last week saw three days of intense conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in the densely populated Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

"Inflicting hurt on any child during the course of conflict is deeply disturbing," Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.

"The killing and maiming of so many children this year is unconscionable."

A Tunisian court dismissed all charges Thursday against the crew of a tanker that sank off the coast in April triggering a pollution alert before it emerged its tanks were empty,

The court in the southern port city of Gabes ordered the immediate release of the seven crew members -- a Georgian, four Turks and two Azerbaijanis -- who had been in custody since April, spokesman Mohamed Karray told AFP.

Prosecutors said they would appeal against the court's decision.

A customer armed with a rifle and threatening to set himself ablaze held bank workers hostage Thursday in Lebanon's capital, demanding to withdraw his trapped savings to pay hospital fees, security sources and a family member said.

The incident is the latest between local banks and angry depositors unable to access their savings held in cash-starved banks because of informal capital controls in economic crisis-hit Lebanon.

Security forces cordoned off a Federal Bank branch near west Beirut's busy Hamra street where the armed man was holding staff hostage for several hours.

Iran dismissed as "fiction" Thursday US allegations it had plotted to kill former White House national security adviser John Bolton in retaliation for the assassination of one of its top commanders.

The US claim comes at a crunch moment in talks on reviving a nuclear deal between Iran and major powers that Washington had abandoned in 2018 but has said it wants to rejoin, with Iran now considering what European Union mediators have called a "final" text.