In bankrupt Lebanon, Khalil Mansour has to queue for hours every day just to buy bread for his family and some days he can't afford any.

In a country which once boasted the nickname "Switzerland of the Middle East" for its thriving banking sector before financial crisis hit in 2019, the chronic shortage of the staple of the Lebanese diet has been hard to take.

Lebanon defaulted on its national debt in 2020 and its currency has lost around 90 percent of its black market value.

Standing behind her control tower with headphones around her neck, Saudi DJ Leen Naif segues smoothly between pop hits and club tracks for a crowd of business school graduates noshing on sushi.

The subdued scene is a far cry from the high-profile stages –- a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah, Expo 2020 in Dubai -– that have helped the 26-year-old, known as DJ Leen, make a name for herself on the Saudi music circuit.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI used an address on Saturday to "once again" reiterate his openness to restoring ties with Algeria, which broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat last year.

"We aspire to work with the Algerian presidency so that Morocco and Algeria can work hand in hand to establish normal relations between two brotherly peoples," Mohammed said during the traditional speech marking the anniversary of his accession to the throne.

Volunteers shuttled back and forth in fleets of pickups to Iraq's normally secure Green Zone Saturday as protesters who occupied parliament earlier in the day settled in for the long haul.

The thousands of demonstrators who had overwhelmed the barriers protecting the compound camped out inside and outside parliament as supporters delivered hot meals and bottles of cold water.

One man lit a fire to warm some tea while another offered cigarettes for sale -- all as Iraqi security forces watched on, an AFP correspondent reported.

At least 80 people have been killed and 30 others are missing in floods that have wreaked havoc across Iran for more than a week, state media reported Saturday.

Since the start of the Iranian month of Mordad on July 23, "59 people died and 30 are still missing in the incidents caused by recent floods," Yaghoub Soleimani, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr occupied the country's parliament on Saturday with no plan to leave, deepening a months-long political standoff.

It is the second time in days that supporters of the firebrand Shiite cleric have forced their way into the legislative chamber, after October elections failed to lead to the formation of a government.

"The demonstrators announce a sit-in until further notice," Sadr's movement said in a brief statement to journalists carried by state news agency INA.

For Yemeni beekeeper Mohammed Saif, honey production used to be a lucrative business but years of war and climate change have taken the buzz out of the family hives.

The business, handed down from father to son, "is slowly disappearing", Saif told AFP. "The bees are being hit by strange phenomenons. Is it due to climate change or the effects of war? We really don't know."

Yemen, one of the world's most impoverished countries, has been gripped by a deadly conflict since 2014, pitting the Iran-backed Huthis against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.

A US judge Friday ordered the military chief of eastern Libya, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, to compensate Libyan plaintiffs who allege he ordered the torture and extrajudicial killings of their family members.

The federal judge in the state of Virginia, where Haftar lived before returning to Libya, ruled that he had not cooperated with the court and that by "default" was ordered to pay damages to the families.

At least seven people have been killed in the United Arab Emirates after unseasonable downpours triggered flash flooding in eastern districts of the normally parched Gulf state, authorities said.

"We regret to announce that six people of Asian nationalities have been found dead as a result of the floods," the interior ministry's chief of central operations, Ali al-Tunaiji, said.

The ministry later announced the death of a seventh Asian migrant.

Two days of flooding near the Iranian capital have killed at least 24 people and another 19 are still missing, officials said on Friday.

"Because of strong rain and floods in the village of Emamzadeh Davoud to the west and the Firouzkouh, Roudehen and Damavand regions east of Tehran, 24 people are dead," a Red Crescent statement said.

"A search and rescue operation for 19 missing persons is ongoing," it added.