France is "extremely worried" about the health of a French-Irish citizen held in Iran, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, as UN rights experts accused Tehran of institutionalised "hostage-taking".
The developments came as an Iranian newspaper said authorities had arrested a German for allegedly photographing oil facilities in the southwestern province of Khuzestan.
European investigators questioned witnesses for eight hours in Beirut Tuesday as part of a probe into Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salemeh and his brother, a judicial official told AFP.
Investigators from France, Germany and Luxembourg began hearing witnesses Monday as part of the case of suspected financial misconduct including possible money laundering and embezzlement.
Iran on Tuesday hailed the resumption of the first direct ministerial talks between arch-rivals Ankara and Damascus since the outbreak of the Syria civil war more than a decade ago.
Ankara's relations with Damascus ruptured after Ankara began backing rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Assad a "terrorist" in 2017 and refused to recognise the Syrian leader's rule.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man Tuesday after he allegedly fired at troops in the occupied West Bank, medical and military officials said.
The Palestinian health ministry said Hamdi Abu Dayyeh, 40, was killed "by Israeli occupation bullets" in the southern town of Halhul.
Israel's army said an assailant shot at soldiers, "who responded with live fire and neutralised him."
An AFP photographer saw the body of a man beside a military tower at the northern entrance to the town, before it was covered by soldiers.
After lighting up football's biggest stages, Cristiano Ronaldo faces a very different reality in Saudi Arabia with smaller stadiums and less exalted teams -- and some very high temperatures.
Ronaldo, 37, says he's embracing the "challenge" of the Saudi Pro League, a step into the unknown for a player who is more used to Real Madrid's heaving Santiago Bernabeu stadium or the "Theatre of Dreams", Manchester United's Old Trafford.
With Egypt's economy in crisis, the currency in freefall and inflation skyrocketing, the poor have been hit hard but the middle class is also teetering on the brink.
"It's like we were hit by an earthquake, suddenly you have to let go of everything," said Manar, a 38-year-old mother of two.
"Now whatever semi-humane life people had has been reduced to thinking about how much bread and eggs cost," she told AFP, asking to be identified only by her first name.
Thousands of members of the Iranian diaspora from all over Europe on Monday demonstrated in the EU parliament host city of Strasbourg to urge the bloc to list Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terror group.
Pressure is growing among opposition exiles and activists for the European Union and United Kingdom to follow the United States and blacklist the Guards over the crackdown on the four months of protests since the death of Mahsa Amini in September.
Dubai recorded real estate transactions worth more than $143 billion in 2022, the official Dubai Media Office said Monday, calling it a "milestone" for the United Arab Emirate's main business hub.
The property boom comes amid an influx of Russians who have purchased properties in some of Dubai's most popular areas, after Moscow faced a tightening of Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
"Dubai's annual real estate transactions have crossed the milestone of half a trillion dirhams for the first time," the Dubai Media Office said in a statement.
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian boy Monday near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, where the army said they opened fire after people threw Molotov cocktails.
Omar Khmour, 14, was shot in the head early Monday in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank and "succumbed to his wounds", the ministry said.
The Israeli military said Monday that troops opened fire after "suspects hurled rocks, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers."
Major General Herzi Halevi was appointed Israel's new military chief of staff Monday, in a ceremony hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We will prepare the army for war on fronts near and far," Halevi vowed at the ceremony, at the start of his three-year term.
A former military intelligence chief, Halevi was serving as deputy to his predecessor, Aviv Kohavi, until taking the helm.
Netanyahu said Israel will not get dragged into "pointless wars, but on decisive days we will fight."
