Spanish rider Joan Barreda won his first stage of this year's Dakar Rally on Wednesday taking the honours in the fourth stage of this year's race with Australia's Dominic Sanders retaining the overall lead.

Barreda, on a Honda, timed 16 seconds faster than Chilean team-mate Pablo Quintanilla with the ultra-consistent Skyler Howes of the United States third, 1min 5sec off the pace.

Howes's compatriot Mason Klein was the big loser on two wheels on the 425 kilometres special raced around Hail.

A Tunisian former environment minister has been sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the illegal import of 280 containers of waste from Italy, local media reported Wednesday.

Mustapha Aroui and several ministry officials had been sacked and arrested in December 2020 as public anger mounted and authorities investigated how the waste had been imported.

A Tunis court sentenced Aroui and three others to three years each in prison late on Tuesday, Tunisian media reported.

A Jerusalem bishop said Wednesday he was "dismayed" by the desecration of dozens of Christian graves on the edge of the Old City, as police probed the vandalism.

Stone graves lay in pieces with crosses toppled at the Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion, where Christians believe Jesus's Last Supper took place.

"We discovered that more than 30 tombstones and crosses were smashed to pieces," Hosam Naoum, an Anglican bishop, told journalists at the cemetery.

Iraqi telecommunications worker Youssef Ahmed is married with a five-year-old son, but lives with his parents because he is unable to afford his own home amid soaring property prices.

"Even if your income increases, it will never be up to the exorbitant prices of houses or land", said 29-year-old Ahmed, who earns a "comfortable" monthly salary of $1,000, double the national average.

In oil-rich but corruption plagued Iraq, real estate has become a popular way to launder money, including stolen public funds.

Public anger has been growing for months in Egypt over a severe dollar crunch and soaring food prices. But for many a money-saving tip from a state body has been the last straw.

As families have struggled to purchase household staples, an Egyptian government agency praised an alternative, cheap protein source -- "chicken feet, good for the body and the budget".

The advice drew widespread scorn on social media while lawmaker Karim al-Sadat slammed it as "divorced from the reality of the crisis".

Iraq said Tuesday it had recovered another $2.6 million in public funds fraudulently withdrawn from a government account, but the money is still only a fraction of the $2.5 billion that disappeared.

The scandal, implicating businessmen and former high officials, has provoked widespread anger in Iraq. The country is oil-rich but ravaged by endemic corruption while plagued by unemployment and decaying infrastructure.

Judge Haider Hanoun, who heads the government's anti-corruption agency, said "the sum returned today... amounts to four billion Iraqi dinars" ($2.6 million).

Cristiano Ronaldo described himself as a "unique player" and insisted his career was not over as he arrived at his new club Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

The Portuguese forward, 37, has signed a huge deal estimated at 200 million euros ($211m) after glittering spells at Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

"I'm a unique player. It's good to come here, I broke all the records there (in Europe) and I want to break a few records here," Ronaldo told media at Al Nassr's Mrsool Park stadium.

The killing of a top Iranian general three years ago in a US drone strike will be avenged, President Ebrahim Raisi vowed on Tuesday at a commemoration attended by thousands.

Then-US president Donald Trump ordered the strike which assassinated General Qassem Soleimani, 62, on January 3, 2020.

Turkey on Tuesday hosted the leaders of Syria's opposition in a bid to assuage their concern following its overtures to Damascus.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted images of his meeting in Ankara with the opposition Syrian National Council chief Mahmut al-Maslat and other leaders.

The talks came less than a week after the defence chiefs of Turkey and Syria held landmarks negotiations in Moscow -- the first such meeting since 2011.

Five months after the United States announced the killing of Al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan, the global jihadist group has still not confirmed his death or announced a new boss.

In early August, US President Joe Biden said US armed forces fired two missiles from a drone flying above the Afghan capital, striking al-Zawahiri's safe house and killing him.