Two protesters in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah were killed Wednesday in clashes with security forces at a rally after an activist was handed a jail term, authorities said.

Haidar al-Zaidi, 20, was sentenced to three years over a tweet of disputed origin deemed insulting to a pro-Iran ex-paramilitary force, according to court documents seen by AFP Wednesday.

The verdict, which Zaidi can appeal, has sparked criticism on social media.

Eye-witnesses have firmly disputed an Israeli officer's self-defence claims after chilling footage showed him firing close-range fatal shots at a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank.

Ammar Hadi Mufleh, 22, was killed Friday in Huwara, near Nablus in the northern West Bank, and video from the scene shows him in an altercation with an Israeli police commander, who then shot him several times.

Many Iranian workers went on strike and students boycotted classes Wednesday, rights groups said, as a former president publicly supported protests sparked by Mahsa Amini's death.

Demonstrations have swept Iran for nearly three months since Amini died after her arrest by the notorious morality police in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country's strict hijab dress code for women.

The authorities, who have struggled to contain the protests, describe them as "riots" fomented by Iran's arch foe the United States and its allies, including Britain and Israel.

Catastrophic floods, crop-wilting droughts and record heatwaves this year have shown that climate change warnings are increasingly becoming reality and this is "just the beginning", experts say, as international efforts to cut planet-heating emissions founder.

The year did see some important progress, with major new legislation particularly in the United States and Europe as well as a deal at UN talks to help vulnerable countries cope with an increasing onslaught of devastating climate impacts.

Ravers sporting face paint and flashing LED sunglasses jump in time to the thudding beats of Dish Dash, a DJ act whose rise mirrors that of the Saudi music scene.

The confetti-strewn dance hall in Riyadh is packed with young men and women, most in streetwear hoodies and jeans, a few in traditional white robes and abayas.

The setting bears scant resemblance to the venues where Dish Dash -- the Jeddah-born brothers Abbas and Hassan Ghazzawi –- began performing more than 15 years ago.

Chinese President Xi Jinping touched down in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a visit that is likely to focus on energy ties as Washington warned of Beijing's growing influence.

Xi, recently reanointed as leader of the world's second biggest economy, arrived in the capital Riyadh, Chinese and Saudi state media said, for a three-day visit that will include talks with Saudi and other Arab leaders.

The horrors of the Islamic State group's rule over northern Iraq may be in the past, but efforts to bring the jihadists to justice are still gathering pace.

"A lot of work remains to be done," said the UN's chief investigator Christian Ritscher, who is looking into a slew of IS atrocities, from murder, torture and mass rape to slavery and genocide.

Five years after it emerged from the Islamic State group's jihadist rule, Iraq's once thriving cultural centre of Mosul has regained a semblance of normalcy despite sluggish reconstruction efforts.

However, like in much of oil-rich but war-ravaged Iraq, ramshackle public services and deep economic difficulties continue to hamper people's daily lives.

Ghazwan Turki is just one of Mosul's many residents who struggle to make ends meet in the former IS stronghold, where the jihadists declared the establishment of a "caliphate" in 2014.

A US judge dismissed Tuesday a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged role in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Washington federal judge John Bates accepted a US government's stance that Prince Mohammed, who was designated prime minister of Saudi Arabia in September, enjoys immunity in US courts as a foreign head of state.

Bates said the civil suit filed by Khashoggi's widow Hatice Cengiz and his activist group DAWN made a "strong" and "meritorious" argument that Prince Mohammed was behind the murder.

With shouts, songs, cries and tears, Moroccans exploded with joy Tuesday as their football team beat Spain to reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup for the first time.

"There were millions behind Morocco -- this team represents a spirit, a union," said Imad Ait Ounejjar, from a noisy, crowded restaurant in the coastal city of Casablanca.

"This victory is for Morocco, Africa, the Arab world and all the nations that believed in us. We are proud to be Moroccans," added the young man, who works as a project manager.