The UAE's long-time de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was named as president on Saturday, confirming his rise to power a day after the death of former leader Sheikh Khalifa.

The 61-year-old, who has run the oil-rich Gulf state from behind the scenes since his half-brother was sidelined by ill health in 2014, was "unanimously elected" by rulers of the country's seven emirates, the official WAM news agency said.

The UAE's long-time de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan was elected as president on Saturday, official media said, a day after the death of former leader Sheikh Khalifa.

Sheikh Mohamed was elected by the Federal Supreme Council, WAM news agency said, becoming the ruler of the oil-rich country founded by his father in 1971.

Sheikh Mohamed, often known as 'MBZ', met members of the Federal Supreme Council, made up of rulers of the UAE's seven emirates, as the oil-rich country enters a period of mourning for his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa.

China has withdrawn as the 2023 Asian Cup host due to the coronavirus, football officials said Saturday, with Beijing's strict zero-Covid strategy dealing another blow to the country's sporting ambitions.

Authorities in China are pursuing a strategy of stamping out the virus entirely, which includes rapid lockdowns and mass testing, and millions in Shanghai have faced onerous restrictions for more than a month.

But the measures -- now rare globally, as most countries shift to living with Covid -- have made hosting sporting events a major challenge.

Israel's police chief on Saturday ordered an investigation into the actions of officers at the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, after they charged the procession and beat pallbearers, sparking global outrage.

Thousands of mourners packed Jerusalem's Old City on Friday for the burial of the 51-year-old Al Jazeera reporter. The Palestinian-American was killed two days earlier during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank.

The European Union said Friday it had unblocked stalled talks with Iran after a mission to Tehran but the United States raised doubts on whether it was enough to revive a nuclear deal.

EU envoy Enrique Mora visited Tehran this week in a bid to help restart the 2015 nuclear deal, two months after slow-moving negotiations in Vienna to bring Iran and the United States back into compliance broke off.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the trip had gone "better than expected".

A British-Iranian woman freed after six years' imprisonment in Tehran rebuked Prime Minister Boris Johnson in person on Friday after his loose language was used against her by the Islamic regime.

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe finally returned home in March along with a fellow dual national, after Britain agreed to pay a longstanding debt to Iran.

Johnson was accused of lengthening her ordeal when, as foreign secretary in 2017, he wrongly claimed that she had been training journalists at the time of her arrest in 2016.

Thousands of people packed Jerusalem's Old City on Friday for the burial of veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, after Israeli police stormed the funeral procession.

Television footage showed pallbearers struggling to stop Abu Akleh's coffin from falling to the ground as baton-wielding police officers charged towards them, grabbing Palestinian flags from mourners.

Washington said it was "deeply troubled" by the scenes, while the European Union said it was "appalled" by the "unnecessary force."

Lebanese activists Friday rolled out mock banknotes featuring paintings of a gutted central bank or the Beirut port explosion to denounce high-level corruption that has helped to wreck the country.

The collapse of the Lebanese pound and frozen bank accounts have left Lebanon with a confusing currency system, with a multitude of exchange rates applying to various situations in daily life.

The dollars stuck in accounts that citizens can only withdraw in Lebanese pounds at a fraction of their original value are known locally as "lollars".

EU envoy Enrique Mora said Friday he called for the release on "humanitarian grounds" of an Iranian-Swedish academic on death row, during a mission to Tehran to help revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact.

Mora, the European Union's coordinator for talks between Iran and major world powers to restore the deal, met Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, who is also deputy foreign minister, on Wednesday and Thursday, state media said.

Mora tweeted after his departure that he had raised the case of the academic, Ahmedreza Djalali.

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan died Friday aged 73 after a years-long battle with illness, triggering a period of mourning and a handover of power in the oil-rich Gulf state.

Sheikh Khalifa, who was in office during a time of rocketing fortunes for the United Arab Emirates but was rarely seen in public, was laid to rest in Abu Dhabi's Al Bateen Cemetery just hours after his death was announced, in accordance with Muslim tradition.