The White House denied Friday it was seeking to smooth over frayed bilateral ties with Riyadh when a recent US government court filing granted immunity to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over journalist Jamal Khashoggi's 2018 murder.

"This legal determination has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the case itself," said White House national security spokesman John Kirby, referring to the civil lawsuit against the crown prince and other Saudis by Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz.

Egyptian artist Bahia Shehab had one goal at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt: to let people experience the "hell" that is global warming.

At first, she said, she wanted to "hack the rooms" to literally turn up the heat on delegates from nearly 200 countries who have been talking for two weeks about how to drive forward action against worsening climate change.

With wealthy and developing nations struggling to agree on final deals, talks were extended to Saturday.

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi on Friday praised the "courage" of Iranian protesters, telling AFP he "salutes" the ongoing calls for political change in his homeland.

Iran has been gripped by a wave of protests sparked by the death in mid-September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, after her arrest by the country's morality police for allegedly breaching the strict dress code for women.

Funerals for young Iranians, including a small boy, who families say were killed in a state crackdown, sparked a new wave of anti-regime protests on Friday in the Islamic republic.

Iran's clerical leadership under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is facing its biggest challenge since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in two months of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

The authorities have responded with a crackdown that a human rights group says has left 342 people dead, half a dozen already sentenced to death and thousands more arrested.

Thousands of Palestinians turned out Friday for the funeral of 21 people who died in a Gaza Strip apartment building fire, an AFP correspondent said.

At least seven children were among the dead in the blaze at Jabalia Palestinian refugee camp on Thursday night, said the head of the Indonesian Hospital there, Saleh Abu Lai.

Mourners carried the coffins, draped in Palestinian flags, through crowds in the camp toward Beit Lahia cemetery for burial.

Iran has accused foreign foes of trying to spark "civil war" by stoking the protests over Mahsa Amini's death -- harsh language that, analysts warn, could presage an even bloodier crackdown.

Fears that Iran is sliding into deeper violence have grown since Wednesday, when assailants on motorcycles gunned down nine people -- including a woman and two boys aged nine and 13 -- in two mysterious attacks.

Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of his Mercedes team-mate George Russell in Friday’s opening practice at this weekend’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the ‘silver arrows’ continuing where they left off after a one-two triumph in Sao Paulo last Sunday.

Returning to the scene of his acrimonious and controversial defeat by Max Verstappen of Red Bull in last year’s title-deciding race, Hamilton produced a best lap in one minute and 26.633 seconds to outpace Russell by 0.220 seconds.

FIFA and Qatar on Friday banned beer sales around the eight World Cup stadiums in a stunning policy u-turn just two days before the start of the tournament.

Football's world body said the decision was taken following "discussions" with World Cup hosts Qatar, an Islamic state which severely restricts alcohol consumption.

It gave no reason for the surprise decision, however.

A FIFA statement said alcohol would be focused on fan zones, "removing sales points of beer from Qatar's FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters."

Protesters in Iran have set on fire the ancestral home of the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as two months of anti-regime demonstrations show no letup, images showed on Friday.

The house in the city of Khomein in the western Markazi province was shown ablaze late Thursday with crowds of jubilant protesters marching past, according to images posted on social media, verified by AFP.

Khomeini is said to have been born at the house in the town of Khomein -- from where his surname derives -- at the turn of the century.

The US government recommended on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was immune from legal action over the 2018 murder of a dissident journalist, according to court documents.

Prince Mohammed was named prime minister by royal decree in late September, sparking suggestions he was looking to skirt exposure in cases filed in foreign courts -- including a civil action brought in the United States by Hatice Cengiz, fiancee of slain columnist Jamal Khashoggi.