Chants of "free them all" and "no climate justice without human rights" rang out between the halls of COP27 Saturday, in the largest protest since the UN climate summit began.

Jailed Egyptian dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah's sister, Sanaa Seif, who is at the summit campaigning for her brother's release, marched in the front line with hundreds behind her.

Seven months into a hunger strike, Abdel Fattah began refusing water last Sunday, as world leaders arrived in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for COP27.

An Iranian who got stuck for 18 years in a Paris airport, inspiring a Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Hanks died on Saturday at the terminal, an airport official said.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died of natural causes just before midday on Saturday in terminal 2F at Charles de Gaulle airport outside the French capital, the official told AFP.

Caught originally in an immigration trap -- unable to enter France and with nowhere to go -- he became dependent on his unusual place of abode and increasingly a national and international cause celebre.

Wheelchair struggles, scarce drinking water, $15 sandwiches and hotel price-gouging at the COP27 climate summit have sparked anger and forced host country Egypt into damage-control mode, participants at the two-week meet said.

Organising a UN climate conference -- which brings together up to 35,000 people from 195 countries each year -- is a world-class logistical challenge, and veterans of the nearly 30-year process are used to minor inconvenience.

Bahrainis headed to the polls Saturday but a ban on opposition candidates meant the election will bring no meaningful change despite a record number of people vying for seats, rights groups said.

More than 330 candidates, including a record 73 women, are competing to join the 40-seat council of representatives -- the lower house of parliament that advises King Hamad, who has ruled since his father died in March 1999.

This is up from the 293 people -- including 41 women -- who ran for parliament in the last election in 2018.

The family of jailed British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah announced Friday they have requested a presidential pardon for him as concern for his health mounts after a months-long hunger strike.

"Attached is the text of the pardon request that I submitted today, confirming... my readiness to take all available legal methods that guarantee a solution to my brother's crisis," his sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.

Thousands of migrant workers wearing the colours of Argentina, Brazil and England staged a World Cup rally in Doha Friday, less than 10 days from the start of the tournament.

Fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Harry Kane converged on the Doha seafront for a march that would normally not have been allowed, according to an AFP journalist.

The fans came mainly from Kerala state, a football bastion in India that also accounts for a huge chunk of the Indian migrant community in Qatar of about 750,000 people. Qatar has a total population of about 2.8 million.

Britain on Friday accused Iran of threatening the lives of UK-based journalists, after a crackdown that rights groups say has left more than 300 anti-regime protesters dead in Iran itself.

On Friday demonstrations continued with hundreds of angry men protesting after Friday prayers in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province, online videos showed. Their action came six weeks after rights groups say dozens were killed during a crackdown in the region.

Britain on Friday hauled in a senior Iranian diplomat after what it described as death threats against journalists living in the UK, following weeks of anti-regime protests.

The move coincided with Melika Balali, 22, an Iranian-born wrestler now based in Scotland, receiving police protection after accusations that she too had been threatened by the Tehran regime.

"I have summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires today after journalists working in the UK were subject to immediate threats to life from Iran," Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted.

Activists have called on football fans attending Iran's matches at the World Cup starting later this month to chant the name of Mahsa Amini, whose death in custody sparked nationwide protests.

Iran has been rocked by eight weeks of protests since Amini's death, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress rules for women based on Islamic sharia law.

In spite of a bloody crackdown, the protests that initially saw women burn their hijab headscarves and cut their hair have evolved into a broader movement calling for the end of the Islamic republic.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive an official mandate Sunday to form a government that could be the most right-wing in the country's history, sparking concern at home and abroad.

After a period of unprecedented political gridlock that forced five elections in less than four years, polls on November 1 gave the veteran leader and his far-right allies a clear majority in the 120-seat parliament, likely sealing Netanyahu's return to power.