An American woman who had publically accused her Saudi ex-husband of trapping their daughter in the kingdom under so-called guardianship laws said she was released Wednesday following a brief detention over social media posts.

Carly Morris was taken into custody on Monday and the whereabouts of her daughter, eight-year-old Tala, was unknown, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative, which describes itself as advocating on behalf of people wrongfully detained in the Middle East and North Africa.

A rare inscription that sheds new light on the use of Canaanite language some 3,700 years ago has been discovered on an ivory comb in southern Israel, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The comb was found at the Tel Lachish site in 2017, but the letters were not noticed until earlier this year following further examination, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said in a statement.

The artefact provides "direct evidence" of the use of the Canaanite alphabet in daily life, said Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeology professor at Hebrew University.

The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela, Gustavo Petro and Nicolas Maduro, launched a call Tuesday at the COP27 climate summit for a wide-ranging alliance to protect the Amazon, the planet's biggest tropical forest.

"We are determined to revitalise the Amazon rainforest... (in order) to offer humanity a significant victory in the battle against climate change," Petro said at the UN summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Climate change is outpacing the capacity of developing nations to cope with its devastating impacts, the Pakistani premier told COP27 on Tuesday, as his country reels from historic floods.

Talks at the UN climate conference in Egypt have been dominated by calls for wealthier nations to fulfil pledges to financially help poorer nations green their economies and build resilience.

"The world is burning up faster than our capacity for recovery," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned in his speech before the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

A fast-heating world "cannot afford a single gunshot", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN climate summit on Tuesday, arguing that Russia's invasion threatened international efforts to tackle global warming.

Speaking by video-link to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, Zelensky itemised the environmental fallout from the Russian assault on his country -- from compelling countries to increase their use of coal to the disruption of grain supplies, worsening food crises stoked by drought.

A Qatari World Cup ambassador called homosexuality a "damage in the mind" in a German TV interview, sparking criticism in Europe and the United States Tuesday just 12 days before the tournament kicks off.

Qatar will accept gay visitors but "they have to accept our rules", former international footballer Khalid Salman said in the interview with the ZDF broadcaster that aired Tuesday evening.

Salman also said homosexuality was "haram" -- forbidden in Islam -- during the interview, which was abruptly broken off after his comments.

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas Tuesday as they confronted thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in the capital Khartoum, an AFP correspondent said.

Protesters chanted "No to military rule" as they marched towards the presidential palace, denouncing a coup last year led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan that derailed a transition to civilian rule.

Burhan seized power in October 2021 and arrested civilian leaders appointed following the 2019 ouster of long-time autocrat Omar al-Bashir, plunging Sudan into a political and economic crisis.

International pressure mounted Tuesday for the "immediate release" of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose family fears for his life after he escalated his hunger strike by refusing water too as COP27 opened.

After a seven-month stint during which he consumed only "100 calories a day", the 40-year-old British-Egyptian dissident stopped drinking water on Sunday as world leaders gathered for the opening of the global climate summit in Egypt.

Spain's former king, Juan Carlos I, on Tuesday resumed a UK court battle to win immunity over harassment claims by his former lover, just as a new podcast featuring her claims is released.

Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, 57, is seeking personal injury damages from the 84-year-old royal, who ruled Spain from 1975 until his abdication in 2014.

The British resident has accused Juan Carlos, who now lives in the United Arab Emirates, of spying on and harassing her after their relationship soured in 2012.

The UN's chief called Tuesday for an end to a "toxic cover-up" by companies as a sweeping report said they cannot claim to be net zero if they invest in new fossil fuels, cause deforestation or offset emissions instead of reducing them.

Antonio Guterres said businesses as well as cities and regions should update their voluntary net zero pledges within a year to comply with the recommendations by UN experts, as he trained his sights on fossil fuel firms and "their financial enablers".