France's foreign minister on Friday urged the swift election of a new Lebanese president, after a second vote in parliament to pick a successor to incumbent Michel Aoun failed.

"Lebanon today cannot risk a power vacuum," Catherine Colonna said at the end of a short visit to the Middle Eastern country, urging its leaders to live up to "their political and institutional responsibilities".

Aoun was elected in 2016, after a more than two-year presidential vacancy. He was chosen after lawmakers tried 45 times to reach a consensus on a candidate.

A photomontage of dozens of renowned Iranian women all observing hijab disappeared from a Tehran billboard Friday within 24 hours of going up, after drawing criticism amid protests over Mahsa Amini's death.

Iran has been gripped by a month of protests since Amini died after being arrested by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women.

The street violence has led to dozens of deaths, mostly of protestors but also members of the security forces, and hundreds have been arrested.

Iraqi lawmakers have elected a new president who swiftly named a prime minister in the hope of ending a year of political gridlock and deadly violence.

But major challenges lie ahead for the crisis-hit nation.

- How will government talks play out? -

Iraq's parliament, dominated by the pro-Iran Coordination Framework of Shiite Muslim factions, elected on Thursday a new president, 78-year-old Kurdish former minister Abdul Latif Rashid.

Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco is to sponsor major events organised by cricket's world governing body, the company said Friday, as the conservative kingdom took another big step into the global sports industry.

Saudi Aramco, one of the world's richest companies, will sponsor the International Cricket Council's upcoming men's and women's T20 World Cups and next year's one-day World Cup in India under a partnership deal.

Lebanon and Israel said they have struck an "historic" deal over a maritime border dispute involving offshore gas fields after years of US-mediated talks, in a step that facilitates hydrocarbon production.

Here's what we know of the agreement:

- What are the terms? -

Negotiations between the neighbouring countries, which are still technically at war, had suffered repeated setbacks since their launch in 2020.

But they gained momentum in recent weeks with both sides eyeing revenue from potentially rich Mediterranean gas fields.

Two Palestinians including a doctor were killed Friday in an Israeli raid in the flashpoint city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.

Dr Abdullah al-Ahmad "succumbed to a bullet wound that pierced his head, fired by the occupation (Israeli) soldiers", the ministry said in a statement.

A ministry spokesman told AFP that Palestinian Mateen Debaya had also been killed in the raid on the city's refugee camp, while militant group Hamas named Debaya as a "fighter".

Deep in the Qatari desert, security guards have a lonely time keeping 24-hour watch over one of the world's most isolated artworks, created by renowned US sculptor Richard Serra.

"On a busy day we can get 100 people," said one guard monitoring the four vertical steel plates -- each more than 14 metres (46 feet) high -- that makeup Serra's "East-West/West-East".

But when temperatures soar above 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in the Brouq nature reserve, visitors are rare.

Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychosis: Yemen's seven years of brutal civil war have caused an explosion of mental illness overwhelming the basic health care services.

"We try to provide treatment, but we cannot treat everyone", said Adel Melhi, director of a psychiatric hospital in the rebel-blockaded city of Taez, one of the places hardest hit by the conflict.

Iran-backed Huthi rebels have fought a Saudi-led pro-government coalition since 2015 in a grinding war that has killed hundreds of thousands and pushed the impoverished nation to the brink of famine.

Dozens of Iranian children have been killed and hundreds detained after being caught up in protests over Mahsa Amini's death, some of them even ending up in "psychological centres", it has emerged.

Iran has been rocked by a month of demonstrations driven by public outrage over Amini's death after the morality police arrested her for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Lebanon approved a US-brokered maritime border deal with Israel on Thursday, President Michel Aoun announced, unlocking significant offshore gas production for the eastern Mediterranean neighbours.

It comes after Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday said the agreement would make conflict with Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah less likely.

"I announce the approval by Lebanon of the final version prepared by the American mediator to delineate the southern maritime border," the Lebanese president said in a televised speech.