Choosing sides in Ukraine's crisis would have once been easy for Gulf states long protected by the US, but growing ties with Moscow are forcing them to strike a balance.

As the world rushed to condemn the Russian invasion of its smaller neighbour, the wealthy Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), have largely kept quiet.

Middle East experts say their reticence is understandable given what's at play -- energy, money and security.

Rights groups are urging Qatar to drop a case against a Mexican World Cup employee who could be sentenced to jail and a flogging after she reported an assault and was then charged with unmarried sex.

In a case that has raised fears for women attending the tournament later this year, Paola Schietekat, 28, was left with bruises on her arm, shoulder and back after a male acquaintance forced his way into her Doha apartment and attacked her in June.

With Russian forces in neighbouring Syria, Washington its unswerving ally and about a million citizens with ties to the former Soviet Union, Israel is seeking a delicate balance in the Ukraine crisis.

For residents of Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv and home to many Jews with roots in Russia and Ukraine, the Russian invasion launched Thursday triggered shock and concern for relatives.

"I didn't expect it, when I got the message from my parents (in Ukraine)," said Natalia Kogan.

The world has a rare opportunity to clean up the planet for future generations by uniting behind an ambitious treaty to tackle plastic trash, the UN environment chief told AFP.

Inger Andersen said a global plastics treaty being negotiated in Nairobi "holds the potential and the promise of being the biggest multilateral environmental breakthrough" since the Paris climate accords signed in 2015.

"This is a big moment. This is one for the history books," the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) told AFP in an interview.

In the stores and buses of Iraq masks are rare even as Covid-19 spreads widely, vaccines are viewed with suspicion and the sick see hospitals as a last resort.

At Al-Shifaa Hospital in the capital Baghdad, the ramifications are clear.

"More than 95 percent of those sick with Covid-19 in intensive care are unvaccinated," said Ali Abdel Hussein Kazem, assistant director of the facility.

Half of the 40 intensive care beds are occupied in the department, where irregular beeping from monitors and IV machines is constantly heard.

Australian golf great Greg Norman has accused the PGA Tour of unfairly threatening its players in a bid to thwart a proposed Saudi-backed Super League, ESPN reported Thursday.

The US sports website said it had obtained a copy of a letter from Norman to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, in which Norman accused Monahan of "going too far," and "being unfair" in telling players they would be denied US PGA Tour membership if they play on the rival circuit.

Lebanon's transport minister has said that Spain will finance a plan to revive the railway network that has been out of service since the start of the 1975-1990 civil war.

A deal for a "comprehensive master plan for the 407 kilometre-long (252 miles) railway" is expected next month, Public Works and Transport Minister Ali Hamie told AFP during an interview on Wednesday.

"We should sign a deal with the Spanish government within three weeks," Hamie said, adding that the plan should be completed six months after an agreement is clinched.

A record number of people in Syria are in need of humanitarian assistance more than a decade into a devastating civil war, the United Nations said.

At least 14.6 million people in Syria are in need of humanitarian aid, up from 13.4 million last year, the UN's humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report published late Wednesday.

"Suffering in Syria is at its highest level since the crisis began," said the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria conflict, Mark Cutts,

Iraq unveiled three monumental sculptures in the ancient city of Hatra Thursday, newly restored after being vandalised by militants of the Islamic State group during their brief but brutal rule.

The jihadists released video footage in 2015 of their orgy of destruction at Hatra in which they took guns and pickaxes to the once extensive remains of what was one of the leading trade entrepots between the Roman and Parthian empires in the first and second centuries AD.

Iran's chief negotiator called on Western governments Thursday to take the necessary decisions to seal a deal at talks in Vienna on reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement.

"No matter how close we are to the finish line, there is not necessarily a guarantee to cross it," Ali Bagheri tweeted after flying back to Tehran for consultations on the talks, which Iran says have reached a "critical" stage.

"To finish the job, there are certain decisions that Western parties must make," Bagheri said, without spelling out what they were.