Lebanon's parliament failed to elect a new president after a first round of voting Thursday amid deep divisions over a replacement for Michel Aoun whose term expires next month.
A majority of lawmakers cast blank ballots, suggesting the election process is likely to drag on, an outcome Lebanon can ill afford as it wrestles with a crippling financial crisis.
Coronavirus vaccinations will not be mandatory for the million-plus fans going to the World Cup in Qatar this year, the Gulf state said Thursday.
But players and match officials may be forced into a secure "bio-bubble" if Covid-19 cases take off again, with the threat of expulsion from the tournament for those who breach the secure environment, the health ministry said.
The 29-day tournament will be the first major global sporting event with fans since the eruption in December 2019 of the Covid pandemic, which has since killed more than six million people.
Decent salaries and stability are the hallmarks of a job in Iraq's civil service, an institution much coveted by young graduates, even as it starves the private sector and hobbles the economy.
The patronage systems that feed the public sector in the oil-rich but war-battered nation are so entrenched that even the outgoing finance minister has despaired of ever trimming them down to size.
"We want work!"
It's a refrain that fresh graduates chant each year on the streets of the southern city of Nassiriyah.
The Lebanese parliament met Thursday to elect a new president, with no consensus on a successor to outgoing head of state Michel Aoun despite an unpredecedented financial crisis.
Deep divisions among MPs have raised fears Lebanon could be left without a president for months after Aoun's mandate runs out at the end of October, further undermining creditor confidence.
The incumbent's own election in 2016 came after a 29-month vacancy at the presidential palace as lawmakers made 45 failed attempts to reach consensus on a candidate.
By forcing the world to wake up to the daily sexual abuse suffered by women, the #MeToo movement became a social revolution of historic importance. Its legacy is still being determined.
It began with a tweet: on October 15, 2017, US actor Alyssa Milano invited women to share their experiences of sexual harassment under the words "Me too".
Within a year, the hashtag had been used more than 19 million times, according to Pew Research Center -- pushing the issue of sexual assault to the top of the global agenda.
Dozens of feminist activists demonstrated Wednesday in Morocco's capital, calling for legalised abortions after a teenage girl died following a clandestine procedure, AFP reporters said.
Protesters gathered outside the parliament, some holding placards denouncing the law which punishes abortion.
"Having a child must be a choice," activist Sarah Benmoussa told AFP.
"We're here today because our voices matter," said Khaoula, 23, a journalism student who joined the crowd. "Every human being should be able to control their own body."
Three rockets were fired Wednesday at Baghdad's Green Zone, wounding seven security force personnel, as parliament was holding its first session in two months, Iraq's security forces said.
The attack came before police fired tear gas and stun grenades to push back several hundred supporters of firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr who were seeking to reach the fortified area, an AFP correspondent said.
Iran launched cross-border missile and drone strikes that killed 13 people in Iraq's Kurdistan region Wednesday after accusing Kurdish armed groups based there of stoking a wave of unrest that has rocked the Islamic republic.
The September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of Iran's morality police has sparked a major wave of protests and a crackdown that has left dozens of demonstrators dead.
Iran was accused of killing seven people and wounding 28 in cross-border strikes Wednesday against Kurdish factions in Iraq that have deplored an ongoing protest crackdown in the Islamic republic.
Strikes blamed on Iran have hit districts of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan repeatedly in recent days as Tehran has ramped up its domestic crackdown against protests over the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police.
Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman, who was named prime minister late on Tuesday, has shaken up the ultraconservative oil titan with economic, social and religious reforms since his meteoric rise to power.
The 37-year-old de facto ruler has overseen the most fundamental transformation in the modern history of the Gulf nation and sidelined all rivals after he became crown prince in June 2017.
