The protests that have erupted in Iran are shadowing the national football team's bid for a breakthrough to the World Cup, with rumours of a split in the squad, social media posts that mysteriously disappear and former legends weighing in to support the demonstrations.

Team Melli are preparing to battle in a competitive and also politically loaded Group B in Qatar, where they will face he United States, England and Wales in a bid to reach the knockout rounds for the first time.

Pope Francis will in November visit Bahrain, home to the biggest Catholic church in the Arabian peninsula, the Vatican said Wednesday.

Francis, 85, will be the first pope ever to visit the majority-Muslim Gulf country, according to Vatican News.

Pope Francis has been under doctor's orders to slow down, after suffering from a painful knee that has forced him to use a wheelchair and cancel some events.

An Israeli raid targeting alleged militants in a West Bank flashpoint killed four Palestinians on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, including the brother of a man blamed for a deadly attack in Tel Aviv.

The violence was the latest to hit Jenin, in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an area that has seen near daily clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen since an escalation that began in March.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi condemned Wednesday the "chaos" sparked by a wave of women-led protests over the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the Islamic republic's morality police.

"Those who took part in the riots must be dealt with decisively, this is the demand of the people," said Raisi in a televised interview.

"People's safety is the red line of the Islamic republic of Iran and no one is allowed to break the law and cause chaos," he said.

Kuwait will hold its most inclusive elections in a decade Thursday with some opposition groups ending a boycott after the oil-rich country's royal rulers pledged not to interfere with parliament.

The polls are the sixth in 10 years, reflecting the repeated political crises that have gripped the only Gulf Arab state with a fully elected parliament.

The elections come after Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Jaber Al-Sabah announced the dissolution of parliament in June following disputes between lawmakers and the government, the fourth to be named in two years.

With bandages wrapped around his head and body, Attia al-Sawafiri was lying in the burns unit of a Gaza hospital, waiting for his first skin graft.

The 50-year-old Palestinian has suffered chemical burn injuries not as a result of cross-border fighting, but while trying to unblock his drains -- a common problem in the Gaza Strip, where many people live in cramped housing with dilapidated infrastructure.

The son of the late shah hailed Iran's mass protests as a landmark revolution by women and urged the world to add to the pressure on the clerical leadership.

Reza Pahlavi, whose father was toppled in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, called for greater preparation for a future Iranian system that is secular and democratic.

"It is truly in modern times, in my opinion, the first revolution for the women, by the women -- with the support of the Iranian men, sons, brothers and fathers," Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the Washington area, told AFP.

Dozens of young Iranians and Americans gathered Tuesday in front of The New York Times building in Manhattan to demonstrate for the rights of women in Iran, and to decry "bias" at the paper.

Activist Forouzan Farahani knelt on the sidewalk in front of the building and shaved her head in an act of protest following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of the notorious morality police in mid-September.

Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been named prime minister, a post traditionally held by the king, in a government shuffle announced Tuesday.

The move effectively formalises power already wielded by Prince Mohammed, who has been the kingdom's de facto ruler for several years, analysts said.

The heads of other critical ministries, including interior, foreign and energy, remained in place, according to a royal decree from King Salman published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended military sales to Pakistan after withering criticism from growing US partner India, which considers itself the target of Islamabad's F-16 planes.

Blinken met in the US capital with India's foreign minister a day after separate talks with his counterpart from Pakistan.

The US-Pakistan alliance, born out of the Cold War, has frayed over Islamabad's relationship with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.