Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini was visiting Tehran with her family when she encountered the notorious morality police and died after a "violent blow to the head", her cousin living in Iraq said.

"Jhina's death has opened the doors of popular anger," said Erfan Salih Mortezaee, 34, using Amini's Kurdish first name and referring to the ongoing wave of protests that her death has sparked.

In a phone call after the young woman's death was announced, Amini's mother told him what happened when her 22-year-old daughter was detained, Mortezaee said.

In a frontline town divided by regime and rebel forces in northwest Syria, students have returned to classrooms in a bombed-out building with no glass in the windows, no doors, desks, chairs or electricity.

Girls carrying pink backpacks play alongside boys with blue ones in the courtyard of their school in Tadif, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of Aleppo city.

Heavily damaged during Syria's more than decade-long war, Tadif lies on what has turned into a quiet front line between regime forces and Ankara-backed rebels.

Lebanon's speaker Nabih Berri called Tuesday for parliament to meet this week to elect a president to replace Michel Aoun whose term expires at the end of October.

"Berri called for a session to be held at 11:00 am (8:00 GMT) on Thursday September 29, 2022 in order to elect a president," a statement from his office said.

The session will mark the first attempt by lawmakers to elect a new head of state at a time when the country is in the grips of a financial crisis described by the World Bank as one of the worst in modern times.

A Spanish court has ordered Colombian music superstar Shakira to stand trial on charges of fraudulently failing to pay 14 million euros in tax, filings showed Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Barcelona said in July they would seek a prison sentence of more than eight years against the singer and a fine of nearly 24 million euros ($24 million), after she rejected a plea deal over accusations of tax evasion.

They accuse the 45-year-old "Hips don't Lie" songstress of defrauding the Spanish tax office of 14.5 million euros ($14.7 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014.

With the cost of living surging, free hot bread distribution for the poor has been introduced in Dubai, a rich Gulf emirate where millionaires rub shoulders with hard-working migrants.

The city of skyscrapers soaring above the desert, which imports almost all of its food, has been impacted by rapidly rising consumer prices, a global trend exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Iran is stepping up arrests of activists and journalists in a crackdown against civil society as anti-regime protests rage nationwide, activists say.

Twenty journalists have been imprisoned since the protests erupted earlier this month over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who had been arrested by the country's notorious morality police, according to the Washington-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Numerous activists and lawyers have also been held, including the prominent freedom of speech campaigner Hossein Ronaghi who was arrested over the weekend.

China announced Monday that it will give Qatar two giant pandas to mark the World Cup being held in the Gulf state.

China's ambassador to Doha, Zhou Jian, said that "Suhail" and "Soraya" would arrive in Qatar in October, ahead of the 32-nation tournament that starts November 20.

The planet's most populous nation did not qualify for the World Cup but Chinese companies have been involved in the construction of mega projects around the event.

Russia found rare support for its war in Ukraine at the UN General Assembly on Monday from Syria, whose leadership has relied on Moscow's support in its civil war.

"Syria reiterates its position on Russia's special military operation in Ukraine and Russia's right to defend and secure its own territory," Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad told the world body.

"We are convinced that the Russian Federation is defending not only itself but justice and humanity's right to reject unipolar hegemony."

Ankara on Monday summoned the Greek ambassador and protested to Washington after accusing Greece of deploying US armoured vehicles on two Aegean islands near the Turkish coast.

Greece branded the move as "completely unfounded and incompatible with international law", and accused Ankara of aggressive behaviour.

Greece and Turkey, which are both part of the US-led NATO defence alliance, have feuded for years over maritime borders and energy exploration rights in the Aegean and east Mediterranean seas.

A year after fleeing the West Bank, a nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to Gaza and is challenging his uncle's embattled successor, 86-year-old president Mahmud Abbas.

Nasser al-Kidwa, 69, a former Palestinian foreign minister, branded Abbas's Palestinian Authority as "totalitarian," and said it was acting with disregard for the people it is supposed to serve who are living under Israeli occupation.