Thousands of Iranians drove through Tehran on Friday to mark the 43rd anniversary of the country's Islamic Revolution, staying in vehicles rather than marching on foot amid Covid restrictions.

Due to the pandemic, state television said this year, as the previous year, there should be "no gathering or marching" by those celebrating the 1979 overthrow of the shah's regime.

Instead, people travelled by car, motorcycle and bicycle, to converge on the capital's iconic Azadi Square, despite chilly temperatures.

US President Joe Biden is in a tough spot as the Iran nuclear talks resume in Vienna, gambling on a successful outcome but facing growing bipartisan concern that even if a deal is reached it may be insufficient to curb Tehran's nuclear program.

The subject has been somewhat on mute in Washington after 10 months of indirect talks failed to achieve the breakthrough Biden hoped for and a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal repudiated by Donald Trump.

Moroccan authorities plan to survey abandoned and unauthorised wells across the country, the official MAP news agency reported Thursday, after the death of a boy trapped in a borehole sparked global attention.

The boy, Rayan, had fallen down a narrow 32-metre (100-foot) dry well on February 1, sparking a huge but ultimately failed rescue operation.

Libya found itself with two prime ministers Thursday, after its parliament named a rival to replace the existing unity government's chief Abdulhamid Dbeibah, threatening a new power struggle in the war-torn nation.

The House of Representatives, based in Libya's east, "unanimously approved Fathi Bashagha to head the government," the parliament's spokesman Abdullah Bliheg said.

The move threatened to deepen the struggle for control between the eastern assembly and the western-based administration of Dbeibah in the capital Tripoli, where experts warned of potential violence.

More than 200 judges and lawyers in black robes protested Thursday outside the main court in the Tunisian capital after President Kais Saied vowed to scrap a key judicial watchdog.

Judges have been on strike since Wednesday in the North African country, the birthplace of the 2011 Arab uprisings, in protest at Saied's weekend move to dissolve the Supreme Judicial Council (CSM) months after a July power grab.

At the rally in central Tunis on Thursday, police looked on as protesters chanted "restore the CSM" and "the people want an independent judiciary"

Thousands of Sudanese took to the streets Thursday in the latest mass rally protesting against last year's military coup that upended a transition to civilian rule, witnesses said.

Crowds waved flags and chanted slogans, warning each other to keep a look out for the security forces who have launched deadly crackdowns on previous rallies, leaving at least 79 people killed and hundreds wounded, according to independent medics.

Twelve people were injured by falling debris on Thursday when the Saudi military blew up a Yemeni rebel drone targeting an airport close to the border, officials said.

Fragments fell to the ground after the interception of the drone over Abha International Airport, which has previously been targeted in similar assaults by the Huthi rebels.

The Huthis claimed responsibility for the attack in a tweet, saying they had targeted an airport "used for military action against Yemen" and warning citizens to "stay away" from such sites.

Prince William made a climate-focused visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday as post-Brexit Britain seeks to strengthen relations with the wealthy Gulf state.

The duke of Cambridge, second in line to the British throne, visited an Abu Dhabi mangrove park before heading off to Dubai's Expo, where the UK pavilion was marking a "national day".

The road meandering towards Gaza Valley is notorious for the stench of pollution choking the plant and animal life that once flourished in the Palestinian enclave's biggest wetland.

That is expected to change after the sullied habitat was declared Gaza's first nature reserve, set for a UN-backed, decade long clean-up effort under the territory's Hamas Islamist rulers.

"The valley will return to its beautiful natural state" for local people to walk through and enjoy, said Jaber Abu Hajeer, the mayor of the area known as Wadi Gaza.

Hoping to further destabilise the Islamic State group following its leader's death, US officials have turned their focus to an architect of the insurgents' bloody revival in Afghanistan since losing their "caliphate" in Syria.

Sanaullah Ghafari, also known as Shahab al-Muhajir, has led the Islamic State-Khorosan (IS-K) branch since June 2020, overseeing cells charged with carrying out terror attacks, establishing ties with local leaders and raising funds.