A Lebanese man carrying a gun and a jerrican of fuel withdrew his frozen savings at gunpoint Friday, the third such incident in the crisis-hit country this week.

When a branch of the Byblos bank opened in the southern town of Ghaziyeh, a depositor, reported to be in his 50s, stormed the premises with his adult son.

He threatened bank employes with a gun, which a Lebanese TV channel said may have been a toy, and demanded his savings.

"He emptied a jerrican of fuel on the floor," a bank security guard told an AFP reporter.

The United Arab Emirates did not qualify for the Qatar World Cup but it will be a winner anyway if an overspill of fans floods its hotels, restaurants and planes.

With little investment the UAE, and in particular Dubai, stands to gain if, as expected, supporters opt to stay in the tourism hotspot instead of tiny Gulf neighbour Qatar during the November-December tournament.

High accommodation prices in the Qatari capital Doha and Dubai's more permissive environment -- including a wider availability of alcohol -- could entice fans, experts say.

Jordanian mother Israa Raed said she was indescribably happy Thursday, after emergency workers rescued her four-month-old daughter Malak from the rubble of a collapsed building in the capital Amman.

"I knew it was her by her pink pyjamas," Israa Raed, 26, told AFP, after waiting more than 24 hours for news of her only daughter.

"Words cannot describe how happy I am," she said. "I thank God she's safe."

A young Iranian woman is in a coma and fighting for her life after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic republic's morality police, campaigners said Thursday.

The woman, named as Mahsa Amini, 22, was on a visit to the Iranian capital with her family when she was detained by the special police unit that enforces the strict dress rules for women, including the compulsory headscarf.

Her brother Kiaresh told the Iran Wire news website that while he was waiting outside the police station for her to be released an ambulance drove out taking her to hospital.

Thousands of Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews have vowed to brave the dangers of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and make a pilgrimage there during the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashana.

Among those who said they would not be deterred by the war or by government travel warnings and head to the Ukrainian city of Uman was Avraham Burstein, 51, a musician and actor.

"It is like being in love, I simply have to go," he said as he tuned his accordion at his Yiddish music school in Jerusalem.

The world's poorest countries say they will insist that the UN's upcoming climate talks push ahead with proposals for a fund to compensate vulnerable nations for climate-inflicted damage.

Ministers and experts from the 46-nation Least Developed Countries (LDC) bloc, meeting in Dakar, said their countries were most exposed to climate impact but least to blame for the carbon emissions that cause it.

In a statement issued late Wednesday ahead of the November climate talks, they said that setting up a funding mechanism for loss and damage was of "crucial importance."

A Palestinian teenager died Thursday during clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank that broke out as the military was pursuing targets allegedly linked to a soldier's killing.

The Palestinian health ministry identified the victim as Uday Salah, 17, saying he was "killed by a bullet to the head fired by the Israeli occupation soldiers in Kafr Dan, Jenin governorate", an area that has seen near daily violence in recent months.

Lebanese celebrated the local dance troupe Mayyas on Thursday after it won the "America's Got Talent" TV contest, stoking joy and pride in a country battered by years of political and economic turmoil.

Many fans, across age groups and religious lines in the crisis-tested country and its large diaspora, tearfully cheered the all-women group for what judges and viewers hailed as a hypnotic and mesmerising performance.

For decades, Egyptians have dreamed of bringing back some of the glories of their ancient civilisation scattered across museums and private collections across the world.

Now as Cairo gears up to open "the largest archaeological museum in the world" at the foot of the pyramids of Giza in November, Egypt's former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told AFP that he will soon demand the return of three of its greatest lost treasures:

- Rosetta Stone -

It's one of the 20th century's most iconic photos: British archaeologist Howard Carter inspecting the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in 1922 as an Egyptian member of his team crouches nearby shrouded in shadow.

It is also an apt metaphor for two centuries of Egyptology, flush with tales of brilliant foreign explorers uncovering the secrets of the Pharaohs, with Egyptians relegated to the background.

"Egyptians have been written out of the historical narrative," leading archaeologist Monica Hanna told AFP.