Powerful Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Sadr Sunday urged other factions to support a protest that has seen his followers occupy parliament in a dispute over who should name the next prime minister.
Nearly 10 months after elections, the oil-rich country is still without a new government due to the repeated failure of negotiations and the en-masse resignation last month of Sadr's bloc -- the largest in parliament.
Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, accepted a £1 million ($1.19 million, 1.21 million euro) donation to his charitable trust from the family of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, The Sunday Times reported.
Although there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by the Saudi family members, the revelation increases scrutiny on the 73-year-old prince's charity organisations, which have been rocked by allegations of criminal wrong doing.
Hundreds of followers of powerful Iraqi Shiite preacher Moqtada Sadr began a second day camped at the country's parliament on Sunday.
Despite tear gas, water cannon and baking temperatures that touched 47 degrees Celsius (116 degrees Fahrenheit), they stormed the complex on Saturday after pulling down heavy concrete barricades on roads leading to Baghdad's fortified Green Zone of diplomatic and government buildings.
Nearly ten months after October elections, Iraq is still without a new government despite intense negotiations between factions.
In bankrupt Lebanon, Khalil Mansour has to queue for hours every day just to buy bread for his family and some days he can't afford any.
In a country which once boasted the nickname "Switzerland of the Middle East" for its thriving banking sector before financial crisis hit in 2019, the chronic shortage of the staple of the Lebanese diet has been hard to take.
Lebanon defaulted on its national debt in 2020 and its currency has lost around 90 percent of its black market value.
Standing behind her control tower with headphones around her neck, Saudi DJ Leen Naif segues smoothly between pop hits and club tracks for a crowd of business school graduates noshing on sushi.
The subdued scene is a far cry from the high-profile stages –- a Formula 1 Grand Prix in Jeddah, Expo 2020 in Dubai -– that have helped the 26-year-old, known as DJ Leen, make a name for herself on the Saudi music circuit.
Morocco's King Mohammed VI used an address on Saturday to "once again" reiterate his openness to restoring ties with Algeria, which broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat last year.
"We aspire to work with the Algerian presidency so that Morocco and Algeria can work hand in hand to establish normal relations between two brotherly peoples," Mohammed said during the traditional speech marking the anniversary of his accession to the throne.
Volunteers shuttled back and forth in fleets of pickups to Iraq's normally secure Green Zone Saturday as protesters who occupied parliament earlier in the day settled in for the long haul.
The thousands of demonstrators who had overwhelmed the barriers protecting the compound camped out inside and outside parliament as supporters delivered hot meals and bottles of cold water.
One man lit a fire to warm some tea while another offered cigarettes for sale -- all as Iraqi security forces watched on, an AFP correspondent reported.
At least 80 people have been killed and 30 others are missing in floods that have wreaked havoc across Iran for more than a week, state media reported Saturday.
Since the start of the Iranian month of Mordad on July 23, "59 people died and 30 are still missing in the incidents caused by recent floods," Yaghoub Soleimani, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society, was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr occupied the country's parliament on Saturday with no plan to leave, deepening a months-long political standoff.
It is the second time in days that supporters of the firebrand Shiite cleric have forced their way into the legislative chamber, after October elections failed to lead to the formation of a government.
"The demonstrators announce a sit-in until further notice," Sadr's movement said in a brief statement to journalists carried by state news agency INA.
For Yemeni beekeeper Mohammed Saif, honey production used to be a lucrative business but years of war and climate change have taken the buzz out of the family hives.
The business, handed down from father to son, "is slowly disappearing", Saif told AFP. "The bees are being hit by strange phenomenons. Is it due to climate change or the effects of war? We really don't know."
Yemen, one of the world's most impoverished countries, has been gripped by a deadly conflict since 2014, pitting the Iran-backed Huthis against government forces supported by a Saudi-led military coalition.
