The second of three Asiatic cheetah cubs born in captivity in Iran has died in a blow to conservation efforts for the critically endangered subspecies, state media reported Wednesday.

"The cause of death of the cub is being investigated and the result will be announced after the post mortem," environment department official Hassan Akbari told state news agency IRNA.

The announcement came just two weeks after a first cub from the litter died.

The cause of death was established as congenital malformation of the left lung, an environment department statement said.

They function as normal hives, but apiaries built at a kibbutz in Israel's Galilee are decked out with high-tech artificial intelligence systems set to ensure longevity for these vital pollinators.

"There are two million bees here," said Shlomki Frankin as he walks into a 12-square-metre container in Kibbutz Beit Haemek in northern Israel.

Dubbed "Beehome", the project is the brainchild of an Israeli startup and houses up to 24 hives, explained Frankin, clad in a hat and veil to protect himself from stings.

Pollution caused some 9 million people to die prematurely in 2019, according to a new global report published Wednesday, with experts raising alarm over increasing deaths from breathing outside air and the "horrifying" toll of lead poisoning.

Human-created waste in the air, water and soil rarely kills people immediately, but causes instead heart disease, cancer, respiratory problems, diarrhoea and other serious illnesses.

An investigation into a 2019 strike by US forces in Syria that killed numerous civilians found no violations of policy or wanton negligence, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The internal US Army investigation focused on an operation by a special US force operating in Syria which launched an airstrike on an Islamic State bastion in Baghouz on March 18, 2019.

The investigation was sparked last year after the New York Times reported that in the original strike the US military had covered up dozens of non-combatant deaths.

Sandstorms across the Middle East have delayed flights, closed schools and hospitalised thousands -- a phenomenon experts say could worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday became the latest country blanketed with dust that slowed traffic and made iconic towers in the capital difficult to see from more than a few hundred metres (yards) away.

Emergency rooms in Riyadh hospitals had received some 1,285 people suffering from respiratory problems over 24 hours as a result of the sandstorm, the state-run Al-Ekhbariya channel reported.

A sandstorm engulfed Saudi Arabia's capital and other regions of the desert kingdom Tuesday, hampering visibility and slowing road traffic.

A thick grey haze made iconic Riyadh buildings such as Kingdom Centre nearly impossible to see from more than a few hundred metres (yards) away, though there were no announced flight delays or cancellations.

The kingdom's meteorology centre forecast "surface dusty winds" in the country's east and in Riyadh, "reducing horizontal sight", according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

Shiite group Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in Lebanon's parliament, official results showed Tuesday, while independents achieved a surprise breakthrough.

Full results announced by the interior ministry two days after the election revealed that no bloc will control the 128-seat assembly, a deadlock observers fear could usher in a tense period of political jostling.

The polls, the first since Lebanon was ravaged by its worst ever economic crisis and a cataclysmic explosion at Beirut port in 2020, were seen as a prerequisite for a crucial IMF bailout.

More than 70 Palestinians were wounded in overnight clashes with Israeli forces at a Jerusalem funeral, Palestinian medics said Tuesday, in unrest that police said included "violent riots" which threatened officers' lives.

The unrest unfolded as Palestinians were burying Walid al-Sharif, 23, who died on Saturday of wounds suffered during clashes last month at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Gunfire rocked oil-rich Libya's capital for several hours Tuesday as a rival prime minister attempted to oust interim premier Abdulhamid Dbeibah, threatening another escalation in the war-torn country.

Fathi Bashagha landed in Tripoli in the early hours of Tuesday and tried to take it by force, sparking pre-dawn clashes between armed groups supporting him and those backing Dbeibah. One man, Ahmad al-Ashhab, died in the crossfire, Bashagha told journalists late in the evening.

For nearly 30 years, his music has made its way to every young Egyptian's ringtone -- but it's the country's ancient history that recently propelled composer Hesham Nazih to the realm of superheroes.

Following his career-defining score for the Pharaohs' Golden Parade last year -- a grandiose spectacle that saw 22 mummies transferred across Cairo to a new museum -- Nazih was tapped to write the music for Marvel Studios' latest series, "Moon Knight".

The six-episode saga starring Oscar Isaac tells the story of a superhero who draws his powers from an ancient Egyptian god.