Lawyers for a prominent pro-Palestinian protest leader requested Friday that US immigration authorities terminate their push to deport him, alleging the Trump administration "secretly engineered" the outcome of his case.

US President Trump has championed the effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil who was arrested by undercover federal agents in March 2025, one of the first detentions of foreigners linked to pro-Palestinian activity in the United States.

The Iran team will head to Turkey for a training camp before taking part in the World Cup in the United States, local media reported Friday.

"The next phase of the national team's preparation is set to be hosted in Antalya, Turkey," Iranian Football360 website reported, adding that the squad would then travel to their World Cup base in Tucson, Arizona.

Antalya also hosted the Iran team for training and matches in March.

Wearing traditional Palestinian dresses, the white fabric intricately embroidered in a rainbow of colours, dozens of smiling brides clutched red bouquets as they walked with their grooms past the tents and ruined buildings of Gaza City.

To the tune of popular songs played from loudspeakers in a city square, the couples whose marriages had been long-delayed by war and displacement, sat on stage with joy written across their faces.

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi condemned Friday both the killing of civilians in US and Israeli attacks on his country and the "massacring" of protesters by the Islamic republic.

Farhadi, who travelled from Tehran last week, trod a fine line when asked for his thoughts about events in his war-hit homeland at the Cannes Film Festival, where his latest film, the French-language "Parallel Tales", received its premiere.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire and hold expanded talks on a political settlement, the United States announced Friday, even as Israel carried out new strikes that it insists are not subject to the truce.

Israel has been pounding Lebanon and invaded its south in response to fire from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia movement that is not part of the ceasefire diplomacy.

Envoys from Israel and Lebanon's government, which has struggled to restrain Hezbollah, met for two days in Washington and said they would extend the ceasefire that was set to expire Sunday.

Rows of green tobacco plants stretched towards the bush in a vast field of a crop that has rebounded to record levels in Zimbabwe, driven largely by smallholders contracted to Chinese firms.

A few dozen aspiring tobacco farmers inspected the broad leaves on a field day of training in the cultivation of the plant, of which Zimbabwe is Africa's leading producer.

Among them was Read Sola, 64, one of more than 300 farmers now growing tobacco in the southern Matabeleland region, which historically is not tobacco country.

Endangered Egyptian vultures, with their vivid yellow face and white plumes, would usually be nesting across the Balkans in their dozens by April.

But experts tracking the rare birds say local teams have struggled to find more than a handful in recent weeks, raising fears that the wars in the Middle East may have further disrupted their already perilous journey from Africa.

"The war is adding to the risks already present along this species' migration route," Nikolai Petkov, project manager at the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds, told AFP.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an "open and safe" Strait of Hormuz during a brief visit to the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the start of a five-nation tour overshadowed by energy and supply-chain worries due to the Iran war.

Modi, whose plane was guided in and out of UAE airspace by military jets, received a guard of honour and met President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan before leaving for the Netherlands.

Egyptian smallholders have seen their lives upended by the war in Iran, with soaring fertiliser and energy prices forcing many to lay off workers and reduce the amount of land they farm.

Before the United States and Israel launched the war that would end up engulfing the region, Ashraf Abu Ragab cultivated a full acre with a small crew.

Now he farms just half on his own after sacking the workers he once relied on, and has quit growing wheat, a fertiliser-intensive crop.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly defeated a Democratic-led resolution aiming to stop the Iran war until hostilities are authorized by Congress, but the effort to rein in President Donald Trump's military campaign failed by the closest possible margin.

The House voted 212 to 212 on the war powers resolution, meaning it failed because it needed a simple majority to pass.