LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia starting on Monday, an official trip on behalf of the government to deepen ties with the country.

The royal's visit follows a 2025 trip to Saudi by Britain's finance minister, which London said had unlocked trade and investment agreements worth 6.4 billion pounds ($8.71 billion).

Britain's Prince William met Saudi Arabia's de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday, kicking off a visit aimed at deepening economic cooperation but overshadowed by his disgraced uncle Andrew's links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) released images of Prince Mohammed giving the heir to the British throne a private tour of the At-Turaif UNESCO World Heritage Site at Diriyah, the first capital of the Saudi state, before a meeting between the two royals.

Feb 9 (Reuters) - The death toll from the collapse of a residential building in the Lebanese city of Tripoli rose to 13, as rescue teams continued to search for missing people beneath the rubble, Lebanon's National News Agency reported on Monday.

Rescue workers in the northern city's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood have also assisted nine survivors, while the search continued for others still believed to be trapped under the debris, NNA said.

Officials said on Sunday that two adjoining buildings had collapsed.

Sydney police used pepper spray on protesters on Monday as a rally against a visit to Australia by Israel's President Isaac Herzog turned violent.

The head of state's tightly secured, four-day visit was aimed at consoling Australia's Jewish community in the wake of the December shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach that killed 15 people at a Hanukkah festival.

But he was met with protests in Australia's two largest cities on Monday evening, with a Sydney rally turning violent as police hit protesters and members of the media, including AFP, with pepper spray.

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Pro-Palestine demonstrators plan to rally in Sydney on Monday to protest the visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, as authorities declared his visit a major event and deployed thousands of police to manage the crowds.

Police have urged the protesters to gather at a central Sydney park for public safety reasons, but protest organisers said they plan to rally at the city's historic Town Hall instead.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi is in "deteriorating health" after ending a nearly week-long hunger strike, her supporters said Sunday, as authorities handed the campaigner a fresh prison sentence.

Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023, has spent the last two months in prison after speaking out against the government at a funeral ceremony in December.

By Nora Buli

OSLO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Norway's foreign ministry on Sunday said a prominent ambassador, Mona Juul, would step down due to a "serious failure of judgement" over ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, part of a growing scandal in the Nordic country and across Europe.

The ministry earlier this week suspended Juul from her position as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq pending an internal inquiry of links to Epstein found in a massive set of files released by the United States government.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog starts a tightly secured visit to Australia on Monday to honour the victims of an antisemitic gun attack on Sydney's Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.

While the head of state seeks to console the Jewish Australian community, his four-day trip has also sparked calls for pro-Palestinian protests in Sydney's streets, where the authorities promised a large police presence.

DUBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Iranian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, who has been imprisoned repeatedly in her three-decade campaign for women's rights, was sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, a group supporting her said on Sunday.

Mohammadi, 53, was on a week-long hunger strike that ended on Sunday, the Narges Foundation said in a statement. It said Mohammadi told her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, in a phone call on Sunday from prison that she had received her sentence on Saturday.

The death toll in a building collapse in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Sunday climbed to nine, a civil defence official said -- the second such incident in weeks.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported "the collapse of an old building" in Tripoli's Bab al-Tabbaneh neighbourhood, the poorest in the impoverished city. Rescuers were still searching for survivors.

Security personnel evacuated adjacent buildings fearing further collapses, it added.