BEIRUT, Jan 13 (Reuters) - In a packed Beirut nightclub, electronic beats pulsed alongside projected videos of popes in white robes as Catholic priest Father Guilherme Peixoto spun tracks on the turntable.
The performance drew 2,000 attendees, but it also sparked opposition from some Christians in Lebanon, the first time the man known as Padre Guilherme to his 2.6 million Instagram followers says he has faced such vocal objection.
US President Donald Trump warned of unspecified "very strong action" if Iranian authorities go ahead with threatened hangings of some protesters, with Tehran calling American warnings a "pretext for military intervention".
International outrage has built over the crackdown that a rights group said has likely killed thousands during protests posing one of the biggest challenges yet to Iran's clerical leadership.
Iran's UN mission posted a statement on X, vowing that Washington's "playbook" would "fail again".
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, eliminating one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play.
"If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field, the camp does not have spaces," said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls' soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
DUBAI, Jan 13 - An Iranian parliamentarian said on Tuesday the government will face even bigger protests unless it addresses people's grievances, after more than two weeks of nationwide demonstrations that have challenged the legitimacy of the country's clerical rulers.
The government has responded to the wave of unrest over dire economic conditions with a crackdown that a rights group says has killed hundreds and led to the arrest of thousands.
Since Israel recognised Somaliland last month, the self-declared republic on the Gulf of Aden has become central to a struggle over military access, ports and regional influence across the Red Sea corridor.
Somaliland sits astride one of the world's most strategic maritime choke points, flanked by multiple conflicts in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.
It declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but had never been recognised internationally until Israel's move.
BENGALURU, Jan 13 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday he assumes Iran's leadership is in its "final days and weeks" as it faces widespread protests.
Demonstrations in Iran have evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to calls for the fall of the clerical establishment in the Islamic Republic.
"I assume that we are now witnessing the final days and weeks of this regime," Merz said during a trip to India, questioning the Iranian leadership's legitimacy.
Over two weeks of protests mark the most serious challenge in years to Iran's theocratic leadership in their scale and nature but it is too early to predict the immediate demise of the Islamic republic, analysts say.
The demonstrations moved from protesting economic grievances to demanding a wholesale change from the clerical system that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah.
By Kirsty Needham
SYDNEY, Jan 13 (Reuters) - The director of one of Australia's top writers festivals resigned on Tuesday saying she could not be party to silencing a Palestinian author and warning government moves to ban protests and slogans in the aftermath of the Bondi mass shooting threatened free speech.
US President Donald Trump has options to intervene in protest-hit Iran that range from low to high risk, but choosing his course depends on him deciding his ultimate goal.
It has been 10 days since Trump said the United States was "locked and loaded" and ready to "come to the rescue" if Iran's clerical state kills demonstrators who have taken to the streets in major numbers.
Since then, Trump has kept threatening a military option, even as hundreds of people have died, according to rights groups.
WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that any country that does business with Iran will be subjected to a tariff rate of 25% on any business conducted with the United States.
"Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
"This Order is final and conclusive," he said.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Bhargav Acharya)
