A Republican-led U.S. Senate panel on Thursday voted to hold the country's former top infectious disease official Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress, in an escalation of efforts to blame him for potential pandemic missteps.

On the advice of lawyers Fauci last week had invoked his constitutional right to stay silent under antagonistic questioning from Republican senators, as they probed him over unsubstantiated claims that the origins of the pandemic were covered up.

Iran intensified its threats towards its Gulf neighbors last week, conveying messages that it would "black out" the entire region if the United States struck its power plants and rattling off a list of specific targets, two officials told AFP.

The warning followed threats by U.S. President Donald Trump of a massive attack against Iran, which he later walked back over the weekend citing requests from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar and hope for a breakthrough in talks.

Authorities in Kuwait ordered the closure of a local Iranian school, a source at the education ministry told AFP on Thursday, after the country came under repeated Iranian attack during the Middle East war.

The ministry source did not specify the reason for shutting the country's only Iranian school, though similar measures were taken in the UAE at the start of the war against schools and a hospital that authorities deemed to be linked to the Iranian government.

Lebanese and Israeli negotiators are meeting Thursday in Rome for a third and final day to discuss the implementation of a deal under which Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw from areas they are occupying in southern Lebanon in exchange for Hezbollah's disarmament.

On Wednesday, Israel requested that the day's talks with Lebanon end three hours early, a source in the negotiations told AFP, saying the head of the Israeli delegation, U.S. ambassador Yechiel Leiter, had blamed alleged "misleading leaks" by the Lebanese side.

Rights groups said Thursday that an Israeli attack in south Lebanon that killed reporter Amal Khalil and wounded another journalist earlier this year was an apparent "war crime".

The attack took place in the village of Al-Tiri on April 22, days after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hezbollah.

AFP journalist Christina Assi, who lost a leg in an Israeli strike while reporting from the Lebanese border, will be honored at the International Press Freedom Awards, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

In October 2023, Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah was killed and six others were wounded, including AFP journalists Assi and Dylan Collins, while covering the conflict near the Israeli border.

Israel reported on Thursday its first military fatalities in southern Lebanon in more than a month, after carrying out fresh strikes despite ongoing U.S.-backed talks in Rome aimed at ending hostilities.

The military identified the two reservists, who were killed in combat on Wednesday, as Major Harel Birenstock, 34, and Sergeant Major Tamir Vaknin, 33, of the 2855th Battalion, 55th Brigade.

The Israeli military said it began striking targets in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a "blatant violation of the ceasefire" by Iran-backed Hezbollah, just as Israel and Lebanon held talks in Rome.

"In response to a blatant violation of the ceasefire by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, the IDF has begun conducting precise strikes in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement, shortly after telling residents to evacuate a village in the area.

An Israeli military probe published Wednesday said that friendly fire may have killed an Israeli settler during a deadly clash with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank last month.

The violence in the Palestinian village of Tell in the northern West Bank in late July left four Palestinians and two Israelis dead, prompting the army to launch an investigation.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the greatest help to Israel was provided by Hezbollah after Sheikh Naim Qassem accused authorities of helping Israel.

Qassem had said on Tuesday in a televised address that direct talks between Lebanon and Israel would bring only "humiliation" for Lebanon, accusing Lebanese authorities of having "helped Israel instead of helping Lebanon's sovereignty" by continuing with negotiations that handed Israel "political gains".