Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday threatened to launch a ground operation into Syria after cross-border air strikes on Kurdish positions and deadly fire on Turkey.

Iran's World Cup players chose not to sing their national anthem in apparent support for anti-government protesters in their homeland on Monday, as European teams ditched rainbow-themed armbands.

Qatar's state energy company announced a 27-year natural gas supply accord with China on Monday, saying it was the longest ever seen in the industry.

QatarEnergy will send four million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually from its new North Field East project to China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), the company said.

Rockets fired from Syria towards Turkey's border town of Karkamis on Monday killed three people, including a child, and wounded six, Turkey's interior minister said.

"Three of our citizens lost their lives. One of them is a child, another a teacher," Suleyman Soylu said on live television, vowing a "strong response".

Iran has said it is taking retaliatory measures against the International Atomic Energy Agency over a resolution criticizing Tehran's lack of cooperation with the nuclear watchdog.

The United States, Britain, France and Germany had on Thursday brought the motion adopted by the U.N. agency -- the second of its kind within six months.

At least 44 people have been killed in an earthquake that rattled Indonesia's main island Java on Monday, a local spokesperson told AFP.

"There have been dozens of people killed. Hundreds, even maybe thousands of houses are damaged. So far, 44 people have died," Adam, spokesman for the local administration in Cianjur town in West Java, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP.

The World Cup kicks off with host nation Qatar facing Ecuador on Sunday as the month-long football showpiece finally gets under way after a tortuous 12-year build-up dogged by off-field controversies.

The West's attempts to persuade Ukraine to negotiate with Moscow, after a series of major military victories by Kyiv, are "bizarre" and amount to asking for its capitulation, a key adviser to the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.

Turkish air strikes hit several towns across northern Syria, including the city of Kobane, late Saturday, said Kurdish-led forces there and a Britain-based monitoring group.

The Turkish raids killed at least six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and six pro-regime soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Israeli strikes on Saturday morning killed four Syrian regime soldiers and wounded one in central and western districts, Syrian state media reported.