Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman skipped the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony despite being on the guest list because of "scheduling reasons", China's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, was among dozens of world leaders who had been expected to attend the ceremony in Beijing last week, according to state media.

Environmental pollution will cost Lebanon more than 3% of its GDP, the World Bank said, urging a green post-Covid-19 recovery for the region. 

Air pollution costs the Middle East and North Africa $141 billion per year, or around 2% of GDP on average, it said in a report.

Libya's parliament said it will name a new prime minister this week to head the transitional government, a move that will likely lead to parallel administrations in the already chaotic nation.

Two candidates — former Interior Minister Fathi Bashaga and Minister-Counsellor Khalid al-Baibas — have submitted their bids to replace Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. They appeared in a parliamentary session Monday in the eastern city of Tobruk to present their plans.

Israel's domestic spying scandal widened Monday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowing government action following new reports that police illegally used the Pegasus malware to hack phones of dozens of prominent figures. 

A funeral ceremony began on Monday for Rayan, the Moroccan boy who spent five days trapped in a well and died despite a vast rescue operation.

Hundreds attended the ceremony at a cemetery near the five-year-old's home village of Ighrane, Chefchaouen province, AFP journalists said.

Iraq's parliament on Monday indefinitely postponed a scheduled vote for the republic's president after most major political blocs boycotted the session.

Israeli police allegedly used spyware on the phones of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son and members of his inner circle, an Israeli newspaper reported Monday.

Israeli and Palestinian public figures have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation that they hope will offer a way forward after a decade-long stalemate in Mideast peace efforts.

The plan includes several controversial proposals, and it's unclear if it has any support among leaders on either side. But it could help shape the debate over the conflict and will be presented to a senior U.S. official and the U.N. secretary general this week.

Officials from the U.N. children's agency visited a prison in northeast Syria that witnessed 10 days of fighting between U.S.-backed fighters and Islamic State group militants, the agency said Sunday.

Morocco was in shock Sunday after emergency crews found a five-year-old boy dead at the bottom of a well in a tragic end to a painstaking five-day rescue operation that gripped the nation and the world.