Saudi oil giant Aramco on Tuesday reported net profit of $29.07 billion in the second quarter, a slight drop from the same period last year as output remained subdued.

The decrease of 3.4 percent "mainly reflects the impact of lower crude oil volumes sold and weakening refining margins", the company said in a statement posted to the Saudi stock exchange.

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, is currently producing roughly nine million barrels per day (bpd), well below its capacity of 12 million bpd.

After seeing his once-lush rice field shrink in recent years due to relentless drought, Iraqi farmer Muntazer al-Joufi fought back using tougher seeds and water-saving irrigation techniques.

"It's the first time we're using modern techniques that consume less water" to cultivate rice, Joufi, 40, said as he surveyed his land in the central province of Najaf.

"There is a huge difference" compared to flooding the field, Joufi added, referring to a traditional method by which the land must stay submerged all summer.

China's embassy in Beirut urged citizens to "travel with caution" should they visit Lebanon, warning they face "higher security risks" as fears of a regional conflict soar.

In a statement issued Monday evening Beijing time, the embassy warned citizens the situation in the country was "grave and complex".

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Embassy in Lebanon remind Chinese citizens to closely monitor the evolution of the local situation and to travel with caution in Lebanon in the near future," the embassy said on its official WeChat account.

A rocket attack on a base in Iraq wounded seven Americans, a US official said on Tuesday, with Washington blaming an Iran-backed militia group and saying such violence will not be tolerated.

The rocket fire the previous day was the latest in a series of attacks targeting Ain al-Assad base in recent weeks, which hosts American troops as well as other personnel from the US-led coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.

It came at a time of already heightened tensions in the Middle East, with the region awaiting an expected counterattack by Iran on Israel.

A key Tunisian opposition figure and potential candidate for the upcoming presidential election jailed since October was sentenced to two years in prison late Monday night, according to local media.

Abir Moussi, 49, head of the Free Destourian Party and a former parliament member, had submitted her candidacy on Saturday via her lawyers, two days before her sentence, which local radio Mosaique FM reported.

Moussi is a staunch critic of the incumbent Tunisian President Kais Saied and has been sentenced under Decree 54, a law enacted by Saied in 2022 to combat "false news".

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeats his promises to bring the Gaza hostages home, he is facing a growing chorus of sceptics who worry he's not interested in a deal with Hamas.

Rocketing regional tensions are increasing the desperation of families and friends of the remaining 111 captives, including 39 known to be dead, taken during the bloody October 7 attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

"We're actually very concerned and worried that there is no time," Gil Dickman, whose cousin Carmel Gat is among the captives, told AFP.

The United Nations said Monday that nine employees of its agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) "may have been involved" in the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas, which sparked war in Gaza, and have been fired.

"We have sufficient information in order to take the actions that we're taking -- which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals," UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Haq said the organization will need to evaluate any further steps to "fully corroborate" the allegations.

US President Joe Biden held crisis talks on Monday on a potential Iranian counterattack on Israel as his administration said it was working around the clock to avoid all-out war in the Middle East.

Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaged in frantic diplomacy to try to ease tensions sparked by a suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Gaza's Civil Defence agency said it received the bodies of 80 unidentified Palestinians from Israel on Monday, which it buried in a mass grave.

"We received 80 bodies inside 15 bags, with more than four martyrs in each bag, each wrapped in a single shroud", Civil Defence director Yamen Abu Suleiman told AFP.

Abu Suleiman said Israeli authorities did not provide any information about the bodies, including their names or where they were found or taken from.

"We do not know if they are martyrs (killed in Gaza) or prisoners from (Israel's) jails", he added.

Security is tight for Israel's team at the Paris Olympics as Mideast tensions spiral amid lingering memories of the 1972 massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Games.

The 88 members of the Israeli delegation are accompanied by elite French police and gendarmerie units wherever they go -- a security deployment that is not always easy to manage.