TEHRAN: Iranian authorities have imposed a travel ban on leading filmmaker Masud Kimiai, local media reported Monday, after he expressed support for protests that have gripped the country for months.

Iran has seen a wave of demonstrations that erupted after the Sept. 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, an ethnic Kurd, following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

BEIRUT: A roadside bomb targeting a bus transporting Syrian police in the country’s south on Monday wounded 15 of the officers, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said in a terse statement that the officers were returning to Damascus from the southern province of Daraa.

The bomb exploded on the north-south highway near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh.

It said seven officers were seriously wounded.

CAIRO: Egypt has condemned the attack that claimed the lives of seven Israelis in a shooting incident that targeted worshippers at a synagogue in East Jerusalem.

The country expressed its total rejection and strong condemnation of Friday’s attack in a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was critical of all operations that target civilians.

The country offered its sincere condolences to the families of the victims, and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

DUBAI: The GCC bloc, with its strategic location and fast-growing economies, can be a latter-day Venice, balancing between East and West, according to Paul McGrade, a former UK government adviser and an expert on UK and European trade policy, who was speaking as the GCC and the UK prepare to launch the third round of their free trade talks.

He predicts that the UK’s attempts to forge free-trade agreements with the US and India will meet with failure, in contrast with an FTA deal with the GCC, which could work despite the two sides’ policy differences over China and Russia.

TUNIS: Tunisia announced that a mere 11 percent of the electorate had voted on Sunday in parliamentary runoffs, with critics of President Kais Saied saying the empty polling stations were evidence of public disdain for his agenda and seizure of powers.
The head of the electoral commission, over which Saied assumed ultimate authority last year, gave a provisional turnout of 11.3 percent for Sunday’s runoff votes.
During December’s first round, the official turnout was only slightly lower, at 11.2 percent.