AMMAN: A high-ranking Jordanian police officer who was shot and killed on Thursday in the protest-hit southern city of Maan was laid to rest on Friday in his hometown of Jasrah, 40 km from the capital Amman.

Col. Abdul Razzaq Al-Dalabeeh, deputy police chief of Maan, was shot in the head while officers responded to rioters in Al-Husseiniya. Two others were injured in the clashes in Maan, which has been rocked by demonstrations against increasing fuel prices.

BEIRUT: The UN Interim Force in Lebanon has urged Beirut to ensure a speedy investigation after an Irish soldier was shot dead in the south of the country.

A UNIFIL convoy came under fire near Al-Aqabiya, the Irish military said, wounding three other personnel.

The killing of Pvt. Sean Rooney, 23, in southern Lebanon on Wednesday night, occurred after the vehicle in which he was traveling deviated from a convoy, in an area outside UNIFIL’s scope of work, and the vehicle was targeted.

TUNIS: Tunisians go to the polls Saturday to elect a parliament largely stripped of its powers, under a hyper-presidential system installed by the head of state Kais Saied after his power grab last year.
Over a decade since Tunisia’s popular revolution unseated dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, opposition parties have urged a boycott of the vote, which they say is part of a “coup” against the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

PARIS: France will end visa restrictions for Moroccan nationals, the foreign minister said on Friday, in a sign of warmer relations between the two countries after more than a year of tensions between Paris and Rabat.
“We’ve taken measures with our Moroccan partners to re-establish a consular relationship,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Friday after talks with her Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in Rabat.

LONDON: At least 65 children between the ages of 2 and 17 have been killed in a “brutal crackdown” since protests erupted against the Iranian regime over 90 days ago, an opposition group has said.