By Paolo Laudani

MADRID, April 1 (Reuters) - Spanish police launched an investigation on Wednesday into Islamophobic and xenophobic chants during Tuesday's friendly against Egypt which also drew sharp criticism from Spain's football officials and the government.

At the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona, the home ground of LaLiga club Espanyol, Spain supporters chanted "who doesn't jump is a Muslim" during the World Cup warm-up match which ended in a goalless draw.

In the security crackdown ordered by Iranian authorities since the start of the war, an unsettling new sight on the streets of Tehran has put residents on edge: teenagers armed with machine guns.

During the first weeks of the war against the United States and Israel, checkpoints sprang up around the capital, often comprising police or military vehicles, with traffic cones and barriers blocking the roads.

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - British police said on Wednesday they had arrested three more men in connection with an arson attack on Jewish community ambulances in north London last month.

The ambulances were set on fire on March 23 in what British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as a "deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack".

SARAJEVO, April 1 (Reuters) - Bosnians woke with heavy heads and light hearts on Wednesday, buoyed by their soccer team's dramatic playoff shootout win over Italy that sent them to the World Cup finals for only the second time.

Celebrations went late into the night on Tuesday after teenager Esmir Bajraktarevic squeezed his penalty past Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to secure a shock victory over the four-times world champions and a place in this year's global showpiece tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that the global instability caused by the war in Iran means Britain should align more closely with the European Union on security and economy, following criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump.

At a press conference aimed at easing public concern over rising energy costs, Starmer said the impact of the war would "define us for a generation" and could be similar to the rise in energy prices in the 1970s.

By Ramadan Abed , Mahmoud Issa and Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA/CAIRO, April 1 (Reuters) - They've never known their parents, and they've never known Gaza, born prematurely two years ago and evacuated to Egypt as Israeli forces drew dangerously close to their neonatal care unit.

That changed on Monday, when the 11 children, now toddlers, reunited with their families in Gaza as part of a U.N.-organized mission that brought tears of joy and celebration, as well as a close to one of the war's most painful chapters.

By Mathieu Rosemain

PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - France suspects a pro-Iranian group known as HAYI to be behind a foiled attack on Bank of America's Paris offices, its anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Wednesday, although it stressed the link has not yet been formally established.

HAYI, which stands for Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya, or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, had posted a propaganda video on social media on March 23 targeting Jewish interests and communities in France and Europe, the prosecutor's office said in a statement to Reuters.

By John Irish

PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - Bahrain has circulated a revised U.N. Security Council draft resolution on protecting commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, retaining language authorising “all necessary means” but dropping an explicit reference to binding enforcement.

Shipping through the waterway, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass and which underpins Gulf economies, has already slowed to a near‑halt after Iran struck vessels amid its conflict with the United States and Israel.

Britain will on Thursday hold a virtual a meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz which has been crippled by the Middle East war.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the meeting earlier Wednesday, while a UK official told AFP the meeting would be virtual and held on Thursday.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host the discussions, Starmer told reporters during a Downing Street news conference.

LONDON, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to back U.S. military action against Iran, according to an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph.

Trump described the alliance as a "paper tiger" and said removing the United States from the defence pact was now "beyond reconsideration," the newspaper reported. He said he had long held doubts about NATO's credibility.