When an ancient bronze statue of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius landed back on Turkish soil after decades abroad, it was more than a symbolic homecoming.

It marked the latest victory in Turkey's increasingly assertive push to recover antiquities illegally taken abroad -- a campaign supported by a newly-developed AI tool for identifying cultural assets of Turkish origin.

The life-sized bronze, which dates back to the second- or third-century, was taken in the 1960s from the ancient city of Bubon near Turkey's southwestern Antalya resort.

SYDNEY, March 20 (Reuters) - Protesters heckled and booed Prime Minister Anthony ​Albanese on Friday during a visit to Australia's largest mosque for Eid al-Fitr prayers, voicing anger over his stance on ally Israel's offensive in Gaza.

Some in Australia's Muslim and Jewish communities are angry over a fine line walked by the centre-left government since the Gaza war began, expressing concern for Palestinians, repeatedly urging a ceasefire, and backing Israel's right to self-defence.

BRUSSELS, March 19 (Reuters) - European Union leaders called on Thursday for a moratorium on military strikes on energy and water facilities in the Middle East, amid growing concerns about the impact of the Iran war on the global economy.

"The European Council calls for de-escalation and maximum restraint, the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure and full respect of international law by all parties," the leaders of the EU's 27 countries said in written conclusions of a summit in Brussels.

By Andrew Mills, Trevor Hunnicutt and Maayan Lubell

DOHA/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told Israel not to repeat its attacks on Iranian natural gas infrastructure as tit-for-tat strikes on energy plants sent energy prices spiraling, sharply escalating the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both praise their relationship as excellent, but after three weeks of attacking Iran, their tactics are increasingly diverging -- the result, some experts say, of Trump's ill-defined goals.

Trump said Thursday that he told Netanyahu not to attack Iran's gas fields after an Israeli strike prompted Tehran to retaliate against a major energy hub in Qatar, sending global prices soaring further.

March 19 (Reuters) - Russia issued a fresh call on Thursday for an end to hostilities in the Gulf, starting with a halt to U.S. and Israeli attacks, and made a new offer to use its diplomatic leverage to help end the fighting.

"We call for the fastest possible cessation of hostilities, which resulted from the unprovoked aggression of the U.S. and Israel," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that it "takes money to kill bad guys" when asked if the Pentagon had requested $200 billion in funding for the Iran war.

Exactly how much the war has cost so far has yet to be publicly disclosed, and the final bill will depend on how long the US-Israeli campaign against Iran launched on February 28 lasts.

But it could be substantial: The Pentagon's comptroller reportedly told lawmakers that the first six days of the war had cost $11.3 billion.

PARIS, March 19 (Reuters) - France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will go to Israel on Friday, in an unscheduled visit, after visiting Beirut as part of efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon.

The French foreign ministry added, as it announced Barrot's visit, that Barrot would discuss with Israeli authorities regional security and humanitarian aid issues, and attempts to de-escalate the conflicts in the Middle East.

(Reporting by John Irish;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

By Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. military's request for $200 billion in additional funding for the Iran war met with stiff opposition in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, as Democrats and even some Republicans questioned the need for the money after large defense appropriations last year.

A U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that the Department of Defense has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran.

JERUSALEM, March 19 (Reuters) - Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of U.S.-Israeli air attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference on Thursday.

"We are winning, and Iran is being decimated," Netanyahu said, noting that Iran's missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed.

"What we're destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they're trying to produce," Netanyahu said.