Hundreds of people turned out in London Sunday for a pro-Palestinian march banned by the government after police said it was organised by a group "supportive of the Iranian regime".

Police said in a statement they had arrested 12 people and were investigating anti-Israeli chants allegedly made at the rally.

Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood said earlier this week she had agreed to the ban to "prevent serious public disorder" in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, where Iran has launched strikes in retaliation against a US-Israeli offensive.

Attacks targeting commercial vessels in or near the Strait of Hormuz have put the blockaded waterway on the front line of the Middle East war, with spreading economic repercussions.

Iran's quest to inflict maximum pain on the global economy in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes has all but shut the narrow strait through which 20 percent of global crude and LNG normally passes.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged countries that rely on oil carried through the Hormuz strait to step up and help take responsibility for keeping the passage open -- with American support.

The captain of the Iranian women's football team which played in the Asian Cup in Australia has withdrawn her bid for asylum, state media said Sunday, making her the fifth member of the delegation to change her mind.

Zahra Ghanbari will head from Australia to Malaysia and from there fly back to Iran, the IRNA news agency said.

Three players and one backroom staff member had already in previous days withdrawn their bids for asylum and travelled to Malaysia.

VATICAN CITY, March 15 (Reuters) - Pope Leo made an impassioned plea on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in the expanding Iran war, lamenting "atrocious violence" that he said had killed thousands of non-combatants and caused suffering across the region.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its third week, the first U.S. pope warned that violence would not bring the justice, stability and peace that the peoples of the region long for.

OSLO, March 15 (Reuters) - Canada and the five Nordic countries on Sunday said they have agreed to deepen cooperation on military industrial production and other topics, in the latest push by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to build new global alliances.

Carney has sought closer ties with China and Middle Eastern countries as well as India and Europe, as he tries to reduce his country's dependence on the United States and forge a trading order led by what he calls middle-power countries.

DUBAI, March 15 (Reuters) - Dozens of people accused of sharing sensitive information with Israel have been arrested in several areas of Iran, local media reported on Sunday, as Israeli and U.S. fighter jets continue to strike new targets in the country.

In northwestern Iran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday that 20 people were arrested on accusations by the provincial prosecutor's office of sending location details on Iran's military and security assets to Israel.

ZAZIR, northern Israel, March 15 (Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday that the government was not planning to hold direct talks with Lebanon in the coming days and had not told the United States it was running low on missile interceptors.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported on Saturday that Israel and Lebanon were expected to hold direct talks in the coming days. Semafor also reported that Israel had informed Washington it was running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors.

Here are the latest events in the Middle East war:

- Saudi Arabia says intercepted more than 60 drones since midnight -

Saudi Arabia has intercepted more than 60 drones since midnight, according to a tally of defence ministry figures released on Monday.

The Saudi defence ministry posted a series of statements on X describing the interception of a total of 61 drones in the east of the country in the early hours of Monday morning.

- Flights temporarily suspended at Dubai airport -

Israel launched a fresh strike on Beirut's southern suburbs late Sunday as Israel's military said it was striking Hezbollah infrastructure in the city following earlier raids mainly in the country's south.

The midnight strike, heard by AFP correspondents in the capital, came after a morning Israel army evacuation warning for Beirut's southern suburbs, which Israel has repeatedly struck in the past fortnight.

Shortly after the raid, the Israeli military said on social media that it was "currently striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure in Beirut".

KYIV, March 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine wants money and technology in return for helping Middle Eastern nations defend against Iranian kamikaze drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after Kyiv sent specialists to four countries in the region.

Zelenskiy told reporters in comments cleared for release on Sunday that each of the three teams sent to the Middle East consisted of dozens of people, who will conduct expert assessments and demonstrate how drone defences should operate.