A prominent Tunisian activist was arrested on Saturday as hundreds protested in the capital against the curtailing of freedoms, an AFP journalist and lawyers said.

The protest in Tunis came a day after a mass appeal trial saw some 40 public figures, mainly critics of President Kais Saied, handed hefty sentences over plotting against the state.

Poet and political figure Chaima Issa, who was handed a 20-year sentence during the trial on Friday, was arrested during the rally, lawyers and witnesses said.

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Tunisian police arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa at a protest in the capital Tunis on Saturday to enforce a 20-year prison sentence, her lawyers said.

An appeals court handed jail terms of up to 45 years to opposition leaders, business leaders and lawyers on Friday on charges of conspiracy to overthrow President Kais Saied, in what critics said was a sign of increasingly authoritarian rule.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Syria's northern city of Aleppo Saturday as the country marks a year since a lightning Islamist-led offensive that eventually toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December.

The Islamist alliance, led by Sharaa, entered Aleppo on November 29 last year and swiftly took control of Syria's second city.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two years ago.

The milestone comes as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire largely holds, but with both sides accusing the other of violating the terms of the deal.

In a statement, Gaza's health ministry said the death toll from the war had risen to 70,100.

The ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 354 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.

Pole-sitter Oscar Piastri won Saturday's sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix with his McLaren teammate and title favourite Lando Norris third.

Norris now leads Piastri by 22 points and the Briton can claim his maiden Formula One crown if results go his way in Sunday's penultimate grand prix.

The other title contender Max Verstappen finished fourth for Red Bull to drop 25 points behind Norris with a maximum 50 points remaining from Sunday's race and the season-closer in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

A new draft law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews, whose support is crucial for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, has sparked uproar in Israel, with the opposition denouncing it as a special privilege for "draft-dodgers".

Under a ruling established at the time of Israel's creation in 1948, men who devote themselves full-time to studying sacred Jewish texts are given a de facto pass from mandatory military service.

By Joshua McElwee

ISTANBUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Pope Leo visited Istanbul's famed Blue Mosque on Saturday, removing his shoes in a sign of respect but not appearing to pray in his first visit as leader of the Catholic Church to a Muslim place of worship during his four-day visit to Turkey.

The first U.S. pope bowed slightly before entering the mosque and was led on a tour of the expansive complex, able to hold 10,000 worshippers, by its imam and the mufti of Istanbul.

With a pot of glue, a blade and a keen eye, Manal al-Saadani repairs tattered banknotes -- a necessity in the Gaza Strip, where the cash in circulation is wearing out.

For every revived note she gives back to a customer, they give her a few coins in return.

As Gaza remained blockaded for much of the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023, basic supplies were depleted, including banknotes, with no new ones supplied to its banks.

By Can Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Blasts rocked two tankers from Russia's shadow fleet in the Black Sea near Turkey's Bosphorus strait on Friday, causing fires on the vessels, and rescue operations were launched for those on board, Turkish authorities and sources said.

The 274-meter-long tanker Kairos suffered an explosion and caught fire in the Black Sea while en route from Egypt to Russia, Turkey's Transport Ministry said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said on Friday the group has the right to respond to Israel's killing of senior commander Haytham Ali Tabtabai and will "set the timing" for any retaliation.

In a televised speech, Qassem described the Israeli strike that killed Tabtabai and several others as "a blatant aggression."

(Reporting by Maya and Gebeily and Enas Alashray; Editing by William Maclean)