Beirut Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has returned to the Arab fold after more than a decade of isolation, eyeing reconstruction and aid from formers foes as the conflict grinds on.

Since the brutal civil war broke out in 2011, it has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and devastated much of the countrys infrastructure and industry.

AFP looks at Assads regional rehabilitation and what it means for Syrias rebels, its refugees, reconstruction and the roaring illegal trade in the stimulant drug captagon.

How have Arab nations mended ties?

Several Arab capitals cut ties with Assad after the Damascus regimes repression of anti-government protests sparked war in 2011, with some supporting the opposition instead.

States that once bet on Assads demise have warmed to him as he clung to power and clawed back territory with Iranian and Russian support.

There is relief on the Syrian street in general, and great optimism about the future, said Bassam Abu Abdallah, who heads the Damascus Centre for Strategic Research and is close to the government.

We have turned a new page.

Arab outreach peaked after a deadly February 6 earthquake struck Syria and Turkey, and gained further momentum as regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran patched up bilateral ties the following month.

On Friday, a triumphant Assad made his first appearance at an Arab League summit since Syria was suspended at the start of the war.

Rebel-backer Turkey, which controls stretches of Syrias north, has also made overtures to Assad.

Lina Khatib, director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London, said Assad saw the Arab League return as recognition that he has won the war and as formal acceptance of his legitimacy as president.

Is Syria any closer to peace?

Large parts of Syrias north remain outside government control after 12 years of war that pulled in foreign powers and global jihadists.

Though the frontlines have mostly quietened in recent years, Russian, Iranian, Turkish and US forces are still present in Syria.

Several rounds of United Nations-brokered talks in Geneva between the government and opposition groups, aimed at forging a new constitution, have failed, with no political solution in sight.

The opposition and rebels role in determining the countrys political future has vastly shrunk, said Khatib.

There is now even less hope that the UN-led peace process is going to be resurrected and result in meaningful political transition, she added.

Nicholas Heras of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy said the Arab League has moved on from the Syrian opposition and is seeking to rebalance regional dynamics toward equilibrium between Iran and Arab states th...

Paris The European Union rolled out its mammoth data privacy regulation five years ago this week, and has since handed down billions in fines.

Irelands data watchdog smashed the record for an individual fine on Monday when it demanded 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) from Meta over its transfers of personal data between Europe and the United States.

Here are some of the worst offenders of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Meta: undisputed fine king

Mark Zuckerbergs social media firm owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has racked up roughly two billion euros in fines.

Breaches by Meta have included a mega-leak of some 533 million phone numbers and emails, mishandling childrens data and repeatedly failing to give a legal basis for its data collection.

Meta, along with the likes of Google, Twitter and LinkedIn has its European headquarters in Ireland, a low-tax regime that has courted big tech.

The Irish privacy watchdog has been reluctant to hand down big fines but said in a statement on Monday that the EUs central authorities had ordered it to collect 1.2 billion euros from Meta.

Austrian campaign group NOYB said it had spent millions in a decade-long legal battle to force the Irish watchdog to tackle the case.

It is kind of absurd that the record fine will go to Ireland the EU Member State that did everything to ensure that this fine is not issued, said NOYBs Max Schrems.

US giants: In Metas shadow

Luxembourg lit a torch under the Silicon Valley data industry in 2021 by slapping Amazon with a record fine of 746 million euros.

The country, whose low-tax policies have led campaigners to label it a tax haven, refused to give details of its decision at the time, only providing a brief statement after Amazon revealed the fine in its regulatory filings.

The online retail giant had been sued by a European consumer group claiming personal data was collected for ad-targeting without permission.

However, Amazon denied any breach and promised to appeal. It is unclear whether the fine has been paid.

Google has faced plenty of GDPR pain too.

Frances data watchdog hit the search giant with 50 million euros in fines for a lack of transparency on its Android mobile operating system in 2019 the biggest such fine of that year.

Clearview AI: Widespread penalties

Clearview AI may not be a household name, but it claims to own billions of photos of peoples faces that it sells as a searchable AI-powered database to law enforcement and other clients.

It scrapes the images from the web, often from social media accounts, without asking permission.

Privacy watchdogs in Greece, Italy, France and the UK have all hit the US firm with fines totally roughly 70 mil...

Jerusalem Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters Monday in a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, in what the army described as an operation targeting terrorist suspects.

In a statement, the Palestinian health ministry identified the three men killed in Balata camp in Nablus as Muhammad Abu Zaytoun, 32, Fathi Abu Rizk, 30, and Abdullah Abu Hamdan, 24.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbass Fatah party, said in a statement that the three were among the groups fighters.

The groups emblem was wrapped around the foreheads of the men in a morgue, while their bodies were shrouded in the Palestinian flag.

The Israeli army said it had shot several fighters when a gun battle erupted during a counterterrorism operation.

During the operation, armed suspects fired at the soldiers, who responded with live fire. Hits were identified, it said.

The army added in a statement that it apprehended three wanted individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activity, and that weapons and ammunition were seized.

Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh described the killings as a veritable massacre and charged that repeated Israeli raids and attacks by settlers constituted a major war crime and a collective punishment.

He said silence from the United States had emboldened Israelis to escalate attacks, calling on Washington to immediately intervene to stop the Israeli madness that will drag the region toward explosion.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly launch incursions into Palestinian cities, which are nominally under the control of Abbass Palestinian Authority.

Deadly military operations have surged in recent months across the Palestinian territory.

Escalating violence

Witnesses told AFP that Israeli forces raided several houses in the camp overnight in search of people wanted by the army.

Gunfire and loud explosions rocked the camp, the witnesses said, adding that a house was demolished.

Israels army, meanwhile, said it had located in one of the residences an explosives manufacturing site and detonated it.

Following the raid, Palestinians inspected the rubble of a damaged building and salvaged belongings.

The Hamas militant group, which rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, described those killed as freedom fighters.

Hamas reiterates that resisting the (Israeli) occupation is a legitimate right for the Palestinian people in their quest for freedom, the group said in a statement.

Densely-populated Balata is home to some 27,000 people, making it the largest camp in the West Bank, accor...

Srinagar A G20 tourism meeting began on Monday under tight security in Indian-administered Kashmir, as New Delhi seeks to project an image of normalcy in a region wracked for decades by violence.

Both China and Pakistan have condemned holding the event in the disputed Muslim-majority territory, which is split between New Delhi and Islamabad, both of whom claim it in full. 

Over the decades an insurgency seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan has seen tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels killed.

But India wants to show that what officials call normalcy and peace are returning to the region after New Dehli revoked its limited autonomy and took direct control in 2019, imposing an extended lockdown.

Since then, the rebels have largely been crushed although young men continue to take up arms and the annual death toll, once in the thousands, has been on a downward trend, with 253 fatalities last year.

Now India is promoting tourism in the region, with its spectacular mountain scenery and signs at the airport declaring it paradise on earth. 

More than a million Indian citizens visited last year, to the delight of local tourism businesses.

But dissent has been criminalised, media freedoms curbed and public protests limited, in what critics say is a drastic curtailment of civil liberties by New Delhi.

Police said last week that security had been beefed up to avoid any chance of terrorist attack during the G20 meeting, and on Monday soldiers and armoured vehicles were deployed at multiple locations in Srinagar.

But many checkpoints wrapped in metal mesh and barbed wire had been dismantled overnight, and some paramilitary police stood hidden behind G20 advertising panels in what appeared to be an effort to minimise the security forces visibility.

The Peoples Anti-Fascist Front, a new rebel group that emerged in Kashmir after 2019, issued a statement condemning the event and threatening to deploy suicide bombers.

Today, tomorrow or day after. It will come, it said.

Terrorist-infested places

The three-day gathering will take place at a sprawling, well-guarded venue on the shores of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Two Indian government ministers are attending, but several Western nations are sending only locally based diplomatic staff.

G20 member China, which has its own territorial disputes with India, has refused to attend, and no delegations are expected from Turkey or Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised over the choice of location.

Does the Modi government think that tourism can be promoted in closed conference halls next to a scenic lake being patrolled by marine commandos, with surveillance drones overhead? columnist Bharat Bhushan wrote in...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rashid, received on Sunday the new commander of the NATO Mission in Iraq (NMI), Lieutenant General Jose Antonio Aguero Martinez.

Martinez will lead the NMI, succeeding Commander Giovanni Iannucci, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

Rashid stated that the realistic picture of stability and development Iraq is witnessing must be conveyed to the world, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi Presidency.

The Iraqi president indicated that the NMI contributes to the training of the Iraqi security forces, stressing that the security situation in Iraq became stable after terrorist groups have been eliminated, the statement mentioned.

There are other challenges facing Iraq, the most important of which is water scarcity, Rashid said, expressing his hope that a solution to this issue will be reached.

The Iraqi president clarified that Iraq is keen to establish balanced relations with other countries while protecting its sovereignty and the independence of its decisions.

The post Iraqi President receives new commander of NATO Mission in Iraq appeared first on Iraqi News.

Brussels Extreme weather caused by climate change has damaged food production across Europe.

Confronted with a deteriorating situation, divided European Union decision-makers are debating new rules for genetically modified crops.

Last years drought ravaged the continents farms, starving everything from Spanish olive harvests to Hungarys maize and sunflower crops, Italian and Romanian corn fields to Frances dairy production.

Some argue the answer to Europes problems is deregulating gene modification techniques to produce better crops. Others claim this would be a smokescreen to avoid having to radically change the way the bloc farms.

Supporters say seeds produced using gene editing techniques are less vulnerable to drought and disease and require less water.

The European Commission, the EUs executive arm, will propose a law in July that will loosen the rules on plants produced by certain new genomic techniques (NGTs), branded by critics as simply new genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The proposals will open a new battlefront among the EUs 27 member states with drought-hit countries especially in favour and between EU lawmakers.

The new techniques are a mix of genomic editing tools that alter a plants genetic make-up without the addition of foreign genetic material, unlike transgenic GMOs that include DNA from other species. 

The commission says the current rules on GMOs including permission and labelling are not fit for purpose for the new technology.

Plants produced by new genomic techniques can support sustainability, the EUs health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said last month.

The proposals, she said, will strongly signal to farmers, researchers and industry that this is the way forward in the EU.

Magnificent tool

In a document from February seen by AFP, the commission looked at whether it should treat traditional seeds and those produced using the new techniques, with modifications that could in theory have happened naturally, as the same.

France, severely affected by drought last summer, backs changing the rules. 

In April, French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau expressed his concerns over what he called Europes delay, arguing there should be a push to allow biotechnology that gives Europe the tools to deal with climate change by producing more resistant seeds.

Late last year, his Spanish counterpart, Luis Planas, hailed the techniques as a magnificent tool to have seeds that need less water and fertiliser.

Other countries are more wary. 

In March, Austria criticised a commission study that it claimed was based on assumptions rather than scientific data and c...

Wellington New Zealands sheep outnumber people by fewer than five to one, official figures showed Monday, clipping their lead over humans to the lowest level since the 1850s.

New Zealanders have far fewer of the woolly grazers than their Australian rivals, said the government body Stats NZ, despite frequently being the butt of their sheep jokes.

The national flock fell by 400,000 sheep or two percent to 25.3 million in June 2022, said New Zealands newly released five-yearly census of agricultural production.

The ratio of sheep to people dropped below five to one in 2022, for the first time since the 1850s, when national sheep numbers were first recorded, said Stats NZ analyst Jason Attewell.

In 1982 New Zealand sheep numbers famously sat at 22 per person, he added.

Australia currently has three times as many sheep as New Zealand, though their ratio is only around three sheep to every Aussie.

New Zealand, home to 5.2 million people, is one of the worlds main wool exporters, last year sending US$284 million worth overseas.

But rising farming costs and falling wool prices have seen national sheep figures dwindle from a high of 72 million in the 1980s.

The post New Zealand sheep outnumber people less than 5 to 1, a record low appeared first on Iraqi News.

Geneva Weather-related disasters have surged over the past 50 years, causing swelling economic damage even as early warning systems have meant dramatically fewer deaths, the United Nations said Monday.

Extreme weather, climate and water-related events caused 11,778 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021, new figures from the UNs World Meteorological Organization (WMO) show.

Those disasters killed just over two million people and caused $4.3 trillion in economic losses.

The most vulnerable communities unfortunately bear the brunt of weather, climate and water-related hazards, WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

The report found that over 90 percent of reported deaths worldwide due to disasters over the 51-year-period occurred in developing countries.

But the agency also said improved early warning systems and coordinated disaster management had significantly reduced the human casualty toll.

WMO pointed out in a report issued two years ago covering disaster-linked deaths and losses between 1970 and 2019, that at the beginning of the period the world was seeing more than 50,000 such deaths each year.

By the 2010s, the disaster death toll had dropped to below 20,000 annually.

And in its update of that report, WMO said Monday that 22,608 disaster deaths were recorded globally in 2020 and 2021 combined.

Early warnings save lives

Cyclone Mocha, which wreaked havoc in Myanmar and Bangladesh last week, exemplifies this, Taalas said.

Mocha caused widespread devastation impacting the poorest of the poor, he said.

But while Myanmars junta has put the death toll from the cyclone at 145, Taalas pointed out that during similar disasters in the past, both Myanmar and Bangladesh suffered death tolls of tens and even hundreds of thousands of people.

Thanks to early warnings and disaster management these catastrophic mortality rates are now thankfully history. Early warnings save lives.

The UN has launched a plan to ensure all nations are covered by disaster early warning systems by the end of 2027.

Endorsing that plan figures among the top strategic priorities during a meeting of WMOs decision-making body, the World Meteorological Congress, which opens Monday.

To date, only half of countries have such systems in place.

Surging economic losses

WMO meanwhile warned that while deaths have plunged, the economic losses incurred when weather, climate and water extremes hit have soared.

The agency previously recorded economic losses increased sevenfold between 1970 and 2019, rising from $49 million per day during the first decade to $383 million per day in the final one.

Wealthy countries have been hardest hit by far in monetary terms. 

The United States alone incurred $1.7 tr...

Baghdad Young Iraqis row a flotilla of traditional wooden boats down the Tigris river in Baghdad, celebrating an ancient nautical heritage in the now drought-stricken country.

Once a common sight across Iraqs southern streams and marshlands, the elongated boats with tapered bows and sterns known as meshhouf have been around since the time of the Sumerians, said event organiser Rashad Salim.

But the elegant water craft have long been vastly outnumbered by modern, motorised vessels and are threatened further as Iraqs waterways suffer from droughts linked to climate change.

Iraq must save from extinction an essential facet of our civilisation which has existed for four or five millenia, said Salim, co-founder of Safina Projects, which works to preserve Iraqs traditional boating culture.

Salim, 62, is a painter, sculptor and eco-artist with a taste for adventure who in his youth joined the famed Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl on a long sea voyage in a traditional Iraqi reed vessel.

Five years ago, Salim set out to find Iraqs last meshhouf makers, locating them in Huweir on the edge of Iraqs famed Mesopotamian marshes, where eventually he would place orders for the construction of new vessels.

Salim then went to nautical clubs and helped create teams that would teach young people how to navigate the gondola-like vessels.

The flotilla on the Tigris in Baghdad was a landmark event in Salims efforts 18 of the boats took to the water on a spring afternoon as part of a cultural festival.

Connect with environment

The youthful pilots alternated paddle strokes on the left and right. Some, with only a few weeks practice in the lead-up to the event, struggled to hold the course.

The meshhouf is part of the history and heritage of the country, said one of them, Omar Youssef, 21, who has previous experience with sailing and windsurfing.

Those sports depend on the wind, you have to keep the balance with your body, he said, whereas powering the meshhouf works the shoulders and arms.

Seven meshhouf clubs have been founded in Baghdad, the central province of Babylon and parts of southern Iraq, with funding from Britain and the Aliph Foundation, which works to protect cultural heritage in conflict zones.

Iraq is still recovering from decades of dictatorship and war, but it faces an additional peril. The United Nations ranks it as one of the worlds five countries most impacted by some effects of climate change.

Iraq endures blistering summer heat and frequent dust storms. Declining rain as well as upstream dams have reduced the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where ancient civilisations flourished.

Salim bemoaned the terrifying state of the rivers which suffer from risi...

Port Moresby Papua New Guinea will sign a defence pact with the United States on Monday, giving US forces access to its airfields and ports as Washington vies with Chinas growing footprint in the Pacific region.

In a sign of the intensifying rivalry over the South Pacific, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was not alone in representing major powers in Port Moresby, where the deal is to be signed.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew into town just hours before him on the eve of a summit Monday with 14 South Pacific island states, seeking to assert his nations role as an Indo-Pacific power in the face of Chinas rise.

Blinken will meet those same South Pacific leaders as the United States aims to counter Chinas expanding economic, political and military presence.

But by signing the security deal with PNG Prime Minister James Marape, Blinken will also expand the US militarys capacity to deploy in the region.

Beijing has snapped up mines and ports across the Pacific and last year inked a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands that allows China to deploy troops to the country.

Student protests

The United States fears that a Chinese military foothold in the South Pacific could outflank its facilities on Guam, and make the defence of Taiwan more complicated in the event of a Chinese invasion.

The State Department said the pact with PNG would enhance security cooperation and further strengthen our bilateral relationship, improve the capacity of the PNG Defence Force, and increase stability and security in the region.

Port Moresby is no longer the sleepy diplomatic outpost it once was, said Gordon Peake, a senior adviser for the Pacific Islands at the United States Institute of Peace.

While China might not be mentioned anywhere in the document, its an important subtext in this story of deepening US-PNG relations.

Marape last week said the deal would offer Washington movement in the countrys waters in return for access to US satellite surveillance to battle illegal activities on the high sea.

The deal would not prevent him from signing similar deals with other nations, including China, he said.

The agreement has prompted student protests at several universities, the countrys biggest newspaper the Post Courier reported, over fears it gives US forces too much autonomy at some of the countrys key entry points.

Bomb squad cars

Security was high in the capital, with roads blocked around its downtown beach area, bomb squad cars stationed close to the venue and officers patrolling nearby waters on speedboats and jet skis.

Blinken replaced Joe Biden at the summit after the US president cancelled the trip to take part in debt ceiling talks in Washington. 

After visiting a...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul-Ghani, and the Russian Minister of Energy, Alexander Novak, confirmed, during a phone call on Friday, their countries commitment to oil production cuts and the OPEC+ agreement, according to a statement issued by the Iraqi Oil Ministry.

The statement elaborated that the two ministers stressed the importance of cooperation between oil-producing countries in OPEC+ to achieve a balance between supply and demand and contribute to the stability of global oil markets.

Abdul-Ghani and Novak emphasized the commitment of both Iraq and Russia to the OPEC+ agreement and the voluntary reduction of oil production until the end of 2023, the statement illustrated.

The two officials reviewed ways to enhance and develop the relations between the two countries, especially in the oil and energy sector, and discussed the latest developments in the oil markets and the challenges facing the global economy.

Last December, the OPEC+ group decided to adhere to its goals related to oil production by about two million barrels per day.

OPEC+ alliance approved in October 2022 a production cut of two million barrels per day, about two percent of the global demand, starting from November 2022 until the end of 2023.

OPEC+ attributed its decision to the weak expectations of global economic growth.

Oil prices started to fall last October due to the slowing growth worldwide and the increased interest rates.

The post Iraq, Russia commit to OPEC+ oil production cuts appeared first on Iraqi News.

Jerusalem Israels National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound Sunday, a controversial move by the extreme-right politician amid heightened tensions in annexed east Jerusalem.

The move came three days after Ben-Gvir and tens of thousands of Jewish nationalists marched through the Old City and just over a week into a fragile Gaza ceasefire.

Jerusalem is our soul, Ben-Gvir wrote on Telegram, alongside a photo of himself at the site in the heart of the Old City.

The threats of Hamas will not deter us, I went up to the Temple Mount! he wrote, using the Jewish name for the site.

Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is administered by Jordan. Non-Muslims are permitted to visit the site, but not pray there.

The compound is also the most sacred site for Jews, who pray below it at the Western Wall.

Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, denounced Ben-Gvirs last visit to the site in January and again slammed his action on Sunday. 

Israel will bear responsibility for the barbaric incursions of its ministers and herds of settlers, the group wrote on Telegram.

The move confirms the depths of danger looming over Al-Aqsa, under this Zionist fascist government and the arrogance of its ministers from the extreme right, said Hamas.

Israeli police confirmed Ben-Gvirs visit in a statement, adding that it passed without incident. 

Later on Sunday, Israels top politicians held a rare cabinet meeting in the tunnels beneath the Western Wall.

Palestinians fear their use as a vast museum threatens the foundations of Al-Aqsa mosque.

Jerusalem is ours united forever! Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Facebook, alongside photos from the subterranean meeting.

Dangerous and unacceptable

Jordan decried Ben-Gvirs actions as a provocative step and a dangerous and unacceptable escalation. 

It represents a flagrant and unacceptable violation of international law, and of the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its holy sites, said foreign ministry spokesman Sinan Majali.

Tours of the site by Jewish nationalists have long been criticised by Palestinians and Arab nations, while Ben-Gvirs visits have taken on added weight since he took office in December.

The office of Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas said harming Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire.

(It) will push the region into a religious war with unimaginable consequences that will affect everyone, said Abbass spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, in a statement published by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The timing of Sundays visit also holds significance, coming days a...

Marseille Three men died Sunday in an assault rifle attack in the French port city of Marseille, which has seen a surge of drug-related gang murders in recent months, police said.

The three were part of a group of five men in their 20s who left a nightclub shortly after 5:00 am (0300 GMT) and were driving away when their car was attacked by unknown men with Kalashnikov rifles, they said.

The two survivors of the attack which took place in a residential neighbourhood of Marseille, Frances second-biggest city  were unharmed and fled the scene, as did the shooters.

Police found a burning car nearby, but would not confirm immediately whether it was the gunmens getaway car.

The torched car would, however, be consistent with previous drug-related killings in Marseille where the perpetrators often set their vehicles ablaze to destroy any evidence.

Early indications were that the men who were attacked lived in a council estate with a high incidence of drug trafficking and were known to police, according to a source close to the investigation.

Regional prefect Frederique Camilleri told reporters at the scene that the entire police force has been mobilised to find the perpetrators of these despicable crimes and to dismantle the networks of the traffickers behind this violence.

This weekend alone, police had arrested five people for possession of firearms linked to the drugs trade, and seized three Kalashnikov assault rifles, a submachine gun and a handgun, she said.

The latest attack brings the number of drug-related homicides in Marseille since the start of the year to 21, according to an AFP count.

The victims are typically young men low in the hierarchy of drug gangs, and targeted by killers working for rival gangs.

Camilleri and the citys chief prosecutor Dominique Laurens had already warned last month that competition between rival organisation for control of the citys most lucrative drug-dealing spots was turning into a vendetta.

That statement came after a night of violence early April when three people were killed by gunfire, including a 16-year old, and eight people injured in the shootings.

Laurens said at the time that there was a worsening blood bath in Marseille and predicted that it would continue in the coming months.

Special police forces were deployed at key drug flashpoints in the city following that killing spree.

Marseilles mayor Benoit Payan said this month that this war has been going on for too long and called on the French government to act in a firm and strong way to stop the violence.

The killers dont even bother to hide anymore, Payan said.

The post...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A South Korean parliamentary delegation announced on Saturday that recommendation has been submitted to their government to lift the travel ban to Iraq, the Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.

The Iraqi Parliaments press office mentioned in a statement that the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, Dylan Ghafoor Saleh, and the chairman of the Iraqi-Korean Friendship Committee, Muhammad Siddiq Muhammad, received a Korean parliamentary delegation headed by special presidential advisor and former chairman of the South Korean-Iraqi friendship foundation, Han Byung-do, at the presence of the Korean ambassador to Iraq.

The meeting addressed ways to enhance and develop the bilateral relations between Iraq and South Korea through the activation of the friendship committee and the exchange of visits and experiences, according to the statement.

Saleh commended the continuous Korean support for Iraq, calling on Korean companies to invest in Iraq and establish pioneering projects as part of the joint cooperation between both countries, the statement illustrated.

The Iraqi official also urged the South Korean government to review its decision banning travel to Iraq and to convey a realistic picture of the stability Iraq is witnessing, the statement clarified.

Members of the Korean parliamentary delegation confirmed they submitted a recommendation to their government to lift the travel ban to Iraq, stressing that Iraq is now more secure, stable and prosperous, the statement elaborated.

The Korean officials expressed that they are encouraged to enhance communication and practical cooperation between both sides, the statement explained.

The Chairman of the Iraqi-Korean Friendship Committee suggested opening a Korean academy or institute in Iraq to teach the Korean language, the statement added.

The post Parliamentary recommendation to lift travel ban from South Korea to Iraq appeared first on Iraqi News.

Cannes Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese were set for a victory lap at Cannes on Sunday after their Native American crime epic, Killers of the Flower Moon scored rave reviews, while the festival prepared to bow down before Jude Law as King Henry VIII.

Scorseses latest opus, about a wave of murders among oil-rich Osage Indians in the 1920s, was showered in words like searing, triumph and masterpiece by critics who scored the Cannes Film Festivals hottest ticket on Saturday night.

Based on a non-fiction bestseller, the film sees DiCaprio as a weak-willed man who marries a wealthy Osage woman and is drawn into the deadly schemes of his kingpin uncle, played by Scorseses other long-time muse, Robert De Niro. 

IndieWire said DiCaprio gives his best-ever performance, while The Guardian awarded five stars for a remarkable epic about the bloody birth of America. 

The stars were due to address reporters later on Sunday.

But the festival was already set for another glitzy premiere later in the day, with Firebrand starring Jude Law as 16th-century English king Henry VIII alongside Alicia Vikander as his sixth and final wife, Catherine Parr.

Drives me crazy

While Scorseses Apple-funded film had an out-of-competition slot at the festival, Firebrand is in the increasingly close race for its top prize Palme dOr, to be announced on May 27.

Among the entries is Natalie Portman and Julianne Moores new film May December which received positive reviews after its Saturday premiere.

The tale of a woman who caused a tabloid scandal by marrying a schoolboy and the actress who enters their lives years later to research a role was described as deliciously campy by IndieWire.

Portman told AFP she liked seeing women behave in morally ambiguous ways.

It always drives me crazy when people are like, oh, if only women rule the world, it would be a kinder place. No, women are humans and come in all different complexities, she said.

Arguably the current favourite for the Palme is British director Jonathan Glazers The Zone of Interest, a unique and horrifying look at the private life of a Nazi officer working at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Critics were near-unanimous in their praise, Variety calling it chilling and profound. 

It was partly inspired by a book of the same name by British novelist Martin Amis, who died on Saturday at 73.

Also well received was Four Daughters, a heartbreaking documentary about radicalisation within a Tunisian family that is both inventive and engaging.

That may go down well with jury president Ruben Ostlund, last yearR...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The attorney representing Saddam Hussein at his trial, Khalil Al-Dulaimi, revealed, in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV, that the United States set out conditions to have the late President pardoned.

Al-Dulaimi explained that the US suggested the appointment of a Vice President with no key authorities to pardon the former President.

The Iraqi attorney explained that the Americans asked Saddam Hussein to stop the fight against the American forces in Fallujah, where they faced some of the heaviest combat since their war in Vietnam in 1968.

The lawyer clarified that the Americans also requested Saddam Hussein to leave the country after his release, but the late President refused their requests, noting that he transferred those conditions to Saddam himself.

Al-Dulaimi revealed that he and others were the link between the late Iraqi President and leaders of the Iraqi resistance, including leaders in the Iraqi army, as he used to exchange information with Saddam secretly during sessions of his trial.

The Iraqi lawyer confirmed that Saddam Hussein had information from decision-makers about the intention of the United States to divide Iraq, so he was passing messages during his trial to the Iraqi people and some Iraqi resistance factions.

The post Conditions the US offered to Saddam Hussein to be pardoned appeared first on Iraqi News.

San Salvador Twelve people were killed Saturday in a stampede at an El Salvador stadium where soccer fans had gathered to watch a local tournament, police said.

Authorities said initial reports pointed to a crush of fans who tried to enter Cuscatlan Stadium in the Central American countrys capital San Salvador to watch a match between teams Alianza and FAS.

The match was suspended as emergency personnel evacuated people from the stadium, where hundreds of police officers and soldiers gathered as ambulance sirens wailed.

Preliminarily, we have a negative result of 12 victims, nine who are here in the stadium and three more that we have been informed are in different hospital centers, National Civil Police (PNC) director Mauricio Arriaza told reporters.

Salvadoran soccer is in mourning, Arriaza said.

Health Minister Francisco Alabi said the countrys hospital network was providing medical care to all patients.

Interior Minister Juan Carlos Bidegain said the civil protection services first responders were on the scene.

Carlos Fuentes, spokesman for the emergency services group Comandos de Salvamento, said they were treating more than 500 people.

About 100 people in serious condition were taken to hospital, with some showing signs of asphyxia and other types of trauma, Fuentes said.

The stampede apparently started after a stadium gate fell, causing people to crowd together, he said.

At least two of the injured were in critical condition, according to police.

Everyone will be investigated

El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele said the PNC and the Attorney Generals Office would investigate the incident and those responsible would be punished.

Everyone will be investigated: teams, managers, stadium, box office, league, federation, Bukele said on Twitter.

He warned that whoever the culprits are, they will not go unpunished.

The Salvadoran Football Federation (Fesfut) said in a statement it deeply regrets the events that occurred at the stadium and expresses its solidarity with the families of those affected and killed.

Fesfut will immediately request a report of what happened and will communicate the relevant information as soon as possible, it said.

The tragedy comes seven months after 135 people, including more than 40 children, were killed in a stampede following a football match in Malang, Indonesia.

Police had tried to fend off fans with tear gas and many panic-stricken victims were crushed or suffocated while trying to use closed or narrow exit doors.

An Indonesian police officer and two match officials were jailed for 12-18 months over the disaster.

The post...

Istanbul Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cruises on Sunday into the final week before an historic runoff election as the big favourite to extend two decades of his Islamic-rooted rule until 2028.

Secular leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu gave the oppositions best performance of Erdogans dominant era in May 14 parliament and presidential polls.

The retired bureaucrat of Kurdish Alevi descent broke ethnic barriers and Erdogans stranglehold on the media and state institutions to win almost 45 percent of the vote.

But Erdogan still came within a fraction of a point of topping the 50-percent threshold needed to win in the first round.

The 69-year-old leader did it despite Turkeys worst economic crisis since the 1990s and opinion surveys showing him headed for his first national election defeat.

Kilicdaroglu will now need to rally his deflated troops and beat the odds yet again to wrest back power for the secular party that ruled Turkey for most of the 20th century.

The Eurasia Group consultancy put Erdogans chances of winning next Sunday at 80 percent.

It will be an uphill struggle for Kilicdaroglu in the second round, Hamish Kinnear of the Verisk Maplecroft consulting firm agreed.

Millions of patriots

Erdogan rode a nationalist wave that saw smaller right-wing parties pick up nearly 25 percent of the parallel parliamentary vote.

Kilicdaroglu is courting these voters in the second presidential round.

The 74-year-old revamped his campaign team and tore up his old playbook for the most fateful week of his political career.

He has replaced chatty clips that he used to record from his kitchen with desk-thumping speeches and pledges to immediately rid Turkey of millions of migrants.

As soon as I come to power, I will send all the refugees home, he said in his first post-election address.

He has chased the endorsement of a little-known ultra-nationalist, whose tiny vote share pushed Turkey into its first presidential runoff. 

And he has punched back against Erdogans claims that he was associating with terrorists a code word for Kurdish groups fighting for broader autonomy in Turkeys southeast.

We have millions of patriots to reach, Kilicdaroglu said.

But Kilicdaroglus sharp right turn could prove costly with voters from Kurdish regions that overwhelmingly backed him in the first round.

Kurds embraced Erdogan during his first decade in power because he worked to lift many of their social restrictions.

They turned against him when Erdogan formed his own alliance with Turkeys nationalist forces and began to unleash purges after surviving a failed coup attempt in 2016.

Kilicdaroglus new and more overtly nationalist tone echoes a secular era during which...

Abu Dhabi Faced with mounting pressure over planet-heating pollution, Gulf Arab energy giants are turning to humble tech start-ups as they search for ways to remove emissions while keeping oil flowing.

Oil producers have for years touted capturing carbon before it goes into the atmosphere as a potential global warming solution, against criticism from climate experts who say it risks distracting from the urgent goal of slashing fossil fuel pollution.

With little investment and few projects in operation around the world so far, the technology is currently nowhere near the scale needed to make a difference to global emissions.

Now major players from Saudi Aramco to the United Arab Emirates ADNOC say that is about to change, as the UAE hosts climate negotiations this year with a message of cutting emissions rather than fossil fuels.

For the industry and for countries as well to achieve net-zero by 2050, I dont see us achieving this without embracing carbon capture, Musabbeh Al Kaabi, ADNOCs executive director of low-carbon solutions, told AFP.

I would love to see more wind and solar energy, but to be practical and transparent, its not going to solve the problem.

Carbon capture was a hot topic at a recent climate tech conference in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, home of ADNOC.

Start-ups displayed their advances in carbon capture and storage (CCS) which removes carbon dioxide as it is pumped from power plants and heavy industry.

There were also firms presenting their plans for direct air capture (DAC), a newer technology that extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere. 

The UNs Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says the existing fossil fuel infrastructure without the use of carbon capture will push the world beyond the Paris deals safer global warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

Industrial smokestacks

The debate between whether to primarily target fossil fuels or emissions is shaping as a key battleground at the COP28 climate talks, which will be held in UAE financial hub Dubai.

Citing the IPCC, the COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber ADNOCs CEO and his countrys climate envoy last week said it was time to get serious about carbon capture. 

But environmentalists are sceptical about the central role that big energy firms are seeking in climate solutions, saying they have a vested interest in maintaining fossil fuel sales.

Julien Jreissati, programme director at Greenpeace MENA, labelled it a distraction.

ADNOCs Kaabi, however, argued that the oil giants engineering capabilities and deep pockets make them best placed to propel climate tech.

The world has two options: we could leave it to the smal...

Athens Greece votes on Sunday in a general election that promises to be the closest in more than a decade, with three main parties competing for seats in the 300-member parliament.

Outgoing prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of conservative New Democracy, former premier Alexis Tsipras of leftist Syriza and ex-European lawmaker Nikos Androulakis of the Socialists are aiming to lead their parties to victory.

During the last election in 2019, New Democracy unseated Syriza.

While Mitsotakis is heading into the election with opinion polls giving him a clear lead, the surveys also suggest that he is unlikely to garner a lead wide enough for an outright majority in parliament. This means that at least two of the parties will need to cooperate to form a government to avoid a fresh election by July.

Here is a look at the leaders of the main three parties.

The scion

Mitsotakis, 55, is seeking a second four-year term as prime minister on the strength of his record of economic growth, fiscal management and a robust foreign policy that includes a pair of key alliance deals with the US and France.

We have much more experience now to boldly move forward in order to carry out the changes that will make Greece a modern European country, he said in a televised interview earlier in May.

A Harvard graduate and former McKinsey consultant, Mitsotakis has warned that the country needs a strong hand at the helm amid the war in Ukraine and other challenges, and that failure to re-elect his conservative New Democracy party will undermine Greeces economic rebound after a near-decade debt crisis.

A scion of a Greek political dynasty dating to the late 19th century, Mitsotakis has long struggled to shake off his elitist image.

His father Constantine Mitsotakis was also prime minister three decades ago. His sister is former minister Dora Bakoyannis, the first woman mayor of Athens. The current Athens mayor, Costas Bakoyannis, is her son and Mitsotakis nephew.

Leader of the conservative New Democracy party since 2016, Mitsotakis is married to entrepreneur Mareva Grabowski, co-founder of the Zeus+Dione luxury clothing brand. They have three children.

The ex-radical

Tsipras, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2019 during some of Greeces rockiest crisis years, is asking voters for a second chance to show what his labour-friendly leftist Syriza party can truly do without the austerity shackles of EU-IMF supervision.

Enough is enough, the 48-year-old told a rally in Larissa, central Greece during the campaign hustings.

Enough with profiteering, inequality, nepotism, indifference, arrogance, injustice, he said, accusing Mitsotakis of showering billions of euros on political and family allies.

A sovereign debt crisis that began in 2009 plunged Gree...