Baghdad Many masterpieces of Iraqi painting were looted or destroyed during the years of war, but now the countrys artistic heritage faces another threat: rampant counterfeiting and illicit trafficking.

Adorning a wall of Baghdads modern art museum, the painting Death to Colonialism, with its sombre blues and greys, by pioneering Iraqi artist Shakir Hassan Al-Said is one of the rare pieces from its era still on public display.

Painted in the 1970s, toward the end of the heyday of Iraqs modern art movement, it survived the chaos that followed the 2003 US-led invasion when the museums 8,000-strong collection was decimated by looters.

The works of Shakir Hassan al-Said are extremely valuable as far as Iraqi modern art goes as well as art from the Middle East, said Tamara Chalabi, co-founder and head of the Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Art.

Paintings by Al-Said, who established the influential Baghdad Modern Art Group alongside painter and sculptor Jewad Salim, can fetch up to $100,000 at auction.

The late artists family says it has successfully prevented the sale of numerous counterfeits of his works, and is in regular contact with international auction houses and galleries about his oeuvre.

Recently, we spotted a fake in Baghdad, said the artists 50-year-old son, Mohammed Shakir Hassan Al-Said.

He contacted the gallery through social media to demand the painting be taken down - but said the management refused, claiming it was authentic.

Al-Saids family, in an effort to safeguard his legacy after his death in 2004, has meticulously documented his comprehensive works, comprising around 3,000 pieces.

Today, they are working on the publication of a catalogue to provide immunity against the fakes that have proliferated after 2003, his son told AFP.

Better and better forgeries

The primary targets of forgers and traffickers within and outside Iraq are the works of its modern pioneers from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Many of them were among the thousands of pieces looted from the countrys museums and homes during the security vacuum after dictator Saddam Hussein fell.

Iraqi art is today one of the most important sources of artistic production in the Arab world, said Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, a museum in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Kadhim Hayder and Dia Azzawi are among some of the most sought-after artists.

Nowadays some Iraqi artworks are sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Emirati art collector told AFP. Forgers are noticing the auction results Its enticing them to create better and better forgeries.

The authentication problem arises across the region notably in Egy...

Jeddah Saudi authorities were investigating Thursday after an assailant and a security guard were killed in an exchange of gunfire outside the US consulate in Jeddah, the gateway city for the massive hajj pilgrimage taking place in Mecca. 

The gunman and a Nepalese security guard both died after the exchange of fire outside the consulate on Wednesday evening, officials said, giving no possible motive for the incident.

At 6:45 pm (1545 GMT), a man stopped in a car in front of the consulate building and got out with a weapon in his hand, the official Saudi Press Agency quoted a police spokesman as saying.

Security forces reacted resulting in an exchange of fire that killed the assailant, it said, adding that the Nepalese guard later died of his wounds.

The shooting coincided with the final day of the hajj at nearby Mecca. More than 1.6 million foreign pilgrims arriving on planes and boats have streamed through coastal Jeddah en route to the rituals.

Security investigations are still underway to ascertain the circumstances of the incident, the police spokesman said.

The gunmans nationality has not been revealed. US officials said no Americans were hurt and that the consulate had been secured.

We offer our sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of the deceased local guards member, the State Department said in a statement in Washington.

The consulate was appropriately locked down and no Americans were harmed in the attack, it said.

The United States was in touch with the kingdom as it starts its investigation, the statement added.

The US consulate in the Red Sea city has been the target of previous attacks, including one on July 4, 2016 American Independence Day when a suicide bomber blew himself up.

In December 2004, the consulate was stormed by suspected Islamist extremists in an attack that left five non-American staff and contractors dead, as well as four gunmen.

That attack, claimed by Al-Qaedas Saudi branch, was the first on a diplomatic mission in Saudi Arabia but one of a string of bombings and shootings in the kingdom at the time.

In recent times, Jeddah has been a hub of US diplomatic activity as the United States and Saudi Arabia together try to mediate between warring generals in Sudan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the city earlier this month when he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabias de facto ruler.

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Manacor The soft thud of bouncing balls and coaches orders echo over the courts at the Rafa Nadal Academy, the tennis factory the Spanish superstar dreamed into reality, his great legacy to the sport and to his island, Mallorca.

It came from Rafael and his fathers idea of staying involved in the sport when Rafaels career was over, Toni Nadal, his uncle and former coach tells AFP at the academy in the 22-time Grand Slam winners hometown, Manacor.

Hes lasted much longer than we thought, adds Toni Nadal, with a smile.

He is the academys tennis director, speaking to AFP while overseeing some of the sports most promising youngsters running drills.

Spanish great Nadal, 37, is taking a break from tennis to try and recover from his injury problems but keeps a keen eye on his academy.

He is often seen there, like on June 14 when he presided over the graduation ceremony for 49 students and players, alongside womens world number one Iga Swiatek.

Nadal also chose it as the location of his May announcement that he was stepping away from the game ahead of his planned comeback and retirement in 2024.

This would be my goal stopping, to try and face probably the last year of my sporting career with at least the guarantees of being able to enjoy it, Nadal said at the time.

Face time

The academys courts are where one of the greatest players of all time will prepare for his comeback, along with the students, who can sometimes enjoy rallies with the 14-time French Open champion.

He talks to the coaches on a regular basis, he explains his vision to them, he trains here all the time and trains with the kids, he gives them his way of doing things and his advice, says Toni Nadal.

Ive been lucky enough to play with him several times, recalls 20-year-old Daniel Rincon, the 2021 US Open junior winner, on a terrace at the training centre.

He helps us a lot, in the breaks or during the exercises he tries to help us.

He wants us all to improve and he gives us his grain of sand, and for us it is very important that Rafa Nadal is telling you something, adds Rincon, a tall and shy young man, who also studied for a while at the academy while he was training.

Norways two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud, fourth in the world rankings, trained at the academy aged 19, while he was ranked 143rd and looking to break into the elite.

However it is not just tennis that the academys athletes live for.

Besides the 40-strong indoor and outdoor clay and hard courts, there is also an international school where they can study and prepare for university.

Members of the academy also enjoy other facilities such as swimming pools, padel courts and even a sma...

Hong Kong Equity markets were mixed Thursday as central bank warnings that interest rates would rise further to counter inflation played up against hopes the US economy could avoid a recession.

Worries over the outlook for China also continue to weigh on sentiment in Hong Kong and Shanghai after mainland officials failed to provide any details on plans to boost growth, despite pledges of help.

Investors were also keeping an eye on Tokyo as the yen weakened to a fresh seven-month low against the dollar as Japanese and US monetary policies diverge.

With the weekend crisis in Russia appearing to have ebbed, focus is now back on efforts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks aimed at fighting inflation.

On Wednesday, Fed boss Jerome Powell said officials were leaving the door open to two more hikes, having paused at their July gathering for the first time since kicking off their campaign early last year.

Policy hasnt been restrictive enough for long enough, he told an annual gathering of central bankers in Sintra, Portugal. We believe theres more restriction coming.

He added policymakers had not decided whether to go for two successive increases or at alternate meetings and warned rates could stay high for some time as the board tries to cut inflation to their two percent target from the current four percent.

We will be restrictive as long as we need to be, he said. 

Investors will be watching the release later Thursday of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index the central banks preferred measure of inflation with a strong reading adding pressure to lift rates next month.

Powells comments came after European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said eurozone borrowing costs would continue to rise.

Even Japans central bank boss indicated it could move away from its long-running ultra-loose monetary policy, which it has stuck to despite rising prices and a sharp drop in the yen.

The Bank of Japans Kazuo Ueda said it could begin normalising policy if officials were confident inflation would pick up next year.

He said underlying inflation remained below two percent but the board saw it slowing as the year went on.

From there on, we are forecasting some increase in the rate of inflation into 2024 but, we are less confident about the second part, he added. If we become reasonably sure that the second part is going to happen, that could be a good reason for a policy change.

Uedas remarks gave a little support to the yen, which has dropped in recent months against its major peers as the Fed and ECB tighten, but it resumed its drop Thursday.

Yellen eyes China trip

Traders are keeping tabs on the yen after Japanese officials in recent days said they were following...

Hanoi Vietnams economic growth slowed in the first half of the year as a slump in demand hit exports, authorities said Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country, a global manufacturing hub for clothing, shoes and electronics, saw an expansion of 3.72 percent in January-June, down from 6.42 percent in the same period of 2022.

The economic growth was not high in the context of difficulties and challenges from inside and outside the country, the General Statistics Office said in a statement.

There was a trend of more employment but the labour and job markets continue to face difficulties and challenges mainly due to enterprises lack of orders.

More than 240,000 people were laid off in the first half of the year, around 80 percent of them working in foreign-invested businesses, according to the GSO.

Two-thirds were working in the leather and footwear industry.

Many of those workers have shifted to the service sector, accepting less stable jobs, GSO added.

The country earned more than $164 billion from exports in the first half, down 12 percent on-year. 

A serious slump in the real estate market caused by high land prices, slow approval of projects, and problems securing investment capital are adding to economic difficulties.

The number of businesses entering real estate was down by 63 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, the construction ministry said. 

Nearly a third of real estate businesses were dissolved.

The communist state has long been a success story among Asian economies and the World Bank predicted Vietnams economic growth for 2023 would come in at 6.3 percent, against eight percent in 2022.

Officials have set a target of 6.5 percent but the statistics office admitted reaching that goal will be a huge challenge that requires high determination and efforts of the whole political system, enterprises and people across the country.

Dinh Quang Hinh, head of macro and market strategy at VNDIRECT Securities Corporation told AFP that given difficulties in the world economic situation, it was not essential for Vietnam to pursue more than six percent growth at any cost.

Instead, the country should focus on the recovery and restructuring of the economy to be well prepared for development in years to come, he said.

Vietnams economy grew 4.14 percent in the second quarter, marginally up from 3.32 percent in the first three months of the year.

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Washington US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview that aired Wednesday she hopes to travel to China to reestablish contact with Beijing despite differences between the two countries.

Tensions between China and the United States have soared in recent years, with both President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump calling Beijing the most serious threat to long-term US global primacy.

But the Biden administration has recently sought to dial down the heat, with Yellen telling MSNBC that her hopes in traveling to China is to reestablish contact.

There are a new group of leaders, we need to get to know one another, she said, declining to give an exact date for an expected visit to Beijing, which Bloomberg has reported will take place early next month.

Deepening China-US discord are Washingtons bans of exports of high-end semiconductors and other trade curbs on the rising power.

Yellen acknowledged in the interview that the two countries have disagreements, stressing the United States would continue to defend its national security interests.

The United States is taking actions and will continue to take actions intended to protect our national security interest and well do that even if it imposes some economic cost on us, Yellen said.

But Yellen added that economic competition would benefit both countries.

Healthy competition that benefits both American businesses and workers and Chinese businesses and workers, this is something that is both possible and desirable, she said.

Yellens reported trip to China comes on the heels of another visit by a top US official, Antony Blinken, to Beijing this month the first by a US Secretary of State in nearly five years.

That visit saw Blinken meet with President Xi Jinping, who said the two powers had made progress and reached agreement on unspecified issues.

The post Yellen hopes to visit China to reestablish contact with leaders appeared first on Iraqi News.

Milan Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has softened her once strident anti-EU views but the ratification of a reform to the eurozones bailout fund has left her in a quandary.

Italy is the only country that has not yet ratified a 2021 reform of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which strengthened the funds financial firepower and increased its authority to supervise countries in difficulty.

But a draft ratification law put forward by Italys centre-left opposition has exposed tensions within Melonis government.

Her far-right Brothers of Italy party has long been critical of the European Union, but since taking office in October, Meloni has chosen not to rock the boat with Brussels.

Her main coalition partner, Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigration League party, is more overtly critical of the EU and is particularly opposed to the eurozone bailout fund.

On the other side of the coalition is the late Silvio Berlusconis right-wing Forza Italia, which has long supported ratification even if its position has recently become more nuanced.

Disagreements exploded into the open following the publication last week of a technical opinion in favour of ratification from the chief of staff to Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti a member of the League.

When the ratification bill moved to a parliamentary committee, government lawmakers unable to agree on a common approach simply failed to turn up.

However, the bill progressed with the support of opposition MPs, with a full parliamentary debate planned for Friday.

Sign in blood

Created in 2012 in the heat of the eurozone debt crisis, the ESM borrows on the financial markets to provide loans at below-market rates to eurozone states in difficulty, who must in return implement reforms to their public finances.

Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Cyprus have all used it but Italy remains deeply suspicious, with many considering it a tool for northern European countries to impose austerity on the south.

There are also fears in Italy that if it used the ESM, it would be forced to restructure its enormous debt, valued at 144 percent of GDP the highest ratio in the eurozone after Greece.

As long as I count for something, Italy will not join the ESM I can sign that in blood, Meloni said in December 2022.

Playing for time

But in recent days, Meloni has chosen to criticise not the ratification itself but the timing of any parliamentary vote, last weekend urging its delay.

The government is trying to play for time to find common ground and avoid exposing its internal divisions in public, said Franco Pavoncello, professor of political science at Romes John Cabot University.

Italy signed the 2021 reform along with other e...

Cairo Ten years ago, Egypts then-defence minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi rallied citizens by promising to move the country out of the terrorist shadow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

Today, the former general rules a nation where expressions of dissent have been quashed, the media is muzzled and the justice system is a labyrinth even legal experts say they cannot navigate.

Over the decades, Egypt the most populous Arab nation and a key US ally was never a very liberal democracy, said Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

But todays level of state repression is unprecedented, say rights activists.

For decades, Egyptian activists and lawyers have been imprisoned for their opinions, said human rights lawyer Mahienour El-Massry.

Now, she said, ordinary citizens are accused of terrorism because of a TikTok sketch or a Facebook post complaining about the cost of living.

The United States has accused Egypt, one of its top military aid recipients, of torture, life-threatening prison conditions, free speech restrictions and the persecution of the LGBTQ community.

This week marks a decade since Sisi deposed Morsi in popular protests the last time Egyptians demonstrated en masse, after the overthrow of veteran ruler Hosni Mubarak in the 2011 Arab Spring.

Sisi assumed power a year later and has since tightened his grip on the nation of now 105 million people.

A decade on, said Bahgat, the entire country lives in fear of arrest, open-ended detention with no due process.

We went from self-censorship to the entire population living in a hostage situation.

Zero demonstrations

On Egyptian streets that once echoed with protest chants, there are literally zero demonstrations a year, Bahgat said.

For the first time in Egypt there is not one single opposition newspaper, there is no way for the population to express dissent in an organised manner.

According to rights groups, 562 websites are now blocked, including of independent news outlets, non-profits and rights organisations.

Authorities regularly ban rap and electronic music performers and have prosecuted young female social media influencers for violating family values.

Bahgat said Egypt has turned into a carceral state. It is the worst decade in the modern history of the country when it comes to human rights.

Authorities point to reforms, including lifting a long-standing state of emergency, and a revived presidential pardoning committee that has released hundreds of political prisoners.

Long accused of brutal prison conditions, Egypt has opened new rehabilitation centres with libraries and workshops for inmates.

...

Sydney Gulf oil states are using their vast wealth to build influence across the far-flung South Pacific, experts have told AFP, tearing a page straight out of Chinas Belt and Road playbook.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates two of the worlds biggest crude oil producers have been ramping up efforts to shed their reputations as global climate laggards.

Both have been lavishing money and attention on small, isolated and often indebted Pacific nations, where rising sea levels are already creeping up on low-lying coastal communities.

Businessman Milroy Cainton, who was recently appointed as Vanuatus special envoy to the Emirates, said it was clear the Gulf states wanted friends in the Pacific.

There are some good things they see in the South Pacific, he told AFP. We are getting big help from them, as well as from China. 

Since 2015, the UAE says it has spent at least $50 million on infrastructure projects throughout the Pacific islands, typically focused on renewable energy.   

Emirati petrodollars have funded a wind farm in Samoa, water storage facilities in the Marshall Islands, and solar power projects in Kiribati, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands. 

One of the most conspicuous examples sits smack in the middle of Vanuatus leafy capital Port Vila, where a UAE-funded solar farm keeps the lights on inside the countrys parliament.

Its one of the largest-scale renewable energy projects in Vanuatu, said Cainton. 

The relationship is progressing big time with clean energy. 

Pacific Belt and Road

Saudi Arabia has sought to establish diplomatic relations with a clutch of its own Pacific partners, including Tuvalu and Fiji in 2015, Tonga in 2020, Vanuatu in 2022, and the Cook Islands in April this year.

It has built a particularly warm relationship with Solomon Islands pledging $8 million in June to help it prepare for the Pacific Games in the capital Honiara. 

A host of Pacific dignitaries travelled to the Saudi capital Riyadh earlier this year, where they discussed issues such as climate financing with counterparts from the Arab League. 

Over the past decade Saudi Arabia and the UAE have become increasingly prominent players on the international stage. 

They have snapped up high-profile sporting franchises, lured the biggest entertainers to perform in their cities, and become more assertive in their foreign policy. 

Both have made headline-grabbing commitments to renewable energy, and the UAE pulled off a major coup when it secured the rights to host the COP28 climate conference in Dubai later this year. 

It reflects the new ambitions of these Gulf states, which were traditionally passive actors in international relatio...

Hong Kong Most markets rose in Asia on Thursday, building on the previous days advances, even after central bank chiefs warned that interest rates would rise further to counter persistent inflation.

The region has enjoyed a broadly positive few days after last weeks losses as US data soothed concerns about a possible recession in the worlds top economy.

However, worries over the outlook for China continue to weigh on sentiment in Hong Kong and Shanghai after mainland officials failed to provide any details on plans to boost growth, despite pledges of help.

With the weekend crisis in Russia appearing to have ebbed, focus is now back on efforts by the Federal Reserve and other central banks aimed at fighting inflation.

On Wednesday, Fed boss Jerome Powell said officials were leaving the door open to two more hikes, having paused at their July gathering for the first time since kicking off their campaign early last year.

Policy hasnt been restrictive enough for long enough, he told an annual gathering of central bankers in Sintra, Portugal. We believe theres more restriction coming.

He added policymakers had not decided whether to go for two successive increases or at alternate meetings and warned rates could stay high for some time as the board tries to cut inflation to their two percent target from the current four percent.

We will be restrictive as long as we need to be, he said. 

His comments came after European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said eurozone borrowing costs would continue to rise.

BoJ policy hint

Even Japans central bank boss indicated it could move away from its long-running ultra-loose monetary policy, which it has stuck to despite rising prices and a sharp drop in the yen.

The Bank of Japans Kazuo Ueda said it could begin normalising policy if officials were confident inflation would pick up next year.

He said underlying inflation remained below two percent but the board saw it slowing as the year went on.

From there on, we are forecasting some increase in the rate of inflation into 2024 but, we are less confident about the second part, he added.

If we become reasonably sure that the second part is going to happen, that could be a good reason for a policy change.

Uedas remarks gave a little support to the yen, which has dropped in recent months against its major peers as monetary policies diverge.

Traders are keeping tabs on the yen after Japanese officials in recent days said they were following developments closely, indicating they could intervene to provide support if it continues to weaken.

The speeches in Portugal firmed up expectations that monetary policies would remain restrictive.

Still, while Wall Street ended on a mixed note, mos...

London Oscar-winning Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey was due in a London court on Wednesday to stand trial for a dozen sexual offences which allegedly occurred more than a decade ago.

The 63-year-old star of American Beauty and drama series House of Cards is facing a four-week trial at Southwark Crown Court in south London. 

Dozens of photographers and journalists gathered outside the court from 6:30 am (0530 GMT) on Wednesday hoping to catch a glimpse of Spacey, who arrived by taxi with his legal team not long after 8.00am. 

Walking past the cameras Spacey looked relaxed and gave a small wave, according to an AFP journalist.

Spacey has been on unconditional bail since first appearing in court in Britain last year.

The actors stellar career has been halted by large numbers of allegations of sexual offences, although he has not been convicted of any crime.

Last year he appeared at Londons Old Bailey court to plead not guilty to five offences against three men, including four counts of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.

They allegedly took place in 2005 and 2008 in London, and in 2013 in Gloucestershire, western England.

In November, prosecutors then announced seven additional charges involving another man, taking the total number of counts Spacey faces in the UK to 12.

Denial

The fresh counts, allegedly committed between 2001 and 2004, comprise three offences of indecent assault, three of sexual assault and one of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

Spacey, whose full name is Kevin Spacey Fowler, appeared at Southwark Crown Court in January to deny all the new charges.

He spoke only to confirm his identity and to enter the not guilty pleas. 

None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law and reporting restrictions prevent further details being disclosed before trial.

Spacey enjoyed a highly successful acting career with roles such as a middle-aged father lusting after a teen in American Beauty, a serial killer in Se7en and the villain in Superman Returns.

He worked as artistic director at Londons Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015.

In 2017 he was one of the first stars caught up in the global #MeToo movement and was accused of sexual assault by multiple young men.

He was dropped from the final season of the political drama House of Cards and other projects.

Last year a New York court dismissed a $40 million sexual misconduct lawsuit brought against Spacey.

The complainant, actor Anthony Rapp, alleged the star had assaulted him when he was 14. He brought the civil case after being told it was too late to bring a criminal charge.

In 2019, charges of indecent and sexual assau...

Beijing China and New Zealand on Wednesday signed a string of agreements designed to boost trade between the two countries, as their leaders met in Beijing for talks.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is in China on a multi-day, multi-city mission to drum up business and help his nation exit an election-year recession.

After meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, Hipkins charm offensive continued Wednesday, when he met Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People, greeted by a 48-strong band from the Peoples Liberation Army.

Dialling down any criticism over Chinas human rights abuses, tensions over Taiwan, and Beijings tacit support for Russias invasion of Ukraine, Hipkins hailed the meeting as a reaffirmation of important economic connections between the countries. 

Our trading relationship is worth over NZ$40 (US$24) billion annually, Hipkins said, stressing the need to reaffirm the important economic connections we have with China.

Li for his part welcomed Hipkins warmly as a young and promising politician and thanked him for the visit after less than half a year in office.

Agreements were signed on trade, agriculture, forestry, education, and science and innovation.

With an eye on criticism rumbling at home, Hipkins insisted that a strong economic relationship with China was helping boost New Zealands economic recovery.

New Zealands economy slid into recession earlier this year, fuelled by a drop in exports and a slowdown in the countrys all-important agriculture industry.

Wellingtons Western allies have long been concerned about what they see as the New Zealand economys overdependence on trade with China.

But with growth stalling and Hipkins facing a tough campaign to secure another term in October, such concerns have been put on the back burner.

Hipkins said areas of difference, such as over human rights were dealt with in a respectful way.

I urged China to use its influence to encourage Russia to act consistently with its international obligations and cease its illegal war in Ukraine, he added.

The post New Zealand PM scores trade deals on China trip appeared first on Iraqi News.

Nanterre Violent protests shook Paris suburbs overnight and celebrities expressed outrage Wednesday after police shot dead a teenager during a traffic stop and appeared to have lied about the circumstances of the killing.

The 17-year-old man, named only as Nael M., was pulled over by two policemen on Tuesday for breaking traffic rules, prosecutors said.

Police initially reported that one officer shot at the teenager was contradicted by a video circulating on social media and authenticated by AFP.

The footage shows the two policemen standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver. A voice is heard saying You are going to get a bullet in the head.

The police officer appears to fire point blank as the car abruptly drives off.

The car moved a few dozen metres before crashing. The driver died shortly after.

His death sparked immediate protests in Nanterre, a western Paris suburb.

Bins were also set alight and a fire broke out at a music school, while police tried to disperse the protesters with teargas.

Protests then broke out in some neighbouring suburbs.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday that 31 people had been arrested overnight, 24 police slightly injured and around 40 cars torched.

The 38-year old policeman seen firing the lethal shot was taken into custody and is under investigation for voluntary manslaughter.

Nael Ms lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, said he would file a legal complaint against the policeman for voluntary manslaughter, and against his colleague for complicity in the shooting.

The lawyer also said that he would file a further complaint for false testimony against the policemen for claiming that Nael M. had tried to run them over.

There were two passengers in the car. One ran off and the other, also a teenager, was briefly detained.

Celebrities and some politicians voiced disgust, concern and outrage at the shooting.

I am hurting for my France, tweeted Kylian Mbappe, captain of the French mens national football team and star player at the Paris Saint-Germain club. 

An unacceptable situation. All my thoughts go to the friends and family of Nael, that little angel who left us far too soon, Mbappe said.

Actor Omar Sy, famous for his role in the film The Intouchables and the Lupin TV show, said on Twitter: I hope that justice worthy of the name will honour the memory of this child.

Far-left politician Jean-Luc Melenchon said that France no longer has the death penalty, and called for a complete redesign of the police force.

Darmanin who has previously backed the police in similar situations called the video footage extremely shocking&#8221...

Yerevan Four Armenian separatist fighters were killed Wednesday in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijani fire, rebels said, as Baku and Yerevan held peace talks mediated by the United States.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of the mountainous region in Azerbaijan, which is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

The clashes erupted one day after the United States opened three days of peace talks between the Caucasus arch foes, in its latest attempt to quell a conflict that has flared repeatedly.

On Wednesday morning, units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened fire with artillery on Armenian positions, Karabakhs defence ministry said.

Four servicemen were killed in action as a result of another provocation by Azerbaijan, it said, adding later in another statement that the situation along the border was now relatively stable.

There have been frequent clashes along Armenian-Azerbaijani border, despite the two former Soviet republics negotiating a peace agreement under the mediation from the European Union and United States. 

On Tuesday, Azerbaijans defence ministry said illegal Armenian armed detachments in the territory of Azerbaijan opened fire at the Azerbaijan Army positions, wounding one Azerbaijani serviceman. 

The same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened closed-door negotiations with Armenias Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov just outside Washington the second round of such talks he has led in as many months. 

Ethnic cleansing

Earlier this month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Baku of pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing in Karabakh, saying traffic is being blocked through the Lachin corridor the sole road linking the territory with Armenia. 

The blockade followed a months-long roadblock by Azerbaijani environmental activists, which Yerevan claims has lead to a humanitarian crisis in the mountainous enclave that had experienced shortages of food and fuel. 

Azerbaijan has insisted that civilians and aid convoys can travel through. 

But the International Committee of the Red Cross said Azerbaijan had blocked access for convoys delivering aid to Karabakh, raising concerns of shortages of food and medicine. 

Russia has historically been the mediator between the two former Soviet republics, but Brussels and Washington have been increasingly active as Moscow gets bogged down in its invasion of Ukraine. 

Armenia has repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to live up to promises to protect ethnic Armenians in line with a 2020 truce negotiated by Moscow after six weeks of fighting left thousands dead.

The ceasefire agreement saw Armenia cede swathe...

Hong Kong Equity markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors weighed data showing the US economy remained resilient in the face of rising interest rates against the prospect of more tightening to bring inflation under control.

Wall Street popped higher Tuesday after a string of readings soothed concerns about a possible recession, while traders were also cheered by Chinese growth pledges.

However, reports that Washington could block the export of artificial intelligence chips to China weighed on sentiment.

US investors cheered news that a closely watched gauge of consumer confidence last month hit its highest level since January last year, while new home sales surged in May and orders for big-ticket manufactured items rose again.

The figures tempered fears that the worlds top economy could tip into recession because of more than a year of rate hikes, and lifted hopes the US Federal Reserve could still guide it to a so-called soft landing by also bringing inflation down to its two percent target.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that while economists had predicted a contraction was on the way, it still had not materialised.

Its been coming for 11 months, well guess what? I dont think it is going to come, he told a fundraiser, flagging healthy jobs growth and anti-inflation measures.

But National Australia Banks Rodrigo Catril pointed to the theme of sectoral recessions playing with different lags, making the Fed job to tame inflation harder.

He pointed to the property sector now performing well after being the first to be hit by rate hikes, while manufacturing is in recession at the same time the services sector is growing.

Meanwhile the resilience of the labour market and consumer are feeding, not detracting from, inflationary pressures, he added. Overall, the data is telling us the Fed needs to keep its foot on the tightening pedal.

Asian investors struggled to maintain Tuesdays momentum in the morning but picked up the pace in the afternoon.

Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore, Wellington, Mumbai, Wellington, Bangkok and Taipei all rose. Shanghai ended flat but Seoul dropped.

London, Paris and Frankfurt opened on the front foot.

Weakening yen

Investors are now keeping tabs on a meeting in Portugal where speakers include top central bankers including Fed boss Jerome Powell and the heads of the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England. 

On Tuesday, ECB boss Christine Lagarde said it was unlikely policymakers at the bank could state soon when interest rates had peaked, and warned of yet another hike in July.

The BoJ is in focus as it stands by its ultra-loose monetary policy, even with the yen weakening on the back of expected Fed rate hikes.

The yen, which has...

Kramatorsk The death toll from a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in eastern Ukraine rose to eight on Wednesday, as Kyiv played down the effect of a brief mutiny by the head of the Wagner mercenary group on the conflict.

The blast at the Ria Pizza restaurant also killed three children and wounded at least 56 at the eatery, popular with both soldiers and journalists in the town of Kramatorsk, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the east.

Days after the aborted rebellion of Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, widely seen as the biggest threat to Kremlin authority in decades, Kyiv said the mutinys influence on fighting was minimal.

Unfortunately, Prigozhin gave up too quickly. So there was no time for this demoralising effect to penetrate Russian trenches, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN in a video published Wednesday.

As Belarus welcomed Prigozhin into exile on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to shore up his authority by thanking regular troops for averting a civil war.

But as Moscow announced preparations to disarm Wagner fighters, Putins arch-foe, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, launched a stinging attack on the president in his first comments since the aborted mutiny by the paramilitaries.

There is no bigger threat to Russia than Putins regime, Navalny said on social media. 

Putins regime is so dangerous to the country that even its inevitable demise will create the threat of civil war, he wrote.

In the Hague, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said it was still too early to draw conclusions from the move to Belarus of Prigozhin and, likely, some of his forces, but he vowed that the alliance was ready to defend its members.

What is absolutely clear is that we have sent a clear message to Moscow and to Minsk that NATO is there to protect every ally and every inch of NATO territory, Stoltenberg said.

Stopped civil war

Putins supporters, however, insisted that his rule was not weakened by the revolt.

Asked whether Putins power was diminished by the sight of Wagners rebel mercenaries seizing a military HQ, advancing on Moscow and shooting down military aircraft along the way, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused political commentators of exaggerating, adding that: We dont agree.

Putin himself attempted to portray the dramatic events at the weekend as a victory for the Russian army.

You de facto stopped civil war, Putin told troops from the defence ministry, National Guard, FSB security service and interior ministry gathered in a Kremlin courtyard to hold a minutes silence for airmen slain by Wagner.

Private army

Prigozhin, a former Kremlin ally and catering contractor who built Russia...

Brussels The EU will take the next crucial step on controversial project that has come under attack from the public, politicians and banks before it even exists.

From China to the United States, Jamaica to Japan, dozens of central banks worldwide are exploring or have already put in place digital currencies as electronic payments dominate the way people spend their money and cash usage dwindles.

began in 2020 when European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde suggested the idea and the Frankfurt-based body launched a public consultation.

Digital euro enthusiasts say it will complement cash and ensure the ECB does not leave a gap that could be filled by private, usually non-European, players and other central banks.

Critics question the need for a digital euro and banks warn of major risks, while the ECBs own study found the public was concerned over payment privacy.

If we are just duplicating the existing payment infrastructure with the digital euro, that is not a good enough business case. For the time being, the digital euro seems to be a solution in search of a problem, German MEP Markus Ferber told AFP.

The European Commission, the EUs executive arm, will publish a proposal on Wednesday that will be the legal foundation on which the ECB could launch a digital euro. 

The final law must be backed by the EUs 27 member states and the European Parliament.

The ECB is set to give the formal green light to a digital euro in October and the expectation is that it will be available from 2027 onwards.

Benefits outweigh costs

According to a draft proposal seen by AFP, the commission noted the digital euros long-term benefits outweigh its costs and warned the costs of no action can potentially be very large.

The currency would be available for individuals living in the euro area and visitors.

Lagarde argued in March during a panel event that the digital currency was important for resilience and to safeguard European payment autonomy.

Many of the means of payments are not necessarily European, she noted, adding it was very unhealthy to rely on one single source of payment.

US giants Visa and Mastercard currently dominate the global card payment market.

Her comments are in line with the EUs greater focus on bringing production to Europe or nearer to the bloc and moving away from relying on third countries.

Others argue, however, the EUs plans spell trouble, especially for banks.

The European Banking Federation (EBF) warned in March of the significant risk for banks because of the potential for bank runs as customers could hold...

London The summer of 1997 saw Britain hand over Hong Kong to China, Men in Black top the movie charts and Harry Potter take his first, faltering steps at Hogwarts.

It was also the year that Venus Williams, just 17 and with white beads in her hair, made her debut at Wimbledon.

Her maiden experience of the tournament was over pretty quickly, a first round loss at the hands of Polands Magdalena Grzybowska.

Fast forward 26 years and the elder stateswoman of tennis is preparing to play at the All England Club for the 24th time at the age of 43.

She has been champion five times in 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2008 when she beat sister Serena in the final.

She is also a four-time runner-up, losing to Serena in 2002, 2003 and 2009 and then in 2017 to Spains Garbine Muguruza when she was 37.

A former world number one, but now ranked at 554, Williams insists she has no plans yet to follow Serena into retirement.

She prefers to march to the beat of her own drum.

I dont think anyone in life has anything to prove, said the American when she last played the tournament in 2021.

The only thing you have to do is pay your taxes or else youre going to jail.

Having played the tournament in four different decades, Williams boasts wins over the likes of fellow Grand Slam standouts Martina Hingis, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Maria Sharapova all long retired on the famous lawns of south-west London.

Her 90-18 win-loss record comes with significant breakout performances.

The 2005 semi-final win over Sharapova avenged Serenas loss to the Russian teenager in the 2004 final.

Days later, she defeated Lindsay Davenport 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 9-7 in an epic two-hour 45-minute final with Williams saving a match point.

Williamss 2008 final triumph over Serena was just her second win in seven meetings in a championship decider against her sister at the majors.

You could never detract from winning Wimbledon, but Im definitely thinking about how my sisters feeling, said Williams after collecting her fifth and last title in London.

Recent visits to any tennis court, however, have been rare for the American.

She was sidelined for six months after injuring her hamstring in Auckland in January.

On her return to the sport earlier this month, she fell to 17-year-old Celine Naef in the first round of s-Hertogenbosch.

She then bounced back in Birmingham to defeat Camila Giorgi in a three-hour 17-minute victory.

It was her first triumph over a top 50 player in four years as she became just the third woman this century to win a tour-level match aged 43 or over, joining Martina Navratilova and Kimiko Date.

As she heads to Wimbledon once more, she remains clear-headed over why she keeps playing.

...

Cairo In the decade since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seized power, Egypt has built dozens of motorways that zigzag across Cairo crushing entire neighbourhoods, precious green spaces and historic gravesites.

The administration of Sisi, a former army general who rose to the presidency in 2013 after deposing Mohamed Morsi, has placed a massive premium on construction projects, in what experts call a bulldozer development policy.

Infrastructure has been a key source of legitimacy for a government whose playbook to impress the masses is to build big and build quick, said Dalia Wahdan, professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo.

Since 2020, that has included demolishing thousands of graves in the sprawling cemetery in the middle of Cairo known as the City of the Dead a UNESCO-listed world heritage site and the oldest necropolis in the Muslim world.

Salma, 30, watched as the white shroud cradling her fathers bones was pulled up from his grave and moved to another cemetery dozens of kilometres (miles) away.

We were terrified that our family remains would be discarded by the side of the road, the marketing manager told AFP, requesting a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.

The mausoleums also provide housing for thousands of low-income Cairenes, many of whom served the cemetery for generations as caretakers and gravediggers. Their makeshift homes are now in the path of a flyover.

Once evicted, they will join upwards of 200,000 people who have had their homes demolished in recent years, according to researcher and urban designer Ahmed Zaazaa.

This, he said, had been done to make room for investments or to build roads that lead to other investments chief among them a new capital projected to cost $58 billion.

On Cairos outskirts, the government has built thousands of public housing units, where experts say only a fraction of those displaced have gone.

 Spray paint notice

In the labyrinthine cemetery where centuries-old inscriptions lie in the dust, some families have received official notice and compensation information.

But many only find out when they see a spray-painted X or a checkmark on the wall, meaning the mausoleum where families are buried many for generations is slated for demolition.

Wahdan says she has lived in fear since a mark appeared on the grave opposite her recently deceased husbands tomb.

I dont think I will survive having to move him, she said.

The uncertainty has held some families hostage for years.

Khaleds family mausoleum was built in 1899, one of many graves with tremendous architectural value, the 26-year-old told AFP, also requesting a pseudonym.

Because it falls on a bend in the planned highway, at...

Mina Massive crowds of robed Muslims gathered for the stoning of the devil ritual in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic draws to a close.

From dawn, hundreds of thousands of worshippers began pelting pebbles at three concrete monoliths representing Satan, the last major ritual of an event held in severe summer heat.

The pilgrims flocked to Mina, near Mecca, a day after enduring temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) as they prayed for hours on Mount Arafat.

I will not think of doing hajj again until it takes place in winter, Farah, a 26-year-old Tunisian, said of the annual ritual which follows the lunar calendar and doesnt always coincide with summer.

My body is melting, she said.

More than 1.8 million pilgrims, most of them from abroad, joined the first hajj with unrestricted numbers since pre-Covid in 2019, when 2.5 million took part.

The attendance figure, announced by Saudi officials on Tuesday, falls well short of their predictions of beating the 2019 record.

The hajj is a source of prestige and a major revenue-earner for Saudi Arabia, which is trying to pivot its oil-reliant economy in new directions including tourism.

The devil-stoning marks the start of the three-day Eid al-Adha holiday, celebrated by Muslims by buying and slaughtering livestock to commemorate Abrahams willingness to sacrifice his son.

Afterwards, the pilgrims return to Mecca to perform a farewell tawaf walking seven times around the Kaaba, the giant black cube at the Grand Mosque that is the focal point of Islam.

Deadly stampedes

Minas walkways have proven deadly in the past: in 2015, a stampede killed up to 2,300 worshippers in the worst hajj disaster ever. A similar incident killed 364 in 2006. 

Other stampedes were reported in 2004, 1998 and 1994. In 1990, the failure of a tunnel ventilation system triggered a huge rush that killed 1,426 pilgrims, mainly from Asia.

There have been no major incidents since 2015, and the site has been extensively remodelled with a multi-storey bridge to allow the pilgrims to access the monoliths safely.

On Wednesday, helicopters buzzed overhead and hundreds of police officers fanned out across Minas roads to organise the flow of worshippers.

As well as the crowds, scorching conditions have been a major challenge for the worshippers from 160 countries, including many elderly after a maximum age limit was scrapped. 

In recent years the hajj has coincided with the Saudi summer, compounded by global warming that has made the desert climate even hotter.

Tuesdays peak of 48 degrees Celsius made it the hottest day at this years hajj. Experts have warned that temperatures of 50 degrees could become an annual occurrence in Saudi Arabia...

Milan Adrien Rabiot has signed a one-year extension to his Juventus contract until 2024, the Serie A club said on Tuesday.

France midfielder Rabiot will reportedly earn a net salary of seven million euros next season after deciding to stay in Turin following his best campaign since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in 2019.

The 28-year-old was one of the few bright spots of a troubled season for Juve which ended with no trophies and a seventh placed-finish in Italys top flight.

He scored a personal best of 11 goals for Juve in all competitions, setting up six more, and was a fixture in Frances run to the World Cup final.

Juves low league placing was due to a 10-point deduction for illicit transfer activity, and Rabiot has decided to stay at a club which might not have European football next term despite earning a spot in the the Europa Conference League.

The Turin giants could be banned from Europe for a season by UEFA for allegedly misleading European footballs governing body when negotiating a settlement agreement following breaches of Financial Fair Play rules.

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London Manchester United on Tuesday projected record annual revenue of up to 640 million ($815 million) in its financial year to the end of June even as a distracting takeover saga rumbles on.

Uniteds owners, the Glazer family, are weighing up offers for the club from Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, the founder of chemicals firm Ineos.

The Glazers first indicated they could sell by initiating a strategic review in November but the bidding process has dragged on.

Reports have suggested Sheikh Jassims bid, which is for 100 percent of the club, is now the most likely to be accepted. Sources close to the Qatari bid have indicated their eagerness to close the deal, with the summer transfer window now open.

Supporters staged fresh protests against the Glazers at Old Trafford on Tuesday as the club launched its kit for next season.

Revenue guidance for the current financial year was raised to a figure of between 630 million and 640 million in the third-quarter financial results for the period ending March 31, 2023, which were released on Tuesday.

The club posted record revenues of 627 million in 2018/19.

The current figures are driven by record match attendance and matchday revenues. Ticket sales for the 2022/23 season surpassed the previous record set in 2016/17, with 2.4 million sold.

Global memberships also hit 360,000, which United said was the largest paid membership programme in world sport.

Revenue for the third quarter was up 11 percent on the same period last year.

Broadcasting revenue was slightly down on the corresponding period due to the club being in the Europa League rather than the Champions League, but was partially offset by the clubs performance in domestic cup competitions.

Recruitment during the transfer window will not be affected by the results, according to sources close to the club, with enough cash available to enable United boss Erik ten Hag to invest in the team.

The limiting factor is understood to be the requirement to stay within financial sustainability rules.

The post Man Utd expect record revenue despite takeover saga appeared first on Iraqi News.

Marseille French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday faced accusations of minimising the problems of unemployment after he told the mother of a jobseeker that her son could easily find work.

In a typically robust exchange during a visit to the southern city of Marseille, the president told the woman her son could pick up to 10 offers if he walked around the citys historic Vieux Port area which is home to dozens of cafes and eateries.

Macron, 45, a former investment banker, has already had previous controversial exchanges over job seeking, in 2018 telling a young man he just had to cross the street to find work and telling another man in May work was just one metre away.

What does your son want to work in? Macron asked the woman during a walkabout in Marseille on Monday after she said her son, 33, could not find work and was in rent arrears.

It does not matter anything! she replied.

Macron told her: You are not going to persuade me that, if he is really looking for a job in Marseille, and that he is ready to take a job as a waiter, that there is no job as a waiter.

I promise you: If I take a walk around the Vieux Port tonight with you, Im sure we will find 10 job offers, he said.

But the new head of the CFDT union, Marylise Leon, warned the president that things were not as simple as all that.

What message is the president of the republic sending to people who are employed in cafes and restaurants that they just have to knock on the door and get work? she told BFM TV.

It denies the skills and the difficulties of the working conditions, she added.

MP for the hard-left France Unbowed party Mathilde Panot said Macron has become a caricature of Macron.

Showing such contempt to people, the only unemployed person we hope for in the country is Emmanuel Macron, she said.

Tensions have bubbled in France between Macrons government and the left over his pension reform to raise the retirement age. 

Earlier this year, his Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin accused the hard-left of wanting a society without effort and seeking the right to laziness.

The unemployment rate in France currently is at around 7 percent, its lowest level since the early 1980s.

Responding to Macrons challenge, the regional daily La Provence took a stroll around the Vieux Port and said it found no less than 13 job offers in one-and-a-half hours.  

The post Macron under fire from left over latest jobs jab appeared first on Iraqi News.

Brussels The EU struck a deal on Tuesday to implement internationally-agreed banking reforms intended to avert a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

The European Commission first proposed the banking law in October 2021 but there has been a greater focus on banks following the collapse of lenders in the United States triggered market turbulence earlier this year.

The draft law is the European Unions interpretation of the Basel III reforms of international standards on how banks evaluate credit and market risks. 

They include stipulations that banks have adequate capital and liquidity.

The rules will apply from January 1, 2025, two years later than the 2023 deadline agreed under the reforms.

Negotiators from the European Council, which represents the 27 member states, and the European Parliament provisionally agreed on the rules on Tuesday.

This is a major step forward which will help ensure that European banks can continue to operate also in light of external shocks, crises or disasters, Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said in a statement.

The EU is the first major jurisdiction to implement the final elements of the reforms, ahead of other countries including the United States.

But the bloc has pushed for its rules to take into account the concrete conditions of European banks which rely more on low-risk home loans than their American counterparts.

The draft law also requires banks to disclose their exposure to crypto assets, which include cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, and more transparency on sustainability risks including the financing of fossil fuel projects.

The deal stipulated that banking executives must be deemed fit and proper under a framework for assessing the individuals suitability.

The EUs financial services commissioner, Mairead McGuinness, also welcomed the agreement, insisting the rules would ensure the EU banking sector is fit for the future.

The turmoil in March began when Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States failed in rapid succession and fears in the markets led to the forced takeover by Switzerlands leading bank, UBS, of its former rival Credit Suisse.

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Mecca If a landmark reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran has eased tensions in the Gulf, clouds have also lifted at the hajj pilgrimage, where Iranian visitors finally feel welcome again.

Seven years of enmity between the Sunni and Shiite powers had made for a cool reception for Iranian pilgrims joining worshippers from around the world for the massive event.

But at the current hajj, held three months after Riyadh and Tehran agreed to repair relations, the atmosphere is suddenly very different.

AnIranian tour operator who has joined the hajj on several occasions said he was feeling comfort and safety in Saudi Arabia for the first time.

Yes, we were subjected to harassment, said the 55-year-old who did not want to give his name, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

We felt that our presence was not wanted in the first place, he added, speaking in broken Arabic near the Grand Mosque in Mecca. But all that has changed now after the reconciliation.

The January 2016 schism was related to religion, as Riyadh cut ties following demonstrations at its Iranian missions over Saudi Arabias execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. 

In March, the two sides announced a surprise, Chinese-brokered detente. This month, Iran reopened its Riyadh embassy and the Saudi foreign minister visited Tehran.

The rapprochement has had a knock-on effect around the region, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have backed opposing sides in a number of conflicts and disputes.

Saudi Arabia opened talks with Yemens Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who they have been fighting at the head of an international coalition since 2015, and repaired relations with Syrias isolated leader Bashar al-Assad.

We have become friends

The hajj has previously proved a sticking point between Riyadh and Tehran. No Iranian pilgrims were allowed in 2016, the year that ties were ruptured, as the two sides were unable to organise a protocol for them to attend.

Saudi Arabia and Iran traded accusations in 2015, when 464 Iranians were among 2,300 pilgrims killed in a stampede, the worst in a series of hajj disasters.

In 1987, Saudi security forces clashed with Iranian pilgrims who organised an unauthorised protest, resulting in the deaths of more than 400 people including 275 Iranians, according to an official toll.

This year, however, the Islamic Republics flag is conspicuous at Mecca, adorning hotels and buses reserved for Iranian visitors.

Now things are back to normal. I feel comfortable and safe, said the tour operator, who said his family had joined him for the pilgrimage this year. 

More than 86,000 Iranians, including 300 aged over 80, are on this years hajj, according to Iranian media reports, after Saudi Arabia removed Covid-era caps on numbers and a ma...

London Climate change campaigners targeted the UK headquarters of oil giant TotalEnergies with paint Tuesday, protesting the French firms alleged human rights violations in the construction of a contentious oil pipeline in Uganda.

Supporters of the Just Stop Oil activist organisation sprayed black paint in the lobby of the companys headquarters in Londons Canary Wharf district, while others daubed orange paint outside, the protest group said.

Dozens of students from a pressure group opposed to the building of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) also massed outside the building during the stunt to show support, it added.

Londons Metropolitan police said officers had arrested 27 people for a combination of suspicion of criminal damage and aggravated trespass.

TotalEnergies said in a statement that it fully respects the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression, but deplores all forms of violence, whether verbal, physical or material.

TotalEnergies promotes transparent and constructive dialogue with all its stakeholders, it added.

The French company is the largest shareholder in the controversial east African venture, which is set to carry crude oil to the Tanzanian coast through several Ugandan protected nature reserves.

Communities in the region claim the energy firm and other EACOP backers have caused serious harm to their rights to land and food in building the 1,500-kilometre (930-mile) pipeline.

Critics have also called the project a carbon bomb which would release over 379 million tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.

Direct action

Also on Tuesday in France, a group of Ugandan citizens and aid groups, joined by French aid organisations, filed a lawsuit in a Paris court against TotalEnergies for damages over the alleged human rights violations.

In its statement, TotalEnergies said it has a history of engaging directly with all members of civil society and does not tolerate any threats or attacks against those who peacefully defend and promote human rights in relation to its operations. 

Just Stop Oil wants the UK and other governments to end all new oil and gas exploration and has promised not to let up in its high-profile protests until it does so.

The group has repeatedly hit the headlines with its direct-action stunts, such as disrupting sporting events and targeting valuable works of art, to publicise their cause.

But some of their antics, in particular those most impacting peoples everyday lives, have prompted a public backlash, and appear to be increasingly dividing environmental campaigners and their financial backers.

Trevor Neilson, a former funder of the organisation and other direct action climate change groups, recently told the Sunday Times that they should end their disr...

Paris A controversial exiled Iranian opposition group is coming under increased pressure in Europe as it nervously eyes the intensification of European talks with Tehran in search of reviving a deal on the Islamic republics nuclear drive.

Supporters of the Peoples Mujahedin (MEK) regard it as the sole credible opposition group based outside Iran, although it is held in deep suspicion by many Iranians, including those opposed to the clerical authorities.

The MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an umbrella group that essentially acts as its political wing, have accused the West of appeasement towards Iran over the troubles that it has faced.

Last week, French authorities cited security concerns for banning a major rally organised by the NCRI on July 1 which the group hoped would gather tens of thousands of people.

On June 20, Albanian authorities launched a raid against a MEK camp that has housed its members for a decade as part of a deal agreed in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

The NCRI said one MEK member was killed, a claim denied by Tirana. It also said Albanian police seized 200 computers.

And in an incident whose circumstances have yet to be fully explained, a bomb was thrown into an office of the NCRI outside Paris earlier this month without causing injuries, according to police and the group.

Policy of appeasement

Maryam Rajavi who leads both the MEK and NCRI, told a meeting outside Paris that the incidents were the products of a policy of appeasement by the West, alleging they took place at the request of the Iranian regime.

The MEK is outlawed by the authorities in Iran, which accuses the group of carrying out a violent campaign of attacks in the early 1980s.

It had for decades worked to oust the shah and initially backed the 1979 revolution. But it rapidly fell out with the new authorities and backed Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war, meaning its members had to be moved after the US-led 2003 invasion.

It still claims to have a network inside Iran and boasts of exposing the existence of Irans then-secret nuclear programme in 2002, which led to confrontation with the West. 

It has high-profile Western supporters, including former US national security advisor John Bolton and ex-vice president Mike Pence.

But detractors regard the group as a cult and argue it does not represent the Iranians who poured into the streets from September last year in a new protest movement.

This could make it vulnerable as Europe seeks to keep contacts alive with Iran in search of a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, an accord the MEK bitterly opposed.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi held telephone talks on June 10 while EU foreign policy number two Enrique Mora met his Iranian counterpa...

Islamabad Pakistans national assembly has passed legislation limiting how long lawmakers can be disqualified from office, a state spokesman said Tuesday, paving the way for exiled former prime minister Nawaz Sharifs return to politics.

Sharif served as Pakistans prime minister three times the last before being ousted over graft allegations in 2017.

The Supreme Court barred him from politics for life and he was later sentenced to seven years in jail.

In 2019 he was granted medical bail and flew to Britain, where he has remained ever since, continuing to steer the family-run Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party from behind the scenes.

His brother Shehbaz Sharif became prime minister last year, and the country is due to hold fresh general elections no later than October. 

On Tuesday, a government spokesman said the acting president had signed into law an amendment which says courts can only disqualify parliamentarians for a period not exceeding five years.

The spokesman said senate chairman Sadiq Sanjrani served as acting president signing the bill on Monday, in the absence of President Arif Alvi who is abroad on the Hajj pilgrimage.

The ruling PML-N and its coalition partners want to bring Nawaz Sharif back, political analyst Hasan Askari told AFP. The bill has been passed to achieve this objective. 

Nawaz Sharif will be the main campaigner for PML-N in the next election, he added. His return will be very helpful for the party politically, but its not clear whether he himself will contest the election.

Sharif still faces the graft case which saw him sentenced during the tenure of his successor, Imran Khan, who won power pledging to undo the corruption which has historically plagued the country.

But in Pakistan, legal cases which tangle politicians in opposition are regularly wound back once their party regains office.

Shehbaz ousted Khan last April via a no-confidence vote. However, he is at the head of a shaky coalition of parties, while Khan remains widely popular in the countdown to polling.

Khan has been calling for snap elections, but his campaign has become bogged down in dozens of legal cases.

Last month he was briefly arrested on graft charges in Islamabad, sparking deadly unrest during which supporters of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party poured onto the streets and clashed with police.

In the aftermath of his release following three days in custody, PTI has been targeted by a crackdown with thousands of arrests, reports of intimidation and muzzling of the press.

Khan says his party is being suppressed by the government, led by PML-N, and the powerful military establishment.

The post Paki...

Moscow Russia prepared Tuesday to take possession of heavy military hardware held by Wagner as Moscow moved to bring the mercenary group under its control after its aborted mutiny. 

The uprising at the weekend sparked Russias most serious security crisis in decades, raising questions over President Vladimir Putins grip on power as his campaign in Ukraine drags on. 

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was to leave for Belarus in a deal to defuse the confrontation, with Russias FSB saying Tuesday that the criminal case against the groups troops was now closed.

Preparations are underway for the transfer of heavy military equipment from the private military company Wagner to units of the Russian armed forces, the defence ministry said.

Putin on Monday accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to kill each other during the revolt, which stunned the country.

In his first address to the nation since the rebels pulled back, Putin said he had issued orders to avoid bloodshed and granted amnesty to the Wagner fighters.

Prigozhin had earlier defended his aborted mutiny as a bid to save his mercenary outfit and expose the failures of Russias military leadership but not to challenge the Kremlin. 

The rogue warlords first audio message since calling off his troops advance on Moscow was released as Russian officials attempted to present the public with a return to business as usual, with authorities in the capital standing down their enhanced security regime.

Fighting continued in Ukraine, where Kyivs forces claimed new victories in their battle to evict Russian troops from the east and south of the country. 

Prigozhin, who did not reveal from where he was speaking, said in an online audio message that his revolt was intended to prevent his Wagner force from being dismantled, and bragged that the ease with which it had advanced on Moscow exposes serious security problems.

We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country, Prigozhin said, boasting that his men had blocked all military infrastructure including air bases on their route before they stopped 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Moscow.

Prighozin called off the advance and pulled out of a military base his men had seized in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, a nerve centre of the war in Ukraine, late on Saturday after mediation efforts from Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

Saturdays extraordinary sequence of events has been seen internationally as Russias most serious security crisis in decades. Wagner shot down six Russian helicopters and a command and control plane during their advance, according to Russian military bloggers. 

The Kremlin has since been at pains to stress that there had been a return to normal....

Paris The warnings are coming from all angles: artificial intelligence poses an existential risk to humanity and must be shackled before it is too late.

But what are these disaster scenarios and how are machines supposed to wipe out humanity?

Paperclips of doom

Most disaster scenarios start in the same place: machines will outstrip human capacities, escape human control and refuse to be switched off.

Once we have machines that have a self-preservation goal, we are in trouble, AI academic Yoshua Bengio told an event this month.

But because these machines do not yet exist, imagining how they could doom humanity is often left to philosophy and science fiction.

Philosopher Nick Bostrom has written about an intelligence explosion he says will happen when superintelligent machines begin designing machines of their own.

He illustrated the idea with the story of a superintelligent AI at a paperclip factory.

The AI is given the ultimate goal of maximising paperclip output and so proceeds by converting first the Earth and then increasingly large chunks of the observable universe into paperclips.

Bostroms ideas have been dismissed by many as science fiction, not least because he has separately argued that humanity is a computer simulation and supported theories close to eugenics.

He also recently apologised after a racist message he sent in the 1990s was unearthed.

Yet his thoughts on AI have been hugely influential, inspiring both Elon Musk and Professor Stephen Hawking.

The Terminator

If superintelligent machines are to destroy humanity, they surely need a physical form.

Arnold Schwarzeneggers red-eyed cyborg, sent from the future to end human resistance by an AI in the movie The Terminator, has proved a seductive image, particularly for the media.

But experts have rubbished the idea.

This science fiction concept is unlikely to become a reality in the coming decades if ever at all, the Stop Killer Robots campaign group wrote in a 2021 report.

However, the group has warned that giving machines the power to make decisions on life and death is an existential risk.

Robot expert Kerstin Dautenhahn, from Waterloo University in Canada, played down those fears.

She told AFP that AI was unlikely to give machines higher reasoning capabilities or imbue them with a desire to kill all humans.

Robots are not evil, she said, although she conceded programmers could make them do evil things.

 

Deadlier chemicals

A less overtly sci-fi scenario sees bad actors using AI to create toxins or new viruses and unleashing them on the world.

Large language models like GPT-3, which was used to create ChatGPT, it turns out are extremely good at invent...