Iraq: Iraq has completed a new $146-million project to supply drinking water to much of Baghdad’s people.

UNWTO: International tourism – strongest half-year results since 2010

2017/09/09 Destinations worldwide welcomed 598 million international tourists in the initial six months of 2017, some 36 million additional than in the same period of 2016. At 6%, increase was well above the trend of recent years, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Visitor numbers reported by destinations around the world reflect strong request for international travel in the initial half of 2017, according to the new UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. Worldwide, international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) increased by 6% compared to the same six-month period last year, well above the sustained and consistent trend of 4% or higher increase since 2010. This represents the strongest half-year in seven years.

Illicit antiquities trade threatening cultural heritage

2017/09/03 Besides the illicit trade of weapons and drugs, smugglers in the Mid­dle East and North Africa have found a lucrative business in trafficking antiquities.Lost treasures. A fragment of an Assyrian-era relief is seen at the ancient site of Nimrud that was destroyed by the Islamic National fighters near Mosul. The smuggling of ancient arte­facts to wealthy clients around the world has spiked in the last decade, with experts warning that the re­gion’s archaeological heritage is in peril.

OPEC raises forecasts for global oil demand

2017/08/21 OPEC boosted estimates of request for its crude this year and next amid stronger-than-expected fuel consumption and a weaker outlook for rival supply. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Nations raised forecasts for the all it needs to supply in 2017 and 2018 by about 200,000 barrels a day for each year, according to a statement from its secretariat in Vienna. Still, a rebound in Libyan production pushed the group’s output last month to the highest this year, undermining its plan to rebalance oversupplied world markets.

‘I was sold seven times': the Yazidi women welcomed back into the faith

2017/07/02 No one wears shoes in Lalish. The village is so sacred that all visitors must walk its paths barefoot. Perched at the top of a narrow valley, in the parched, scrubby hills of northern Iraq, close to the Kurdish border, its cluster of shrines are a revered site for followers of the Yazidi faith. At the heart of Lalish is a pool of water sheltered by a small cave, its entrance shaded by mulberry trees and watched by a guardian in a red turban. This is the “holy white spring”, where newborns must be brought for baptism, the waters mixed with the Lalish soil for the rites of marriage, birth and death. For generations, the rituals carried out at the spring had been unchanged. But two years ago, groups of women, usually silent, often with young children, began joining the families filtering in and out of the cave.