BAGHDAD: Iraq, a top oil exporter battered by climate change impacts, must diversify its economy and pursue a “greener growth model,” the World Bank said on Tuesday.

In a report presented to authorities in Baghdad, the Washington-based institution said $233 billion must be invested by 2040 to allow Iraq to embark “on a green growth path.”

The mostly desert country, after decades of war and turmoil, is also suffering worsening climate change shocks from drought and water scarcity to rising temperatures.

KHARTOUM: Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets on Tuesday to protest a recent deal aimed at ending the crisis caused by last year’s military coup.

“No to the settlement,” protesters chanted, heading toward the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum.

Near-weekly protests have rocked Sudan since army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan led an October 2021 military coup derailing a transition to civilian rule.

Sudan’s short-lived transition was installed following the 2019 ouster of President Omar Bashir.

At least 3,774 children have been killed in Yemen’s civil war between March 2015 and September 2022, UNICEF said on Monday, a week after it launched a multibillion-dollar global funding drive.

According to the latest statistics published by UNICEF, a further 7,245 children had been maimed in the conflict.

The organization called for an urgent renewal of the ceasefire agreement, which lasted from April until the beginning of October and saw a lull in front-line fighting.

LONDON: One day, in late February 1986, a young man from Jubail in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province decided to put his new 4WD through its paces on the sand dunes west of the coastal city. Before very long, however, he made two startling discoveries.

The first was that neither he nor his new car were well suited to dune-bashing, as both man and machine soon found themselves stuck fast in the sand.

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has called on all politicians, especially deputies representing Beirut, to ensure the capital’s unity and safety after tensions flared in the Christian area of Achrafieh on Saturday.

The problems arose when dozens of people celebrating Morocco’s win over Portugal in the FIFA World Cup headed to the area on motorbikes carrying the flags of Morocco, Palestine and Syria, reportedly chanting religious slogans.

The convoy clashed with locals when they were mistaken for members of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.