WASHINGTON: The Senate took a first step Thursday toward repealing two measures that give open-ended approval for military action in Iraq, pushing to end that authority as the United States marks the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War.
Senators voted 68-27 to move forward on legislation that would repeal the 2002 measure that greenlighted that March 2003 invasion of Iraq and a 1991 measure that sanctioned the US-led Gulf War to expel Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. Nineteen Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the measure.

DUBAI: The UAE was on a collision course with Israel on Thursday over a Palestinian town torched during a rampage by radical Jewish settlers.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the UAE president, pledged $3 million for the reconstruction of Huwara in the occupied West Bank, days after a minister in Israel’s new far-right extremist government said the town should be destroyed.

ANKARA, Turkiye: Floods caused by torrential rains hit two Turkish provinces that were devastated by last month’s catastrophic earthquake, killing at least 16 people and increasing the misery for thousands who were left homeless, officials said Wednesday.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said rescue teams were still searching for five people reported missing in three locations, after the flash floods turned streets in Adiyaman and Sanliurfa provinces into rivers, swept away cars, inundated homes and drenched campsites sheltering earthquake survivors.

BAGHDAD: A magnitude 5 earthquake struck the Iraqi-Iranian borderline, the Iraqi state news agency INA reported on Thursday.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties caused by the quake, it added.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi journalist Muntazer Al-Zaidi gained fame for hurling his shoes at President George W. Bush in a news conference to show his anger at the corruption and chaos that followed the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He is still furious.

“The same people who entered 20 years ago with the occupier are still ruling despite failures and corruption. The United States knows very well that it brought in pseudo politicians,” he said, recounting his actions back in 2008 during the Baghdad media briefing.