BAGHDAD: Lebanon extradited a man said to be a grandnephew of Saddam Hussein to Iraq, where he is accused of involvement in a massacre by Daesh group, a security source said Saturday.
Abdullah Sabawi, dubbed the “grandnephew” of the executed dictator by Iraqi media, was extradited on Wednesday, the security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“He is accused of having been a member of Daesh and having participated in the Speicher massacre” of 2014, in which up to 1,700 air force cadets were executed by the militant group, the source added.

LONDON: Jordan’s Queen Rania Al-Abdullah urged the international community to shift its response to the world’s multiplying crises on Friday at the Paris Peace Forum, Jordan News Agency reported. 

In her address to the fifth edition of the forum, Queen Rania stated that the world is facing “a convergence of crises,” including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, climate change, inequality and a general erosion of trust. 

“Yet, too often, we are failing to meet our common threats with a spirit of common cause,” she said.

PARIS: Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people in a crackdown on nationwide protests since Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, Iran Human Rights said in an updated toll Saturday.
The Islamic republic has been gripped by protests that erupted over the death of Amini on September 16, three days after her arrest for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.
The protests were fanned by fury over the dress rules for women, but have grown into a broad movement against the theocracy that has ruled Iran since the 1979 revolution.

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz strongly criticized the Iranian government Saturday for its bloody crackdown on protests in the country said Germany stands “shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people.”
Scholz said the ongoing protests sparked by the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her detention by Iran’s morality police were no longer “merely a question of dress codes” but had evolved into a fight for freedom and justice.

LONDON: The UK and France condemned on Friday Iran’s violent repression of legitimate peaceful protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.

Amini, who had been arrested by the morality police, died on Sep. 16 while in custody.

During talks held in Paris, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna also condemned Tehran for supplying Russia with drones used to indiscriminately target civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.