GAZIANTEP, Turkey: When a Syrian prison guard tossed him into a dimly lit room, the inmate Abdo was surprised to find himself standing ankle-deep in what appeared to be salt.

On that day in the winter of 2017, the terrified young man had already been locked up for two years in war-torn Syria’s largest and most notorious prison, Sednaya.

Having been largely deprived of salt all that time in his meager prison rations, he brought a handful of the coarse white crystals to his mouth with relish.

LONDON: A large group of Syrian refugees is gathering in Turkey in an attempt to form a convoy and enter the EU via Greece, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
About 100,000 of the more than 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey are expected to join the so-called “Caravan of Light,” according to organizers.
Plans to assemble the group have been taking shape for several weeks through the messaging app Telegram. Participants have been advised to bring essentials for the journey, such as tents, sleeping bags and canned food.

BEIRUT: The Association of Banks has extended its strike throughout Lebanon until the beginning of next week.
Arab News has been informed that the decision was taken on the advice of caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi.
The banks closed on Monday following a series of holdups by a number of angry depositors who targeted branches and ended up receiving a sum of their deposits.

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Britain’s top diplomat called Wednesday on Iran’s leadership to choose “another path” including embrace of a nuclear deal as protests grip the nation after the death of a young woman arrested by morality police.
“The Iranian leadership should notice that the people are unhappy with the direction that they have taken,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told AFP at the United Nations.

BAGHDAD: It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilization itself.

But today the Tigris is dying. Human activity and climate change have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where — with its twin river the Euphrates — it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilization thousands of years ago.

Iraq may be oil-rich but the country is plagued by poverty after decades of war and by droughts and desertification.