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Iraqi Protesters Withdraw from U.S. Embassy

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  Iraqi protesters have retreated from outside the  U.S. embassy in Baghdad, the Iraqi military said on Wednesday, according to media reports.

This is coming a day after the protesters, angered by U.S. airstrikes on an Iran-allied militia, attacked the building.

“All protesters have withdrawn and all aspects, which accompanied these protests, have ended,” Iraq’s Joint Operations Command was quoted as saying, by the state news agency INA.

Iraqi security forces have taken charge of the precincts of the  U.

S. embassy compound, it added.

The pullout came after Hashd Shaabi, a powerful pro-state Shiite militia backed by Iran, and the Iraqi government called on the protesters gathering and camping out at the gates of the embassy to withdraw.

The U.S. embassy said on Wednesday, it had suspended all public consular operations until further notice due to the breach.

“U.S. citizens are advised to not approach the embassy,” the mission said in an online statement.

It added that the U.S. consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, is open for visa and U.S. citizen services appointments.

Dozens of supporters of the Hashd Shaabi had set up tents on Tuesday night outside the embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone in a protest at U.S. strikes that killed at least 25 militiamen at the weekend.

On Wednesday, protesters set fire to the outside wall of the embassy, where heavily armed U.S. forces were seen standing on the roof of the building, witnesses said.

Some protesters suffered breathing problems after inhaling tear gas that U.S. and Iraqi forces fired to disperse them.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim called on the protesters to leave.

“The message of the protesters has arrived, and their safe withdrawal has become a necessity,” the official said on Wednesday on Twitter.

Iraqi Interior Minister Yassin al-Yasiri oversaw the protesters’ withdrawal, INA reported.

The protesters have relocated their sit-in to a bank of Baghdad’s Tigris river.

“The protesters have started setting up their tents on the bank of the Tigris … opposite the U.S. embassy,” Iraqi independent portal Alsumaria News reported, citing a security source.

Hashd Shaabi said in a statement its withdrawal call was made in response to an appeal from the Iraqi government.

On Tuesday, Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdel-Mahdi called on the protesters to leave, threatening to inflict the “toughest penalty” on those who attack foreign embassies.

The two days of protest outside the embassy were triggered by  U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria on Sunday that targeted the Kataib Hezbollah militia group.

Kataib Hezbollah, a part of the Hashd Shaabi umbrella group, had been blamed for an attack last week that killed a U.S. citizen.

Chanting “Death to America,” angry protesters on Tuesday broke into the U.S. embassy compound, set fire to one of its gates and pelted the embassy building with stones.

U.S. President Donald Trump blamed the attack on Iran and said Tehran will “pay a very big price.”

Tehran has blasted Washington’s “irrational response” to the protests and denied any involvement.

Washington has announced that it will immediately deploy 750 soldiers to Iraq “as an appropriate and precautionary action.”

The US is leading an international alliance that helped Iraq defeat Islamic State and regain the country’s swathes of territory that was once under the radical group’s control. (dpa/NAN)

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Russian Army Fires Ballistic Missiles at Kiev from Crimean Peninsula

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The Russian Army has hit the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with ballistic missiles, injuring four people and damaging an uninhabited three-storey building, according to officials.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said  that two of the injured  people were in a central neighbourhood and  had been taken to hospital.

Rocket debris also fell in two other neighbourhoods.

According to the Ukrainian air force, two ballistic missiles were fired at the city of millions, from the Russian-controlled Crimea Peninsula.

Both were shot down.

Half a dozen explosions from anti-aircraft missiles had previously been heard in the city centre.

The air raid warning was only triggered a few seconds beforehand, it said.

Ukraine has been facing  Russian invasion for over two years.

Since then, the Ukrainian air defence system has been massively reinforced with Western systems. (dpa/NAN)

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Cambodia Arrests 2 Foreigners for Smuggling 2.27 kg Narcotics

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Cambodian customs police at the Phnom Penh International Airport said they have arrested two South Korean nationals for an attempt to smuggle 2.27 kg narcotics to South Korea.

The duo, a man and woman, were caught Sunday night while they checked in for a ZA215 flight bound for Seoul.

The General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia said in a news release on Monday.

In their body searches, our customs officials found many packs of drugs wrapped around their waists, the news release said.

“As a result, some 1.29 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 0.98 kg of ketamine were seized from the two suspects’ possession.’’

The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for a drug trafficker.

Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grammes of illicit drugs could be jailed for life.

According to the country’s Anti-Drug Department (ADP), Cambodia nabbed 3,899 drug-related suspects, including 106 foreigners, in 1,659 cases from Jan. 1 to March 3, 2024.

According to the report they confiscated a total of 2.79 tonnes of narcotics.

Most of the seized drugs were ketamine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine tablets, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. (Xinhua/NAN)

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February Ends with Extreme Heat – WMO

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The UN weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), says February saw more extreme heat and unusually high temperatures in both hemispheres.

Summarising the state of the climate, it said the month ended with extreme heat in the southern hemisphere where it is summer, while high temperatures atypical of the northern hemisphere winter prevailed.

Parts of North and South America, northwest and southeast Africa, southeast and far eastern Asia, western Australia and Europe all saw record-breaking temperatures, either on a daily basis or for all of February.

“The anomalous heat is consistent with the persisting warming observed since June 2023, with seven consecutive new global monthly temperature records, including January 2024,” Alvaro Silva, a climatologist working with the WMO, said in a statement.

Global sea surface temperatures were record high. While the El Niño weather pattern “has stoked temperatures in some parts of the world, human induced climate change is the long-term major contributing factor,” he added.

Conversely, a large part of northwestern Canada, central Asia – and from southern central Siberia to southeastern China – witnessed exceptional cold during the last week of the month.

The meteorological winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the southern hemisphere finished officially at the end of February.

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) raised increasing concern on Friday that more refugees would cross into Chad from Darfur in the coming weeks amid a worrying lack of food and other essentials.

Almost a year since the start of the civil war between rival militaries in Sudan, neighbouring Chad urgently needs more humanitarian aid and significant development investment, the agency reported, especially in its eastern areas which are hosting the refugee influx.

This investment will allow the country to continue its generous open-door stance towards refugees.

“Chadian officials are concerned that many more hungry Sudanese families will come in the next weeks,” said Kelly Clements, UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner, who is in the country to review the relief operation.

“The country is committed to keeping its borders open, despite the fragility of this region.

“But, doing so will put even more strain on Chad, which has so graciously been hosting refugees from Sudan’s war – now raging almost a year – and other refugees still here from earlier emergencies.” (NAN)

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