LONDON: Nationwide protests in Iran following the death of a woman in custody could topple the country’s so-called morality police, Human Rights Watch has said.

Rothna Begum, senior researcher at HRW’s women’s rights division, told The Independent that the morality police “could have their powers removed” after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in September after being detained for an alleged infringement of Iran’s hijab rules.

LONDON: The UN has warned that people living near oil fields, where gas is openly burned, face heightened risks of leukaemia, and that it has classified such areas as “modern sacrifice zones.”
Singling out sites in Iraq for gas flaring — a process of burning gas released by oil drilling that produces cancer-linked pollutants including CO2, methane and black soot — the UN said profits have been prioritized over human rights, noting Britain’s BP and Italy’s Eni as working these sites.

BAGHDAD: Iraq summoned the Iranian ambassador on Thursday to deliver a diplomatic complaint following a deadly drone bombing campaign, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Iranian drones targeted an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least nine people and wounding 32 others. The strikes took place as demonstrations continued to engulf the Islamic Republic after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who died while in the custody of the Iranian morality police.

RAMALLAH: Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated in the center of Ramallah on Thursday in response to a violent crackdown by Israeli authorities in the West Bank this week.
A strike was organized in protest against the Israeli army’s incursion into Jenin on Wednesday that left four Palestinians dead and more than 50 injured.

VIENNA: Qatar has been elected for membership of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for 2022-2024, the Qatar News Agency reported. 

The election took place during the 66th IAEA general conference, which started on Monday and will run until Friday in Vienna.

Qatar has previously served on the board of governors twice, from 2013 to 2015 and from 2016 to 2018.