Basra residents protest in the southern Iraqi city on August 5, 2018. AFP
Basra residents protest in the southern Iraqi city on August 5, 2018. AFP

Basra politician presses demand for autonomy



A prominent politician from Iraq’s southern oil hub of Basra has threatened to take the government to court to push forward growing demands for autonomy in a region that has seen widespread protests over lack of public services and poor governance.

"We presented our request for secession from Baghdad's central government in 2015 with over 68,000 signatures," Mohamed Al Tai, a former member of parliament for Basra, told The National.

"Our request was passed by the electoral commission, as Article 119 of the Iraqi constitution allows individual provinces to transform into federal regions," he said.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi's office has not acted on their appeal so far.

According to Iraq's constitution, any of its 19 provinces can hold a referendum on autonomy if it is supported by signatures from 10 per cent of voters.

Mr Al Tai said he would file a complaint to the supreme federal court as the lack of a action "has delayed our demands for a referendum which was passed by the electoral commission".

More than a dozen members of Basra's provincial council have also called for establishing a federal province.

Citizens of Basra see themselves as marginalised by successive governments since the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, even though its port accounts for more than 90 per cent of Iraq's oil export revenues.

“Since 2003, the situation in Basra has deteriorated, it has gone from bad to worse. Twenty-five per cent of Basrans are living below the poverty line, people are spending one dollar a day," Mr Al Tai said.

Residents of Basra and other southern provinces have been protesting for more than a month over political corruption and the government's failure to provide clean water, reliable power supply and jobs. The unrest has spread north to Baghdad.

"We want to get rid of corruption, inadequate public services," Haider Ali, a resident of Basra, told The National. "The only way forward is to have independence from the central government. What have they done for us so far?"

Mr Al Abadi's government said in July that it would release funds to improve water supply, electricity and health services in Basra. Residents say they have seen no improvements.

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Read more:

Abadi sacks Iraq's electricity minister after protests

Protests undermine Iranian influence in Iraq

Iraq protests persist with government slow to offer solutions

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Lack of transparency and unreliable governance has been at the heart of Iraq’s woes, made worse by the effects of a costly three-year war against ISIS that coincided with a dip in oil prices.

Iraq is ranked 169 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s corruption perception index, with the lowest state being the most corrupt.

The calls for autonomy come at a delicate time for Iraq as newly elected politicians try to form a governing coalition. The results of the May 12 election were only ratified by the supreme court on Sunday after allegations of fraud forced a partial recount of votes.

Mr Al Abadi is heading a fragile caretaker government until the new government is formed.

The recount confirmed the surprise electoral win for populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr whose coalition campaigned on an anti-corruption platform. Mr Al Abadi's coalition came in third, behind a group led by Hadi Al Ameri, leader of the Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary.

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Rating:2/5

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Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
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Investments: Grants/private funding
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Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history

4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon

- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.

50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater

1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.  

1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.

1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.

-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.

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Date started: 2015

Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki

Based: Dubai

Sector: Online grocery delivery

Staff: 200

Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

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Term life insurance: this is the cheapest and most-popular form of life cover. You pay a regular monthly premium for a pre-agreed period, typically anything between five and 25 years, or possibly longer. If you die within that time, the policy will pay a cash lump sum, which is typically tax-free even outside the UAE. If you die after the policy ends, you do not get anything in return. There is no cash-in value at any time. Once you stop paying premiums, cover stops.

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Income protection: this pays a replacement income if you fall ill and are unable to continue working. On the best policies, this will continue either until you recover, or reach retirement age. Unlike critical illness cover, policies will typically pay out for stress and musculoskeletal problems such as back trouble.

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