The Yazidi village of Kocho, the site of one of the worst atrocities committed by ISIS in Iraq, is to be rebuilt after an order by Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani.
The village is to be reconstructed “in fairness to its honourable people and out of a sense of the government's responsibility”, Mr Al Sudani's office said on Tuesday, nine years after the “invasion and destruction” of the village in Iraq's north-western Sinjar district.
ISIS killed almost all the men in Kocho on August 15, 2014, almost two weeks after it had swept through the Yazidi-majority Sinjar district, committing what has been widely recognised as genocide.
Encircling the village, it ordered all inhabitants to assemble at the local school before shooting the men and adolescent boys, and putting women and girls, including Nobel laureate Nadia Murad, on a bus to be sold as slaves in Raqqa and Mosul.
In 2021, 104 residents of the village excavated from mass graves were finally laid to rest in a solemn ceremony attended by Ms Murad.
Many more remains have yet to be formally identified. Local authorities on Tuesday launched a blood drive campaign to help identify DNA matches.
USAID and Nadia's Initiative, headed by Ms Murad, have also pledged to bring life back to the devastated village.
A project announced in 2021 promised to create memorial sites for the victims and build housing for survivors at a nearby site.
“My community of Kocho has experienced some of the worst atrocities known to mankind,” Ms Murad said at the time.
“This project is a critical step toward enabling the dignified return of displaced Kocho community members and facilitating the rebuilding of a dignified life.”
August revives many painful memories for the long-persecuted community, which was singled out by ISIS for genocide.
Monday marked the 16th anniversary of Al Qaeda bombings that killed almost 800 Yazidis in the world's fourth-deadliest terror attack in history.
August 3 marked the ninth anniversary of the ISIS onslaught in 2014, when it the group marched across Sinjar and displaced hundreds of thousand in its attempt to wipe out the ethnoreligious group.
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
