Iraqi regional governor suspended over corruption



Iraq’s prime minister Haider Al Abadi on Thursday suspended the governor of Nineveh for two months over corruption and damage to public property.

Baghdad's central government has faced significant challenges over corruption  since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.

The head of Nineveh’s provincial council, Bashar Al Kiki, said 21 members of the council had requested the suspension of governor Nofal Agub "due to intimidation and corruption charges.”

Mr Agub faces charges of fraud, corruption, kidnapping and torturing three journalists after they shed light on his charges.

“The representatives of Nineveh’s provincial council submitted a number of lawsuits to the parliament, accusing the governor of stealing money allocated to displaced Iraqis, for forming an abusive Popular Mobalization Unit and for personally receiving salaries allocated to those units from the federal government,” said Mortaja Al Jaaf , a spokesman for the prime minister.

The prime minister had set up a special committee to investigate and monitor those legal cases. "It turned out that all of these allegations were true, the most notable was the abduction of journalists,”  Mr Al Jaaf said. “The prime minister ordered the governor to be referred to the authorities to prove his liability of any corruption charges or violations of human rights."

In November, Nineveh’s provincial council ousted Mr Agub, but Iraq’s federal court overturned the  decision.

Mr Al Abadi called for a crackdown on corruption after Iraq was ranked 166 out of 176 nations in Transparency International’s Corruption Index of 2017.

Meanwhile the Kurdish prime minister, Nechirvan Barzani  on Thursday said his government was “ready to discuss the issue of Kurdish airport control”.

Iraq's central government imposed a ban on international flights to the Kurdish region and threatened to take control of border crossings after Kurds overwhelmingly voted for independence in the September 25 referendum.

"Haider Al Abadi is using the travel ban as a tool to punish the people of the Kurdistan region," Mr Barzani said in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.The

Iraqi aviation authority said that military, United Nations, diplomatic and humanitarian flights were allowed to operate "subject to approval."

Fixtures
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THE DETAILS

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Election pledges on migration

CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections" 

SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom" 

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Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.

Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.

Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).

Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.

Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.

Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.

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Qualifier A, Muscat

(All matches to be streamed live on icc.tv) 

Fixtures

Friday, February 18: 10am Oman v Nepal, Canada v Philippines; 2pm Ireland v UAE, Germany v Bahrain 

Saturday, February 19: 10am Oman v Canada, Nepal v Philippines; 2pm UAE v Germany, Ireland v Bahrain 

Monday, February 21: 10am Ireland v Germany, UAE v Bahrain; 2pm Nepal v Canada, Oman v Philippines 

Tuesday, February 22: 2pm Semi-finals 

Thursday, February 24: 2pm Final 

UAE squad:Ahmed Raza(captain), Muhammad Waseem, Chirag Suri, Vriitya Aravind, Rohan Mustafa, Kashif Daud, Zahoor Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Raja Akifullah, Karthik Meiyappan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Zafar Farid, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Rahul Bhatia

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Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.

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Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor Cricket World Cup – Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side

8 There are eight players per team

There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.

5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls

Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs

B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run

Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs

Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

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