Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday marked what would have been the 96th birthday of Alija Izetbegovic, who served as the independent country’s first president.

Izetbegovic was a pivotal figure in the troubled history of the Balkans region in Europe.

The politician, writer, and lawyer, who came to international prominence during the country’s bitter 1992-1995 war, is remembered with prayers every year on his birthday at Kovaci Martyrdom in the capital of Sarajevo.

Palestinian political analyst Sari Orabi believes there are parallels between the Palestinian and Bosnian struggles.

There was a liberal Bosnian project after the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Serb rejection of Bosnia's independence. And the Palestinians have a similar project that is being blocked by several Arab and global parties.

The two cases are similar to the existence of an extermination project and the negation of a political presence, which, as Orabi put it, is universally overlooked.

“Both countries are exposed to regular wars against the roots of their original identity,” said Orabi.

The character of Alija Izetbegovic is a combination of many aspects that are supposed to be found in the personality of any leader of a nation fighting for liberation from occupation, he said.

“I think the most important aspect of Izetbegovic’s personality is the moral aspect. This was evident in his leadership of the Bosnian liberation project as a project of the entire Bosnian nation, not a personal project,” said Orabi.

He believes that contemporary Palestinian political leaders are experiencing a moral crisis that is reflected in political performance. This can be seen in the unclear political rhetoric of Palestinian leadership which is still without a clear vision.

“Alija Izetbegovic knew what he wanted at the intellectual and political levels. He wanted to revive the Bosnian identity and save the Bosnian people within available possibilities of a small population in return for a very large amount of collusion against them,” said Orabi.

The Palestinian writer called for inspiration from the clarity of Izetbegovic's intellectual and political history by Palestinian political leadership to introduce a serious and well-defined liberation project.

“There is an old moral crisis in the Palestinian liberation movement. It is suffering from using it for personal interests, and this is not be found in Izetbicovic's personality,” said Orabi.

He sees the Palestinian cause lacking intellectual leadership that has three major components summarized in the moral personality, clear political vision, and intellectual thesis that provide Palestinians with a strategic vision for action in the liberation project./aa

An Anadolu Agency correspondent was manhandled by police on Saturday during protests against coronavirus restrictions in Paris.

The Turkish reporter, who was covering the largest of four protests in the French capital that marched from Pont de Neuilly to Avenue Victoria with a police cordon, was pushed while shooting.

According to footage recorded by the reporter, two officers, who were preparing to intervene in demonstrators, came to his side following guidance from another officer.

He was pushed by police and fell with his camera.

Demonstrators have been held for four straight weeks against the government's policies to combat the virus.

The reporter was slightly injured on July 24 when a gas canister fired by police struck him while he was filming similar demonstrations./aa

Protests intensified across France on Saturday against mandatory requirements of a coronavirus health pass in public eating places and long-distance transport as well as vaccines for health care workers.

At least 198 demonstrations took place in various cities and towns with a record of more than 237,000 protestors, two days before the provisions of a new health bill are set to take effect, as per information from the Interior Ministry, according to France Televisions.

Thirty-five people were arrested for disturbing the public order in which seven policemen were injured in clashes and tensions with the protestors, said the ministry.

Protesters came out in large numbers for a fourth straight week even as most parts experienced heavy rainfall and bad weather after the Constitutional Council largely upheld the bill passed by parliament.

Lawmakers contended that certain provisions of the bill tabled by the Macron administration to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic following rising cases of the contagious delta variant and prevent further lockdowns were infringing upon the general freedom of the French.

The government is set to implement the bill on Monday which will require adults to prove they are completely vaccinated or not infected with the virus through a PCR or antigen test not older than 48 hours before entering public places with gatherings of more than 50 people.

That includes indoor and outdoor terraces of cafes, restaurants, trains, flights, large commercial shopping centers, and trade fairs.

From the end of August, the measures will also apply to minors 12 and older and will stay in force until Nov. 15 before they are renewed, depending on the situation with the pandemic.

Although 44 million people, accounting for more than 60% of the population, have been vaccinated with at least one dose, health authorities estimate to achieve herd immunity, 90% of the population needs to be completely vaccinated.

But there is a growing number of the French, including health care workers, who oppose vaccination as they believe it will weaken their immunity and is against their freedom.

Since last month, positive cases and admissions to intensive care units have been on the rise, which authorities said largely come from the unvaccinated.

As of Saturday, there were 25,755 new infections and 32 deaths in hospitals./aa

Three Iraqi prisoners on trial have died in detention in the last month, the country's rights commission said on Saturday.

The High Commission for Human Rights said in a statement that the three detainees under trial died in a prison facility controlled by the Interior Ministry in the southern Basra province.

The commission called on the ministry to release the findings of the investigations into the three detainees' deaths.

The Iraqi authorities have not yet responded to the commission's statement.

On Tuesday, a UN report accused the Iraqi government of widespread torture of detainees held in the country's detention facilities.

The report said legal procedures designed to bring interrogations and detention under judicial control within 24 hours of the initial arrest are not respected and access to a lawyer is systematically delayed until after security forces interrogate suspects.

"The authorities need to effectively implement the provisions written in the law in each and every detention center," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. "If not, they remain a dead letter."

UN Human Rights spokeswoman Marta Hurtado said "the report also raises concerns that the authorities ignore complaints and signs of torture and says that the systems established to address official complaints appear to be neither fair nor effective."

Iraqi security forces have reported a number of deaths in al-Hoot prison in the southern Dhi Qar province in the past months, but without specifying the reason for the deaths./aa

The count of COVID-19 vaccine doses given worldwide has reached 4.40 billion on Saturday, according to Our World In Data, a tracking website affiliated with the University of Oxford.

The available data on the website shows that China, where the coronavirus first emerged in late 2019, leads the global count with over 1.76 billion vaccine jabs.

India comes second with more than 501 million jabs, followed by the US with over 349 million. Brazil has administered more than 149.47 million shots.

Japan, Germany, the UK, and France are following each other as they have delivered over 99.6 million, 94.2 million, 86 million, and 76.4 million jabs, respectively.

Turkey ranks ninth on the list with over 75.7 million doses applied so far. More than 41.6 million people in Turkey have received at least one vaccine shot whereas the count of those getting both jabs has reached 28.6 million.

As COVID-19 vaccines are generally given in two separate doses per person, the count of administered vaccines does not mean that the same number of people have been vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 4.2 million lives across the world, with an excess of 201.8 million cases reported, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University./aa

Turkey's president announced on Friday that 202 wildfires have been contained since they began last week.

Efforts to extinguish the remaining 12 blazes are underway.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that 18 amphibian jets, 57 helicopters, 5,250 personnel, nine unmanned aerial vehicles, 150 earth movers and 850 water-tenders has been used in extinguishing the fires that are burning in 46 provinces.

He also noted that with the contributions of the private sector and non-governmental organizations, four planes and one helicopter supplied from abroad will also participate./aa

It took 218 hours of firefighting at full pace to contain forest fires in Antalya's Manavgat and Gundogmus districts, Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday.

Mevlut Cavusogly made the remarks before holding an evaluation meeting at the coordination center of the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in Manavgat. He was accompanied by Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum.

Cavusoglu said despite difficult conditions and strong winds, crews put out fires at critical points.

As many as 1,915 vehicles and 8,155 personnel were in the field Friday, while air forces carried out 1,600 sorties, he said, adding that 59 neighborhoods in five districts were affected by the fires that have lasted for nearly 10 days.

- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan to support

The foreign minister said 40 fire trucks and 362 more personnel from Azerbaijan, and two helicopters and 16 personnel from Kazakhstan will come to Turkey to take part in the fight.

He added two planes were also rented from Israel, and two helicopters are on the way from the US.

Meanwhile, Kurum said 808 of 821 citizens in Antalya who were directly affected have been discharged after treatment.

He said 149 of 400 container installations in the province have been completed for citizens in urgent need, while 140 tents have been set up.

Kurum added that teams will be working to afforest the entire area within a year.

Turkey has successfully contained 202 wildfires in the last 10 days, according to the Turkish president.

The fires erupted in 46 of Turkey's 81 provinces, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter.

At least eight people have been killed since the fires started on July 28./aa

Half of all Americans have been "fully vaccinated" against the coronavirus, according to the White House COVID-19 data director on Friday.

"Friday just in: +821K doses reported administered, including 565K newly vaccinated. 7-day average of newly vaccinated is up 11% from last week and 44% over past 2 weeks. 50% of Americans (all ages) are now fully vaccinated. Keep going!" Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter.

According to Our World In Data, a tracking website affiliated with Oxford University, the US -- with nearly 349 million vaccine shots administered -- follows India and China, respectively, in the global vaccine count.

The US has so far registered over 35.5 million coronavirus cases, and more than 615,700 virus-related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 4.27 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 201.39 million infections confirmed./aa