A Ukrainian helicopter crashed in the southern Mykolaiv region of the country on Saturday, killing both crew members, said an official statement.

The Mi-2 type helicopter crashed and caught fire near the village of Zaive in the southern Mykolaiv region, 435 kilometers (270 miles) south of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Emergencies Service said in the statement.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the incident, it added./aa

Turkey's communications director on Saturday blasted a top EU court ruling allowing companies in member states to ban employees from wearing headscarves.

"It is unbelievable that fascism just spread to the courts. This wrong decision is an attempt to lend legitimacy to racism," said Fahrettin Altun on Twitter.

Altun also accused Europe of "seeking to embrace its dark past" instead of "denouncing it."

"We condemn this ruling, which infringes on human dignity," he stressed.

The European Court of Justice (CJEU) on Thursday ruled on two cases brought by Muslim women in Germany who were suspended from their jobs for wearing headscarves.

It ruled that companies in member states can ban employees from wearing headscarves if they “need to present a neutral image to customers.”/aa

A decade of civil war in Libya has left behind a massive trail of destruction and thousands of unemployed Libyans.

The Libyan government hopes that commencing on a $200-billion infrastructure reconstruction project extending over ten years will create jobs that will curb high unemployment rates and open the country to investments in all sectors.

According to local estimates, Libya’s unemployment rate exceeds 30 percent.

The "reconstruction process will incorporate both Libyan and non-Libyan workers, create direct and indirect jobs, and energize the service sector," Libyan Minister of Labor, Ali Al-Abed, told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview.

Al-Abed also expressed optimism that the reconstruction program will open the door for investment in the country.

"The Libyan market is promising, and with the stability of the security and economic situation, investments will return strongly," he said.

Libya recorded its worst economic performance in 2020 due to a reduction in crude oil production from 1.3 million barrels to less than 90,000 barrels per day due to rising debts.

The oil-rich country has remained beset by turmoil since 2011 when longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed in a NATO-backed uprising after four decades in power and has not witnessed tangible reconstruction projects ever since.

Egyptian workers

The reconstruction projects have created a demand for skilled foreign workers and Egyptian workers are considered among top candidates for the task.

"We signed a memorandum of understanding with Egypt in this regard, especially since Egyptian workers have a history in the Libyan market and experience in reconstruction,” Al-Abed said.

Libya needs more than two million Egyptian workers to rebuild the destroyed Libyan cities, according to estimates by the Libyan Chamber of Industry.

However, Al-Abed said that the Egyptian government is yet to allow its workers to return to Libya.

"We are waiting for the Libyan-Egyptian joint committee to convene, and after the committee's meeting, the memoranda of understanding will be upgraded to agreements," Al-Abed said.

During his visit to Tripoli in April, Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, agreed with his Libyan counterpart, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, to initiate the joint higher committee meetings between the two countries as soon as possible.

Libya needs Turkish companies

Al-Abed hailed the Libyan-Turkish relations, saying that Libya needs Turkey’s know-how and experience in the reconstruction project.

"Turkey is a friendly and brotherly country, and we have a long history of joint investment, especially in the field of reconstruction and construction," Al-Abed said.

Turkish companies “have experience in reconstruction, and the Libyan market needs Turkish companies,” Al-Abed said, adding that previously concluded agreements will be “activated to return the Turkish workforce to Libya."

During a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in April, Dbeibeh said his country welcomes Turkish companies to take part in his country’s reconstruction.

"Libya awaits great work in reconstruction and development, and it welcomes all Turkish companies and firms from friendly and brotherly countries to contribute to this matter," he said.

"Certainly, Turkish companies will be the most important of these companies for their long experience working in Libya, and we will work to address any obstacles in this regard."

Unemployment in Libya

While the unemployment rate is very high in Libya, Al-Abed said the figures are not accurate.

"The unemployment figures in Libya are not accurate. They are conflicting as a result of previous division in the government due to the presence of a parallel ministry in the east."

Now that the ministry is unified, Al-Abed stated that work is ongoing to “follow up on the available data and linking all the civil agencies to determine the exact rate of unemployment."

"We now have more than 300,000 job seekers and more than 2,400,000 employees in the country," Al-Abed said, stressing that "the administrative apparatus of the state does not need all this number of employees."

According to Al-Abed, the number of employees in Libya did not exceed one million before Gaddafi’s ouster.

Libya has been torn by civil war since Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011. The war was exacerbated when warlord Khalifa Haftar, supported by several countries, carried out a military onslaught to topple the Tripoli-based internationally recognized government for control of the North African country./aa

Refugees in Turkey returning to Syria because of next week's Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, are happy to spend it with their families and relatives but worry about the ongoing war and violence. 

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, refugees who could not go to Syria for Eid al-Fitr, a three-day Muslim festival after the fasting month of Ramadan and last year's Eid al-Adha, are on their way to the border gates with the excitement of meeting loved ones for the holiday.

The holiday celebrates Prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son at God’s command.

Syrians in Turkey continue to pass through the border gates of Cilvegozu in Hatay's Reyhanli district and Oncupinar in Kilis province.

Those who can enter Syria until July 18, are allowed to return to Turkey by Dec. 31.  

Separated for six years

Mohammed Ammadi, 18, from Idlib told Anadolu Agency that he had to be separated from his parents because of the war.

He said he came to Turkey six years ago with a relative who was injured due to an Assad regime’s airstrike and went to Istanbul with his relative but has never been able to go back to his country.

"I am very happy to celebrate [the eid] with my parents, whom I have not seen for six years, who stayed in Idlib. I have been waiting for two years to return to Idlib,” he said. “Thank Allah I will finally see them.”   

Family reunion after three years

Necim Suman, 26, said that he will be reunited with his family in Idlib after three years.

"Thank Allah I was treated. I could not reunite with my family for two years due to the pandemic. I am very happy to meet them this holiday. I thank those who contributed to the opening of the door." he said, adding that he came to Turkey because of his illness.

Ahmet Osman, 21, said he lost relatives in air attacks seven years ago in Syria and was separated from his mother for four years.

"I hope this war ends and there will be peace in our country," he said.

Idlib falls within a de-escalation zone forged under an agreement between Turkey and Russia in March 2020.

The Syrian regime, however, has consistently violated the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Over the past decade, around half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million had to flee their homes./aa

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief said Friday he expects China to support the next phase of the scientific process to identify the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus, after the first part was criticized. 

Tedros Ghebreyesus addressed representatives of the health organization's member states on the origins of the virus that has wreaked havoc worldwide since early in 2020, killing millions and shutting down economies.

"Finding where this virus came from is essential not just for understanding how the pandemic started and preventing future outbreaks, but it's also important as an obligation to the families of the 4 million people who have lost someone they love, and the millions who have suffered," said Tedros.

"We expect China to support this next phase of the scientific process by sharing all relevant data in a spirit of transparency."

He said the WHO expects all member states to support the scientific process "by refraining from politicizing it."

At the end of March, a WHO-led international scientific team delivered its report following a mission to China in January, in line with the World Health Assembly for a probe into the virus, said Tedros.

But some countries, including the US, were not satisfied with the report, and on May 26, US Health Minister Xavier Becerra called for a second phase study into the origins of the virus.

"Phase 2 of the COVID origins study must be launched with terms of reference that are transparent, science-based, and give international experts the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak," said Becerra.

Tedros said Friday that the WHO knows that SARS-CoV-2 will not be the last new pathogen with pandemic potential.

"There will be more, and we will need to understand the origins of those pathogens too," he said.

Tedros said it is the view of the WHO that the world needs a more stable and predictable framework for studying the origins of new pathogens with epidemic or pandemic potential.

"Accordingly, I am pleased to announce that the Secretariat is establishing a permanent International Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO," he said./aa

Turkey's UN envoy has raised Greece's "continuous flagrant violations" in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Feridun Sinirlioglu sent a letter to Guterres on Tuesday in which he said Greece has run afoul of "her solemn treaty obligations" in those waters, including violations of "basic provisions" in the Lausanne and Paris Peace Treaties that islands in the Aegean and Mediterranean ceded to Athens would remain demilitarized.

"The Turkish government is in possession of detailed and well-documented information regarding the ongoing militarization of those islands in contravention of" those treaties, wrote Sinirlioglu.

"Greece's continuing deliberate and persistent material breach of the demilitarization provisions of the Lausanne and Paris Peace Treaties, which are essential to the accomplishment of their object and purpose, constitutes a serious threat to the security of Turkey. Equally importantly and given their escalatory nature, such breaches carry wider implications in terms of a threat to peace and security in the region," added Sinirlioglu.

The Turkish envoy told Guterres that the violations "means that Greece cannot vis-a-vis Turkey, rely on its title under the same treaties for the purpose of a maritime boundary delimitation."

"This is because Greece, having failed to fulfill its obligations under the treaties, cannot at the same time be recognized as retaining the rights which it claims to derive from them," wrote Sinirlioglu./aa

The Catholic Archbishop of Regina went to Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan to hear the stories of survivors of the former St. Philip's Indian Residential School and he got an earful, Thursday.

Some survivors told Archbishop Donald Bolen the church had broken faith with them.

"The church is going to crumble," one survivor said, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. "We don't need the church. We need our culture."

About 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families - by force if necessary - and put in residential schools beginning in the 1820s. The idea was to instill the "savages", as the prime minister of the time described them back then, with white culture. About 4,000 died from disease, malnutrition and abuse before the last of 139 schools closed in 1996. Many were buried in unmarked graves - 1,308 have been located at four former residential schools since the end of May.

Cote First Nation elders asked the church to remove a plaque at the nearby St. Philip's residential school, which operated from 1928 to 1969. The plaque was donated years ago by a deceased music teacher who stands accused of molesting around 70 children at the school. At its peak in 1964-65 St. Philip's had an enrolment of 132.

Earlier this week the church complied with the elders' wishes and Bolen said he would visit Cote First Nation, which lies about 170 miles northeast of Regina, the capital of the province of Saskatchewan.

The survivors demanded the church pay the $25 million that was promised to them back in 2005 as part of restitution for the abuse they suffered and also release all records pertaining to the residential schools.

And while Pope Francis has agreed to meet with Indigenous leaders at the Vatican in December, the survivors demanded the Pope come to Canada to apologize. About 60 percent of the schools were at one time run by Catholic Church organizations.

"We are not asking," one survivor said. "We are demanding the Pope come here. We are demanding the church does what's right. Why are we always forced to ask the church to do what's right? My goodness. We are hurting."

Bolen said he understands the pain of the survivors.

"We know the schools took you away from your families. We know you're on a long healing journey. We want to walk with you and help in any way we can," Bolen said. "Apologies are not an endpoint - they are a starting point."/agencies