A Turkish university will conduct research to find out the species of an animal whose skeleton was found by workers while digging the yard of an enterprise in eastern Turkey.

Last week, workers digging the yard of an old spinning factory in the eastern Igdir province discovered an intact skeleton of an animal about 1-meter (3.3-feet) tall, with predatory teeth.

After they noticed that some tissues of the skeleton did not deteriorate, the workers reported the situation to the academics at the Igdır University’s Biodiversity Application and Research Center.

The academics who came to the area where the excavation was made, took the skeleton to the university for research.

Belkis Muca Yigit, a lecturer at Igdir University, told Anadolu Agency that they will try to find out the species of the animal after examination.

“Then we will ensure that this skeleton is preserved in a museum,” Yigit added.

Yusuf Kitay, the operating officer of the excavation, said the workers found the animal skeleton while they were working in an area that has not been used for the last 30-40 years.

The shape of the skeleton caught the workers' attention and they reported the situation to the authorities, Kitay said, adding: “We especially noticed that its hindlimbs are long. We informed the authorities that it may be an interesting species as its feet do not have hooves but nails, and it also has sharp teeth.”

“The research will be conducted, we are also curious. I hope something interesting will come out and be useful to science,” he added./aa

Turkey on Thursday ratified a grant agreement on a major refugee health care project signed with the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and the Delegation to Turkey of the European Union, based in the capital Ankara.

The agreement on the project was signed in Ankara on Sept. 28.

The project, titled Strengthening Healthcare Infrastructure for All, includes the construction and renovation of a number of migrant health centers, the renovation of physiotherapy and rehabilitation units in public hospitals, as well as the purchase of medical equipment and supplies.

The completion date for the agreement is expected by May 30, 2024 and includes over €79.3 million ($91 million).

Turkey is the largest host country for Syrian refugees, providing protection to nearly 4 million people who fled Syria – more than any other country in the world./aa

The pressing climate crisis has brought together global rivals China and the US in rare unity, with both pledging to use multilateral processes to avoid catastrophic impacts of the changing climate.

The agreement was announced by China’s special envoy on climate Xie Zhenhua and his US counterpart John Kerry on the sidelines of the UN climate conference in Scotland, which is set to wrap up Friday.

“The US and China are committed to pursuing such efforts, including by taking enhanced climate actions that raise ambition in the 2020s in the context of the Paris Agreement, with the aim of keeping the above temperature limit within reach and cooperating to identify and address related challenges and opportunities,” the US State Department said Wednesday night in a joint statement with Beijing.

It said the “US and China recall their firm commitment to work together and with other parties to strengthen implementation of the Paris Agreement.”

The world’s top two economies are the largest emitters of carbon dioxide.

It came as a surprise to many, but experts had suggested climate, besides Afghanistan and Iran, was one of the areas where the interests of the world’s top two economies converge.

Beijing and Washington have been at loggerheads over COVID-19, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Uyghur human rights issue in Xinjiang. The climate deal appeared on Wednesday to be a rare example of unity.

Praising “significant efforts” being made around the world to address the climate crisis, the statement said: “There remains a significant gap between such efforts, including their aggregate effect, and those that need to be taken to achieve the goals of the (2015) Paris Agreement.”

“The two sides stress the vital importance of closing that gap as soon as possible, particularly through stepped-up efforts. They declare their intention to work individually, jointly, and with other countries during this decisive decade, in accordance with different national circumstances, to strengthen and accelerate climate action and cooperation aimed at closing the gap, including accelerating the green and low-carbon transition and climate technology innovation,” the statement said.

But some noted that the agreement had little in the way of details for how and when the actions would be taken.

At the Glasgow conference, Xie said: “Both sides will work jointly and with other parties to ensure a successful COP26 and to facilitate an outcome that is both ambitious and balanced.”

Kerry said the two countries “set out our support for a successful COP26, including certain elements which will promote ambition.”

“Every step matters right now, and we have a long journey ahead of us,” he added./aa

The UK's Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday to back Google's appeal against a mass legal action that it wrongfully collected millions of iPhone users' data.

The legal action was taken on behalf of around 4.4 million people in England and Wales, who have now been denied compensation of up to £750 ($1,000) each. This amounted to £3 billion in total.

The Supreme Court overruled the Court of Appeal's 2019 judgement. Had it not been, the case could have opened the door to other mass legal actions in the UK in other data privacy cases.

Google was accused of illegally misusing the data of millions of iPhone users by secretly tracking their web browsing activity through advert-tracking cookies and other data-storing technology, and using the data to sell a targeted advertising service between June 2011 and February 2012.

Richard Lloyd, a consumer rights advocate and former director of consumer group Which?, was the one to bring the case in 2017.

The Supreme Court said that his claim could not succeed because Lloyd could not prove that all the individuals he was representing "suffered any material damage or distress," and so could not have all suffered the same harm.

Lord Legatt, a Supreme Court justice, said: "The attempt to recover compensation without proving any facts particularly to any individual iPhone user, and in particular, without alleging or proving the Google's alleged unlawful conduct caused any financial damage or mental distress to any such individual is therefore unsustainable.

"In these circumstances, the claim cannot succeed and permission to serve the proceedings on Google outside the jurisdiction was rightly refused by the judge."

He added: "What gives the appearance of substance to the claim is the allegation that Google secretly tracked the internet activity of millions of Apple iPhone users for several months and used the data obtained for commercial purposes.

"But on analysis, the claimant is seeking to recover damages without attempting to prove that this allegation is true in the case of any individual for whom damages are claimed."

Lloyd said he was "bitterly disappointed" with the Supreme Court's ruling.

"They have overturned a very clear ruling by senior, expert judges in the Court of Appeal," he said.

"Although the Court once again recognized that our action is the only practical way that millions of British people can get access to fair redress, they've slammed the door shut on this case by ruling that everyone affected must go to court individually.

"If there are few consequences for abusing our personal data, then there is little incentive for companies like Google to protect consumers.

"The government must now step in to make the system clearer and stronger by bringing in the right for groups of consumers to take action together under the Data Protection Act. The responsibility to protect our privacy, data rights and collective action is squarely back with the government."

Lloyd's lawyer James Oldnall said: "The ruling today gives Google and rest of Big Tech the green light to continue misusing our data without consent, knowing they will go unpunished. It is a dark day when corporate greed is valued over our right to privacy."

A Google spokesperson said: "This claim was related to events that took place a decade ago and that we addressed at the time."

They added: "People want to know that they are safe and secure online, which is why for years we've focused on building products and infrastructure that respect and protect people's privacy."

Due to the breach, Google paid a record $22.5 million in a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission in 2012. It also paid a further $17 million to a number of US states in which it had collected data for advertising despite telling users it would not, but this latter settlement was constructed in a way that meant it did not accept any liability./aa

UN human rights experts expressed alarm Wednesday at the rising rate of violence toward Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory by Israeli settlers.

"Settler violence has always been an extremely disturbing feature of the Israeli occupation," they said in a statement.

"But in 2021, we are witnessing the highest recorded levels of violence in recent years and more severe incidents.

"The Israeli Government and its military have done far too little to curb this violence and to protect the Palestinians under siege," they said.

Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territory that has been occupied since 1967, Jelena Aparac Rapporteur for the Working Group on the use of mercenaries, and others experts said in several cases, Israeli security forces and outsourced private security companies stand by and take no action to prevent violence.

"Instead, they respond to settler-related violence by ordering Palestinians to leave the area, including Palestinian-owned land, or even actively support the settlers," said the experts.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the first 10 months of 2021, there have been 410 attacks by settlers against Palestinians -- 302 against property and 108 against individuals.

Four Palestinians were killed by settlers in 2021.

In 2020, there were 358 recorded attacks. In 2019, a total of 335.

Directed at rural Palestinians

The settler attacks are primarily directed against rural Palestinian families living on small farms or in villages and towns in the occupied West Bank located near Israeli settlements, said the experts.

Many Palestinians reside in what is called "Area C" of the West Bank, under complete Israeli security and civil control and where Israel's "de facto annexation stratagem" is most evident, they said.

They noted that settler violence had taken many forms, including physical violence, shooting live ammunition, torching fields and livestock, theft and vandalization of property, trees and crops, stone-throwing and intimidation of herders and their families.

In the autumn, experts said violence is often directed at Palestinians engaged in the olive harvest.

"Harvested olives are stolen or ruined. Olive trees are destroyed. Harvesters are attacked with rocks and pipes or threatened with weapons," they said.

The experts cited Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization, which found 91% of investigations into settler attacks against Palestinians between 2005 and 2019 were closed by Israeli authorities with no charges filed.

"The deep state support provided by Israel to the illegal settlement enterprise, including to the more than 140 settlement outposts established throughout the West Bank in defiance of even Israel's own laws, has fueled this coercive environment and encouraged violence," said the experts.​​​​​​​/aa

A former Facebook executive turned whistle-blower warned Wednesday that the social media platform’s vision of extending its new virtual reality based metaverse project to professional workplaces is “super problematic.”

Frances Haughen, who is on a Europe tour testifying to lawmakers on the dangerous practices of Facebook, now called Meta, was invited to a hearing by the French parliament’s Economic Affairs and Law Commission.

She said the metaverse project is of great concern because of the risks it poses to the individual rights of freedoms and privacy. Facebook unveiled the project in October promising an immersive online experience for users.

“Their vision of being within the work environment is very worrying. Facebook wants to collect tons of new data on you. They want to fill your environment with sensors, microphones and other systems of surveillance,” she said in response to a question by a lawmaker about her views on the flagship project.

“Imagine if you work from home and your employer decides to become a Facebook metaverse company ... you will no longer be able to decide whether Facebook can spy on you or not," she said, explaining her concerns.

Haughen, who left her job earlier this year and leaked the company’s internal reports to the media that documented its inaction on hate speech, misinformation, disinformation and algorithms promoting harmful social media trends, said the platform was not investing in language moderators.

Highlighting problems associated with French social media, she said France was more susceptible and at disadvantage to fake news due to the lack of French-speaking moderators.

She told lawmakers that Facebook needs to publicly disclose the number of moderators per language. “I assure you, there are not enough French-speaking moderators at Facebook."

“France does not benefit from all the security systems that benefit English language (content.) From the data I have seen, many languages, including French, face significant security problems. For example, the disinformation related to COVID," she said, demanding more transparency on the system.

During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, French social media was filled with conspiracy videos and documentaries like Hold Up and Manigances-19, spreading falsehoods about COVID-19 which were not banned from the platform.

This information is part of a legal dossier against Facebook in France for failing to provide "a safe and error-free online environment."

Haughen also commended on French parliamentarians for introducing a new bill guaranteeing protection to whistle-blowers, which will be debated in the Senate later this week.

She said the bill is "amazing" as it will encourage more people to come out and report malpractices at workplaces. The text defines whistle-blower and has provisions for protecting employees of public and private companies along with immediate family members./aa