Bosnia and Herzegovina is expecting more than 5,000 people to participate in an annual peace march to honor the Srebrenica genocide victims.

Traditionally, thousands of people from all over the world come to the Bosnian town of Nezuk every year to participate in a three-day peace march.

This year the march will mark the 27th anniversary of the genocide where more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed after Bosnian Serb forces attacked Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch troops meant to act as international peacekeepers.

Srebrenica Ceremonies Organization Board Chairman Hamdija Fejzic told Anadolu Agency that the 18th march will kick off on July 8 this year to honor 46 victims to be buried at the Potocari Memorial Cemetery during a collective funeral on July 11.

Fejzic said they are expecting Hollywood star Angelina Jolie and former Queen of Jordan Nur al-Hussein to attend this year's commemoration ceremonies.

The participants will march for three days, and spend the nights in designated areas. The march is expected to conclude at a cemetery in Potocari, a village in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, just northwest of the Srebrenica town, where a funeral prayer and burial ceremony will be held for genocide victims.

Since 2005, thousands of people have attended the Mars Mira – which means Peace March in Bosnian – following the same forest path used by the Bosniaks when they were fleeing the Srebrenica genocide.

In the early 1990s, Srebrenica was besieged by Serbian forces trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.

In the spring of 1993, the UN Security Council declared Srebrenica a "safe area." However, Serbian troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic – later found guilty of war crimes and genocide – overran the UN zone.

Some 15,000 Srebrenica people fled into the surrounding mountains but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 of them in the forests.

A total of 6,696 victims lie buried at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial in Potocari./aa

The YPG/PKK terror group is using a sophisticated network of tunnels in the Tal Rifat district in northern Syria to hide and transfer weapons to the front lines.

PKK/YPG terrorists continue to hide in Tal Rifat, a mere 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the Turkish border with a front line to the Operation Euphrates Shield zone, where Turkish security forces have been providing security since 2016-2017.

Footage shot by Anadolu Agency shows at least 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) of tunnels.

The tunnels lead to several settlement areas and the front line.

Some tunnels are hidden underneath concrete barriers and sand. The tunnels are 1.5 meters wide and 2 to 2.2 meters high.

After spotting an Anadolu Agency drone taking footage, a terrorist tried to shoot it down.

An investigation by an Anadolu Agency team on the ground also showed that a tunnel opens to an old teachers' training institution, signifying civilian infrastructure is being used by the terrorists.

In Türkiye's previous cross-border operations, tunnels were discovered that led to houses, schools, hospitals, and places of worship that were built by terrorists to use civilians as human shields.

The YPG/PKK terror group often attacks Jarabulus, Afrin, and Azaz from the Manbij and Tal Rifat areas in Syria.

The YPG/PKK terrorists often target Turkish security forces who provide security in the areas of Operation Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring and try to infiltrate the positions of Syrian opposition fighters from regions that the terror group was supposed to withdraw from under the agreements with the US and Russia.

Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK -- listed as a terror organization by Türkiye, the US, and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK terror group's Syrian offshoot./aa

Top U.N. officials voiced deep concern on Tuesday about human rights violations in Iran as the body announced that Tehran executed more than 100 people in the first three months of 2022.

Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. deputy human rights chief Nada al-Nashif presented U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' latest report on Iran, decrying that executions in the country were on the rise.

"While 260 individuals were executed in 2020, at least 310 individuals were executed in 2021, including at least 14 women," she said, adding that the trend had continued this year.

Between Jan. 1 and March 20, she said, "at least 105 people were executed," many of whom belonging to minority groups."

Guterres's report had noted with deep concern the increase of executions for lesser crimes, including for drug-related offences, Nashif said.

"The death penalty continues to be imposed on the basis of charges not amounting to 'most serious crimes,' and in ways incompatible with fair trials standards," she told the council.

Nashif said that in March, 52 people sentenced to death on drug-related charges were transferred to Shiraz prison for execution.

She also lamented the continued use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders, in violation of international law.

'Excessive use of force'

Between August 2021 and March 2022, at least two people who committed their alleged crimes as minors were executed and more than 85 juvenile offenders remain on death row, she said.

"In February 2022, in a positive development, the Supreme Court decided to revoke the death sentence against a child offender who had been on death row for 18 years," Nashif added.

The deputy rights chief also decried other rights abuses in Iran, especially in response to protests over a range of significant social, political and economic challenges over the past year.

"Excessive use of force constitutes the default response by the authorities to managing assemblies," she said.

"In April and May 2022, at least 55 individuals – teachers, lawyers, labor rights defenders, artists and academics – were arrested during protests, many of whom are facing national security charges."

To date, no steps have been taken to establish accountability for violations committed during the nationwide protests in November 2019, she added.

Unnecessary deaths caused by excessive force inflicted by the authorities, against border couriers, peaceful protesters and those in detention, has continued with impunity, Nashif told the council.

"The scale of deaths in detention ... is of serious concern," she said.

Mehdi Ali Abadi, Iran's deputy permanent representative in Geneva, slammed the report, saying it was based on a malicious mandate forced on the U.N. by Western countries to stigmatise Iran, insisting it was "biased by default."

"Reducing the lofty code of human rights into a petty political tool is appalling and disgraceful," he told the council./agencies

Depicting two different periods of war, a movie tells the story of Bosnian Muslims and Jews that help each other escape from the cruelty of Serbs and Nazis, respectively.

Sabina Vajraca, a U.S.-based film director who herself was a refugee from Bosnia's 1990s war, says she wants her short film to remind the world of the goodness of ordinary people during times of conflict in Europe and the Middle East.

In May, Vajraca's script won the Holocaust Film Contest held by the Claims Conference, the Jewish organization which secures compensation for Holocaust survivors.

"Evil keeps coming back over and over and wars keep happen over and over and the whole message of this film is that when such an event happens, will you remember your humanity and save others or will you become small and fearful and only think of yourself," Vajraca said in an interview with Reuters.

The film "Sevap/Mitzvah" ("A Good Deed") is based on the true story of Muslim woman Zejneba Hardaga and her family who hid the Jewish Kabiljo family at their home, risking their own lives, and helped them escape Nazi-occupied Sarajevo in the 1940s and then move to Israel.

The Hardagas were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem, based on testimony provided by the Kabiljo family. The honorific is awarded to non-Jews who helped Jews escape persecution in the Holocaust.

Fifty years later, during the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo by separatist Bosnian Serb forces, the Jewish community helped the Hardagas leave Sarajevo using fake Jewish identity cards and the Kabiljo family secured them a refuge in Israel.

"Zejneba Hardaga is the first Muslim woman in the world who was recognized as Righteous Among Nations," said Eli Tauber from the Sarajevo Jewish community.

Tauber, who wrote a book about 54 Bosnians who were honored as Righteous for saving Jews during World War II, said that Zejneba Hardaga also helped his grandparents to leave Sarajevo at that time.

"She gave my grandmother a veil and pantaloons to disguise herself as a Muslim woman ... and gave my grandfather the money to buy tickets and run away from Sarajevo," he recalled.

Vajraca hopes the film will be inspirational to the audiences with its message: "Do what you can, do a good deed no matter what and in some way it may come back to you."/Reuters

After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on World Refugee Day, Hollywood actor Ben Stiller, a U.N. goodwill ambassador, hailed the comedian-turned-president as "his hero."

"It's a great honor for me ... you're my hero!" said Stiller.

"What you've done, the way that you've rallied the country, the world, it's really inspiring," said the 56-year-old American comedian referring to Zelenskyy's countless speeches to audiences around the world to rally support for his embattled country.

Footage of their meeting was released by Zelenskyy's office.

Earlier on Monday, Stiller visited the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, the scene of fierce battles early on in the invasion and the closest Moscow's army got to the capital since it sent troops into Ukraine in February.

"I feel it's hard to understand what's actually going on here if you haven't been here," he told Zelenskyy.

"I was in Irpin this morning... and the actual level of destruction, you see it on TV, you see it on social media, but it's something else to actually see it, feel it and then to talk to the people," he said.

Speaking in English, Zelenskyy thanked Stiller for coming and told him it was "very important" for him to keep reminding people what was going on in Ukraine.

"It's very important for us that people don't forget. It's not interesting to speak about the war every day... but for us, it's very important," the Ukrainian leader told him.

The pair also acknowledged their shared interest as comedy actors.

"You quit a great acting career," said Stiller, who is best known for his comedy roles in "Meet the Parents" and the "Night at the Museum" films, in a nod to Zelenskyy's former career as a comedy actor.

"Not as great as yours," Zelenskyy retorted, both laughing.

Before being elected in 2019, Zelenskyy was best known for his role in "Servant of the People," a comedy satire in which he played a high school teacher who unexpectedly becomes Ukraine's president./AFP

Turkey has repatriated at least 42,666 irregular migrants since the beginning of 2022 amid the continued fight against irregular migration across the country.

The 42,666 irregular migrants included 24,341 Afghan and 6,025 Pakistani nationals, the country's migration management authority said on Tuesday.

Turkey operated its 94th charter flight to Afghanistan since the beginning of 2022 to fly back irregular Afghan migrants, the Presidency of Migration Management said in a written statement.

With five charter flights between June 18-21 from the eastern province of Malatya, the country returned 1,135 Afghan nationals to Afghanistan's capital Kabul, the statement noted, adding that the number of Afghan nationals deported in 2022 has reached 24,341.

Turkey has been a key transit point for asylum seekers aiming to cross into Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Already hosting 4 million refugees, more than any other country in the world, Turkey is taking new security measures at its borders to humanely prevent a new influx of migrants.

Meanwhile, the Turkey representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Philippe Leclerc said that about 800 Syrian refugees are returning to their country from Turkey every week but conditions are not suitable for a large number of voluntary returns./aa

Elon Musk's transgender daughter has filed a request to change her name in accordance with her new gender identity and because "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."

The petition for both a name change and a new birth certificate reflecting her new gender identity was filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica in April. It came to light recently in some online media reports.

The former Xavier Alexander Musk, who recently turned 18, the age of consent in California, has asked the court to change her gender recognition from male to female and to register her new name, according to court documents available online through PlainSite.org.

Her new name was redacted in the online document. Her mother is Justine Wilson, who divorced Musk in 2008.

There was no further explanation of the rift between Musk's daughter and her father, the Tesla and SpaceX chief who is attempting a $44 billion takeover of social media platform Twitter.

Neither a lawyer who represents Musk nor the Tesla media office immediately responded to Reuters emails requesting comment on Monday.

In May, about a month after the name and gender change document was filed, Musk declared his support for the Republican Party, whose elected representatives support a raft of legislation that would limit transgender rights in states across the country.

Musk has weighed in on the issue of transgender people choosing their preferred pronouns, tweeting in 2020, "I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare."/Reuters

Authorities in Bangladesh are struggling to ferry drinking water and dry food to flood shelters across the country’s vast northern and northeastern regions as floods continued to wreak havoc, officials and local media said on Monday.

More than a dozen people died across the country since the monsoon began last week, authorities said. The government called in soldiers Friday to help evacuate people.

Ekattor TV station said millions remained without electricity.

Enamur Rahman, junior minister for disaster and relief, said that up to 100,000 people have been evacuated in the worst-hit Sunamganj and Sylhet districts, and about 4 million people have been marooned in the area, the United News of Bangladesh agency said.

The latest statement Sunday from the country’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Center in the nation’s capital, Dhaka, said that flooding in the northeastern districts of Sunamganj and Sylhet could worsen further in the next 24 hours. It said the Teesta, a major river in northern Bangladesh, may flow above danger. The situation could also deteriorate in the country’s northern districts of Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Bogra, Jamalpur and Sirajganj, it said.

Officials said water has started receding already from the northeastern region but it is posing a threat to the country’s central region, the pathway for floodwaters to reach the Bay of Bengal in the south.

Media reports said those affected by flooding in remote areas are struggling to access drinking water and food.

Arinjoy Dhar, a senior director of the nonprofit developmental organization BRAC, asked for help ensuring food for the flood-affected in a video posted online.

Dhar said they opened a center Monday to prepare food items as part of a plan to feed 5,000 families in Sunamganj district, but the arrangement was not enough.

BRAC said they alone were trying to reach out to about 52,000 families with emergency supplies.

The latest floods have devastated Bangladesh since Friday amid heavy monsoon rains, just as the country began recovering from a flash flood.

Last month, a pre-monsoon flash flood triggered by a rush of water from upstream in India’s northeastern states hit Bangladesh’s northern and northeastern regions, destroying crops and damaging homes and roads.

Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is low-lying and faces threats from natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, made worse by climate change. According to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, about 17% of people in Bangladesh would need to be relocated over the next decade or so if global warming persists at the present rate./AP