Far-right biggest threat to our democracy, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says

Neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists committed 21,964 crimes in Germany last year, the government said on Tuesday.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented the government’s report on politically motivated crimes at a news conference in Berlin.

“Far-right is the biggest threat to our democracy and the biggest extremist threat to people in our country,” she said, stressing that the latest figures show the growing violence by right-wing extremists.

According to the report, neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists carried out 1,042 violent attacks last year targeting migrants, refugees or political opponents. At least 590 people were injured in those attacks.

As much as “41 percent of all victims of politically motivated violence were attacked by right-wing extremists,” Minister Faeser said.

German police recorded 4,735 xenophobic incidents, 3,027 anti-Semitic, and 732 Islamophobic hate crimes in 2021, the report said.

“I have grave concerns about the massive increase in the number of anti-Semitic crimes … it’s a shame for our country,” Faeser said./aa

InSight spacecraft detects quake occurred on May 4, says NASA

NASA's InSight spacecraft has recorded the strongest-ever marsquake since beginning its mission in November 2018 with a tremor of magnitude 5 on the Richter scale.

InSight with its highly sensitive seismometer detected the quake, "an estimated magnitude 5 temblor that occurred on May 4, 2022, the 1,222nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission," NASA said on Monday.

It is the strongest marsquake measured on the planet after one of estimated magnitude 4.2 was detected in August 2021.

"A magnitude 5 quake is a medium-size quake compared to those felt on Earth, but it’s close to the upper limit of what scientists hoped to see on Mars during InSight’s mission," it said.

A NASA spacecraft tasked with exploring the interior of Mars touched down on the planet's surface in November 2018 after a dangerous six-minute descent through the planet’s red-colored atmosphere.

The InSight mission is to study Mars' interior structure, including its crust, mantle, and core. The mission also measures tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars./aa

Ezidis call on Bagdad to move against PKK terrorist organization

PKK terror group’s presence is preventing the Ezidi community from returning to their homes in northern Iraq’s Sinjar region, said a senior official.

After being driven out of their homes by the PKK, a vast majority of the community dwells in tents, despite unfavorable weather conditions in the summer and winter, said Jafar Simo, the head of Ezidi affairs directorate in Duhok, a city in Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Sinjar has a strategic position as it is some 120 kilometers (74 miles) from Mosul, the last bastion of ISIS/Daesh terror gourp in eastern Syria which was liberated in 2019, and close to the Turkish-Syrian border.

The terror group aims to create a corridor between the YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria and Iraq’s northern Qandil region.

He added that some Ezidis returned to Sinjar only to realize their mistake and returned to the tents.

Not even a single clause of the agreement between KRG and the central government that was reached in 2020 has been enforced, Simo said.

He went on to say that complete chaos prevails in Sinjar.

Not even basic infrastructure and services are provided there, Simo said.

He asserted that while the living conditions in many other parts of the region, which were liberated from Daesh/ISIS improved, Sinjar endures many difficulties.

Ezidis think they are subjected to injustice and have asked the central government in Baghdad to move against the illegal groups occupying Sinjar, Simo said.

- How did PKK gain a foothold in Sinjar?

Daesh/ISIS terrorists attacked Sinjar, a region with an Ezidi-majority population, in August 2014.

The terror group kidnapped and killed thousands of people, including women and children, or detained them in areas under its control.

The PKK terrorist organization managed to establish a foothold in Sinjar in 2014 under the pretext of protecting the Ezidi community from Daesh/ISIS terrorists.

- Increasing tensions after Sinjar Agreement

The tension in the region increased after Baghdad announced on Oct. 9, 2020 a "historic deal" with northern Iraq’s KRG to bolster the federal government's authority in Sinjar.

Clashes broke out between PKK supporters and Iraqi forces in Sinjar on March 11, 2021, according to local media reports.

The PKK terror group was reportedly stopped at a checkpoint belonging to the Iraqi forces, and the terror group attacked an Iraqi military vehicle.

On Dec. 12, 2021, clashes broke out between the Iraqi military and groups affiliated with the PKK, during which an army tank was set on fire and two demonstrators were injured, the KRG Anti-Terrorism Unit said in a statement.

The conflict between the PKK and Iraqi forces flared up on April 19 after the terror group refused to vacate a checkpoint.

An Iraqi soldier was reportedly killed and some people were injured in clashes on May 1-2, according to local media reports.

- Ezidis forced out by PKK

After the Daesh/ISIS attack in 2014, most Ezidis had to leave their homes and flee to various parts of the country, including the KRG area. Some of the Ezidi victims also took refuge in Turkiye.

The PKK abducted and forcibly recruited Ezidi children in Sinjar. The Ezidi people held many protests for the release of their children kidnapped by the terror group.

The recent clashes have seen Sinjar residents once again displaced from their homes.

On May 4, Viyan Dehil, an Ezidi lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament, said more than 4,000 civilians have been displaced in Sinjar in just two days./aa

ASwedish physician accused of spying for the Israeli intelligence service Mossad will be executed, a spokesperson from Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday.

"The death sentence against Ahmad-Resa J. for spying for Mossad is final and will be carried out," judiciary spokesperson Sabiollah Chodaian said in a statement.

The spokesperson said Ahmad-Resa J. had endangered national security on several occasions by passing secret documents to the Israeli intelligence service, according to ISNA news agency.

The man has dual Swedish and Iranian citizenship. There has been no independent confirmation from the Iranian courts or justice officials.

ISNA reported last week that the man was to be executed by May 21.

The accused is a disaster medic who was prosecuted for espionage during a visit to Iran in 2016 and sentenced to death, a sentence that was confirmed in 2017. He was granted Swedish citizenship in 2018.

The execution had been indefinitely delayed after the accused was diagnosed with cancer. But observers say it is now being discussed again because an Iranian identified as Hamid N. is on trial in Sweden facing charges of overseeing a mass execution 34 years ago when he was a court official.

He is incarcerated and could face life in prison if found guilty.

Chodaian rejected reports that the two cases were related. "These two cases have absolutely nothing to do with each other and N. is innocent and the trial against him is unlawful," the spokesperson said.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has described the Swedish trial as a "political show" organized by Iranian opposition groups.

The case has caused a diplomatic rift between Sweden and Iran. "The trial in Sweden is de facto against Iran and not against a simple judicial official," Kasem Gharibabadi, deputy head of Iran's judicial authority, said in a television interview on Sunday./dpa

Qatar on Tuesday pledged $50 million to support the Syrian people during a conference held in Brussels on Syria’s future.

The two-day event was organized by the EU on May 9 and 10 to provide support to the Syrian people and back efforts to reach a political solution to the 11-year conflict in Syria.

In a speech at the conference, Assistant Foreign Minister for Regional Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al Khulaifi reiterated Qatar’s firm position of supporting international efforts aimed at ending the Syrian crisis.

Last year, international donors pledged $4.4 billion in humanitarian aid to Syrians inside the war-torn country, refugees, and host communities in neighboring countries.

Syria has been in civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests.

Over 400,000 people were killed, and more than 12 million fled their homes to become refugees or internally displaced over the past 11 years, according to the EU.

Syria has been in civil war since early 2011/aa