Bagdad

Six months after she was immortalized with a U.S. quarter, Asian American Hollywood trailblazer Anna May Wong has received another accolade affirming her icon status - her own Barbie.

Mattel announced Monday the release of an Anna May Wong doll for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Global crude prices have hit a three-week high as the conflict between Iraqi and Kurdish forces intensifies. Iraqi troops are advancing on the city of Kirkuk, reportedly seizing the region's oil fields.

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.6 percent to $52.29 per barrel, setting it on track for its highest settlement price since the end of September, according to FactSet data.

An influential Iraqi Shiite cleric on April 21 called on the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to help find a solution to the country's simmering political crisis "even through holding early elections."
     

Sources from the Turkish Prime Ministry said that a decision was reached to reorganize the Turkish troops on Iraqi soil, which have caused tensions between Turkey and Iraq to increase since last week, by taking Baghdad's concerns into consideration. 

Turkish Airlines will add seven new direct foreign flight destinations from Turkey's capital Ankara beginning from Oct. 1, 2015, officials said on May 14.

Ankara Chamber of Industry head Nurettin Özdebir told Anadolu Agency that Turkish Airlines had promised to add 27 flights per week from Ankara to seven new foreign destinations.

Turkey’s state-run oil company TPAO has invested $6 billion in Iraq as a part of several consortiums, a total of which makes more than $26 billion invested in the country, said Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız Nov. 11.

BELGRADE - Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that Serbia supports the global anti-terrorism alliance.

The global alliance is also important for our region, where the number of jihadists is substantial, Dacic told the Wednesday edition of Belgrade daily Blic.

Islamist insurgents invaded the Baiji oil refinery, the biggest such facility in Iraq, as they are pushing toward the capital Baghdad after having seized a number of cities.

Some 75 percent of Baiji, located 210 km north of Bagdad, is now under the control of militants led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), as the BBC reports citing officials.