Baghdad

To Enas Taleb, the headline felt like a spiteful punch line. "Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world," it read in bold, above a photograph of the Iraqi actress waving onstage at an arts festival.

Hussam al-Aqouli remembers the exact spot along southern Iraq's Lake Sawa where his two daughters once dipped their feet into clear waters. Now he stands there two years on and the barren earth cracks beneath him.

Eight months after national elections, Iraq still doesn't have a government and there seems to be no clear way out of the dangerous deadlock.

Political elites are embroiled in cutthroat competition for power, even as the country faces growing challenges, including an impending food crisis resulting from severe drought and the war in Ukraine.

A British citizen was sentenced on June 6 by an Iraqi court to 15 years in prison on charges of smuggling artifacts out of the country, in a case that has attracted international attention.

The verdict handed down to retired geologist Jim Fitton, shocked the court in Baghdad, including his defense attorney. He and his family have argued that Fitton, 66, had no criminal intent.

One person died in Iraq and more than 5,000 were treated in hospitals on May 5 for respiratory ailments due to a sandstorm, the seventh in a month, the Health Ministry said.

Iraqi artist Wijdan al-Majed is transforming Baghdad's concrete jungle into a color-filled city with murals depicting well-known figures from the war-scarred country and abroad.

Perched on a scaffold at a busy intersection, the 49-year-old artist and instructor at the Baghdad College of Fine Arts is adding final touches to a mural dedicated to celebrated Iraqi poet Muzzafar al-Nawab.

Verdant landscapes, stylized portraits of peasant women, curved sculptures, an exhibition in Baghdad is allowing art aficionados to rediscover the pioneers of contemporary Iraqi art.

Around 100 items are on display in the capital, returned and restored nearly two decades after they were looted.

Ljubljana – Matej Kavčič, a reporter for the small independent radio station Radio Student, was arrested in Iraq on Sunday, most likely in Baghdad, the newspaper Večer reports on its website. According to the available information, he was arrested by the army, which disputes his status of reporter.

Turkey on April 21 summoned Baghdad's top envoy to defend its decision to launch a military campaign against PKK in northern Iraq.

Iran's foreign ministry on Jan. 29 condemned a rocket attack against Baghdad airport that took place the previous day as an act that seeks to "destabilize" Iraq.