Iraqi culture

Iraqi telecommunications worker Youssef Ahmed is married with a five-year-old son, but lives with his parents because he is unable to afford his own home amid soaring property prices.

"Even if your income increases, it will never be up to the exorbitant prices of houses or land", said 29-year-old Ahmed, who earns a "comfortable" monthly salary of $1,000, double the national average.

A British man arrested at Baghdad airport in late March in possession of pottery fragments that are alleged to be historical artifacts is being held in pre-trial detention, his family said on May 1.

Art exhibitions, book fairs on the Tigris and Godot in Baghdad - after decades of conflict and strife, the Iraqi capital is experiencing an artistic renaissance.

"People need art, they want to develop their artistic taste - it's an escape route," said Noor Alaa al-Din, director of art space The Gallery.

"We are like any country, we have the right to art to entertain us."

A rare twin suicide bombing killed at least 20 people on a bustling commercial street in the heart of Baghdad on Jan. 21, the ministry said, rupturing months of relative calm.

At least six Iraqis including two security personnel were killed and more than 60 injured in clashes between Iraqi security forces and protesters in the capital Baghdad, security and medical sources said on Jan. 20.

Turkey's visiting foreign minister on Jan. 9 met Iraqi premier in the capital Baghdad.

Authorities in Iraq cut off the internet in Baghdad and the southern regions covered by the protest movement after yesterday's clashes in the capital, including near public administration buildings, France reported.

Turkey's Maarif Foundation -- founded to replace terrorist-linked schools abroad in the wake of a defeated 2016 coup attempt -- started the school year in Baghdad, Iraq.         

Iraq reopened its Qaim border-crossing with Syria on Sept. 30 after eight years of closure amid regional turmoil, in the latest sign of normalisation between Baghdad and Damascus and a win for their mutual ally Iran.

The United States has allowed Iraq to import Iranian gas for its power grid for another three months by extending a waiver to U.S. sanctions for Baghdad, two government sources said on June 15.