"Saturday News" Posted by Samson 9-5-2020

KTFA:

Samson:  Iraq maintains its 38th position in the world and the fifth in the Arab world with the largest gold reserves

5th September, 2020

The World Gold Council announced, Saturday, that Iraq maintained its position as the 38th largest gold reserve for the month of August

The council said, "Iraq ranked fifth in the Arab world, after Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon and Libya

He added that "Iraq's gold reserves amounted to 96.3 tons, which is equivalent to 8.8% of the rest of the other currencies," noting that "his last purchase was in 2018, according to which he bought 6.5 tons

The council noted that "the total purchases by countries for the month of August amounted to 27.2 tons, as Turkey bought 19.4 tons, Qatar 3.1 tons, India 2.8 tons, and Kazakhstan 1.9 tons, while the total sales amounted to 17.7 tons

It is noteworthy that the World Gold Council, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom, has extensive experience and deep knowledge of the factors causing market change, and its members consist of the largest and most advanced gold mining companies in the world  LINK

Samson:  Darjal: The ministry's treasury contained only 300 dinars when I received it

10:28 - 05/09/2020

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Adnan Darjal, confirmed that the ministry’s treasury contained only 300 Iraqi dinars when he assumed the position.

Darjal said in a video clip during his visit to Anbar Governorate and his meeting with the head and members of the Yarmouk Center for Studies and Strategic Planning that “In light of the Corona pandemic, the question was how we will work, the ministry received and found in it an amount of only 300 hundred Iraqi dinars. leave the work? The answer is no.”

"We started working day and night, and we worked until dawn, and our meetings continued until two in the morning," he added.

It is noteworthy that Darjal received the ministry from his predecessor Ahmed Riad, with the formation of the government headed by Mustafa Al-Kazemi.   LINK

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Samson:  A politician is surprised at the objection of some parties to the formation of a committee to investigate corruption cases

09/05/2020 10:24:36

The former Deputy Prime Minister, Bahaa Al-Araji, expressed his surprise at the objection of some parties to the formation of a committee to investigate corruption and important crimes that were announced by Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi.

Al-Araji said in a tweet on Twitter that "the objection of some parties to the formation of the permanent committee to investigate issues of corruption and important crimes forces us to put a thousand question marks. It is the duty of everyone to support its formation as it is an urgent popular and national demand."

He added, "To let Al-Kazemi know that the results of the work of this committee will be the most important criterion for his success or failure!"   LINK

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Samson:  Official of the Kurdistan government: The delegation of the region will visit Baghdad on Sunday

5th September, 2020

A high-ranking delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government headed by Qubad Talabani, Deputy Prime Minister of the region, will visit the capital, Baghdad, tomorrow, Sunday, to resume talks with the federal government.

Talabani’s spokesman, Samir Hawrami, told Tigris TV that the delegation will visit Baghdad to complete the dialogues with the federal government on the issue of the financial budget and financial dues for the region and confirm them in the draft budget law in 2021.    LINK

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Samson:  Parliament is preparing to resume its sessions today after a long break due to Corona

09/05/2020 12:23:16

Parliament is preparing today to resume its sessions again after a long interruption due to the Corona pandemic, which has held up the country for a long time before a gradual return due to the lack of control over the virus and the increasing number of infections. Where coexistence with the virus has become a necessary evil, in order for life to continue in the country while adhering to the preventive instructions.

The second deputy speaker, Bashir Al-Haddad, announced the agenda for today's session, Saturday, indicating that the parliament will make up for what it missed during the Corona crisis in the new legislative term, at a time when the parliament’s general secretariat announced its readiness to hold the sessions.

Al-Haddad said in a statement that “the most important thing in the session’s agenda is the completion of the House of Representatives election law, the first reading of the draft law amending the Federal Supreme Court’s law, the draft ministers’ and ministries’ law, in addition to the proposed law amending the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959, in addition to presenting And discussion of proposals for other laws and general issues." He added that "the new legislative chapter will increase the number of sessions, and the committees will proceed with the legislative procedures for laws and proposals, and be full of parliamentary work to compensate for the time that has passed due to the Corona pandemic, which disrupted most activities in all state institutions."

He continued, "The committees' meetings will continue while they were already present throughout the past period with the monitoring activities and field follow-ups of the representatives," noting that "there are a number of draft laws and proposals, some of them postponed from previous sessions and the procedures for their legislation have not been completed. We will proceed with them after enriching them with discussions in the relevant committees and unifying them." Opinions and agreement between the parliamentary blocs.

The Secretary-General of the House of Representatives, Sirwan Abdullah Sereni, announced that "the preparations and preparations for the holding of the House of Representatives session to be held this afternoon and the next sessions have been completed." The measures included "organizing the entry process into the council, placing thermal cameras at the entrances, imposing health measures on all employees and visitors, as well as preparing the large hall to hold the session, taking into account the health and preventive conditions."   LINK

Samson:  The Iraqi Parliament reveals billions of dinars corruption files related to Corona

5th September, 2020

On Saturday, a member of the Parliamentary Health Committee, representative of the "Sairoun" coalition, Jawad Al-Mousawi announced corruption files estimated at billions of dinars in the Iraqi Ministry of Health that marred the tests for Corona virus.

Al-Mousawi said in a press conference held today and attended by the correspondent of Shafaq News Agency, that "the Health and Environment Committee has raised a lot of corruption files related to the Ministry of Health, since the current parliamentary session and these files up to the moment   have not been opened in the Integrity Commission and no file has been resolved from them, and they reached about 30-40 files worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

He called on Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi to reopen it again and to address the Integrity Commission to find out the reasons and the fact that these files were not opened.

And he indicated that "the procrastination by the Integrity Commission not to open the files generates frustration because these files are still ink on paper until now, and he invites us to ask about reasons for not raising them. They may be reasons related to corruption or the control of some parties and large personalities over these files and prevent them from being opened, and the last of them." Two days ago, I submitted a file to the Ministry of Health regarding the degrees of the ministry. These files were submitted to the Integrity Commission a year ago and until now, no investigation has taken place.

Al-Mousawi added, "The documents prove the existence of corruption based on a report from the Office of Financial Supervision of five pages on corruption worth billions of dinars, as well as other files related to Corona virus tests and the process of purchasing service from the Ministry of Health to certain companies to conduct these checks and they have a lot of observations, including delayed checks and lack of "Its accuracy and the manipulation of its numbers, for example a company that conducts 500 tests, but receives money from the Ministry of Health for the value of a thousand tests."  LINK

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Samson:  Another Islamic country normalizes relations with Israel

4th September, 2020

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Israel and Kosovo, which has an Islamic majority, have agreed to establish diplomatic relations and that Kosovo, along with Serbia, will open their embassies in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's statement came shortly after a similar announcement by US President Donald Trump in Washington, where he met with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo, who agreed to normalize their economic ties.

"Kosovo will be the first Muslim-majority country to open an embassy in Jerusalem ... As I said recently, the circle of peace and recognition of Israel is expanding and more countries are expected to join," Netanyahu said.

Only two countries, the United States and Guatemala, have opened embassies in Jerusalem. The Palestinians opposed such steps.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most difficult obstacles to reaching a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, who, with broad international support, want East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, as their capital.

Israel considers the entire city, including the eastern sector it annexed after the 1967 war, as its capital. Israel and the UAE agreed last month to normalize diplomatic relations in a deal in which Trump played the role of mediator.  LINK