Samson: Iraq Improves Ranking in Corruption Perceptions Index
26th January, 2020
Transparency International has said that Iraq’s ranking has risen slightly in its global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
From a total of 180 countries, Iraq came in at number 162; last year’s position was 168 out of 180 countries.
This result puts it on equal ranking with Chad and Cambodia.
Libya was ranked in 168th place, with Iran in 146th.
New Zealand beat Denmark to first place, with Somalia in last place.
The Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.
************
Samson: Iraq Bribery Trial starts in London
24th January, 2020
The trial has begun in London of three British businessmen accused of conspiring to pay bribes totalling $6m (£4.6m) to win contracts in Iraq worth $800 million.
According to the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO), Monaco-based Unaoil bribed Iraqi officials to help Dutch-based SBM Offshore [Single Buoy Moorings], and Singapore’s Leighton Offshore, to secure the contracts between 2005 and 2013.
The Guardian reports that Ziad Akle (44), Unaoil’s territory manager for Iraq, Stephen Whiteley (64), who was a vice-president at SBM until 2009 before joining Unaoil as its manager for Iraq, and Paul Bond (67) SBM’s sales manager for the Middle East, have all pleaded not guilty.
The trial is expected to last three months. LINK
************
Don961: A series of violent earthquakes hit Turkey
2020-01-24 Yassin Iraq: Baghdad
, large areas of Turkey were exposed to a series of earthquakes measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale.
Weather expert Sadiq Atiya said in a blog that was monitored by “Iraq Iraq”, that “a series of earthquakes struck eastern and western Turkey tonight,” noting that “its strongest reached 6.9 at a distance of 212 km northeast of the Turkish city of Gaziantep and was felt in many areas Northern Iraq”.
According to the global seismological monitoring standards, “the earthquakes affected regions in Turkey, Syria, Georgia and Armenia.” LINK
************
Don961: NASA warns of a possible danger an asteroid will approach Earth
Follow up / Tomorrow Press:
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) warned, today, Saturday, that an asteroid poses a potential danger to the planet that is currently approaching our planet.
She pointed out that the asteroid registered with number 163373, whose diameter is estimated at between 440 and 990 meters, will pass near the globe in the middle of next February.
On February 15, the asteroid is expected to approach the Earth more than 15 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
The asteroid discovered on October 23, 1995 belongs to the group of Apollo asteroids, the asteroids whose path traverses the Earth’s orbit and is therefore classified as “potentially dangerous”.
If this asteroid does not collide with Earth and the global catastrophe occur in February, it is expected that the asteroid will approach the globe again in 2075. LINK
