Iraqi archaeologists piece together ancient treasures ravaged by Daesh

This picture shows a damaged artifact at the archaeological site of Nimrud, south of Mosul, on January 3, 2025. (File/AFP)
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Updated 08 January 2025
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Iraqi archaeologists piece together ancient treasures ravaged by Daesh

NIMRUD: A decade after jihadists ransacked Iraq’s famed Nimrud site, archaeologists have been painstakingly putting together its ancient treasures, shattered into tens of thousands of tiny fragments.
Once the crown jewel of the ancient Assyrian empire, the archaeological site was ravaged by Daesh fighters after they seized large areas of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
The precious pre-Islamic artefacts destroyed by the jihadists are now in pieces, but the archaeologists working in Nimrud are undaunted by the colossal task they face.
“Every time we find a piece and bring it to its original place, it’s like a new discovery,” Abdel Ghani Ghadi, a 47-year-old expert working on the site, told AFP.
More than 500 artefacts were found shattered at the site, located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Mosul, the city in northern Iraq where IS established the capital of their self-declared “caliphate.”
Meticulous excavation work by Iraqi archaeologists has already yielded more than 35,000 fragments.
The archaeologists have been carefully reassembling bas-reliefs, sculptures and decorated slabs depicting mythical creatures, which had all graced the palace of Assyrian King Ashurnasirpal II nearly 3,000 years ago.
Seen from above, the pieces of the puzzle gradually come together. Shards of what just several years ago was a single artefact are placed side by side, protected by sheets of green tarpaulin.
Bit by bit, the image of Ashurnasirpal II appears on one bas-relief alongside a winged, bearded figure with curly hair and a flower on its wrist, as the restoration brings back to life rich details carved in stone millennia ago.
Another artefact shows handcuffed prisoners from territories that rebelled against the mighty Assyrian army.
Partially reconstructed lamassus — depictions of an Assyrian deity with a human head, the body of a bull or a lion and the wings of a bird — lay on their side, not far from tablets bearing ancient cuneiform text.

“These sculptures are the treasures of Mesopotamia,” said Ghadi.
“Nimrud is the heritage of all of humanity, a history that goes back 3,000 years.”
Founded in the 13th century BC as Kalhu, Nimrud reached its peak in the ninth century BC and was the second capital of the Assyrian empire.
Propaganda videos released by IS in 2015 showed jihadists destroying monuments with bulldozers, hacking away at them with pickaxes or exploding them.
One of those monuments was the 2,800-year-old temple of Nabu, the Mesopotamian god of wisdom and writing.
IS fighters wreaked havoc at other sites too, like the once-celebrated Mosul Museum and ancient Palmyra in neighboring Syria.
The jihadist group was defeated in Iraq in 2017, and the restoration project in Nimrud began a year later, only to be interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and restart in 2023.
Mohamed Kassim of the Academic Research Institute in Iraq told AFP that “until now, it has been a process of collection, classification and identification.”
About 70 percent of the collection work has been completed at the Assyrian palace site, with about a year’s worth of fieldwork left before restoration can begin in full force, said Kassim, noting it was a “complex operation.”
His organization has been working closely with Iraqi archaeologists, supporting their drive to “save” Nimrud and preserve its cultural riches, through training sessions provided by the Smithsonian Institution with financial support from the United States.

Kassim said that the delicate restoration process will require expertise not found in Iraq and “international support” due to the extent of the “barbaric” destruction in Nimrud.
“One of the most important ancient sites of the Mesopotamian civilization,” according to Kassim, Nimrud is a testament to a golden age of “the art and architecture of the Assyrian civilization.”
The site was first excavated by archaeologists in the 19th century and received international recognition for the immense lamassu figures that were taken to Europe to be exhibited in London’s British Museum and the Louvre in Paris.
Other artefacts from Nimrud have been on display in Mosul and Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
The site has also attracted figures like British author Agatha Christie, who visited there with her archaeologist husband.
On a recent tour of Nimrud, Iraq’s Culture Minister Ahmed Fakak Al-Badrani hailed the “difficult” work carried out by archaeologists there, collecting broken pieces and comparing them to drawings and photographs of the artefacts they attempt to reconstruct.
The vast destruction has made it impossible, at least for now, to ascertain which antiquities were stolen by Daesh, the minister said.
And the process will take time.
Badrani said he expects that it will take 10 years of hard work before the marvels of King Ashurnasirpal II’s palace can be seen again, complete.


Scientists reveal how to make dogs pay attention

Updated 12 February 2025
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Scientists reveal how to make dogs pay attention

  • The scientists would point at the bowl while staring at the dog, or point and look at the bowl at the same time, or look only at the bowl

PARIS: Struggling to get your dog to fetch your slippers? Scientists who strapped eye-tracking helmets to a bunch of dogs have found the perfect tactic to get them to pay attention.
Both pointing and staring at an object is the best way for dog owners to get their pets to follow directions, according to a new study on Wednesday.
The owner’s gaze and gesture are useful separately, “but combined they are stronger,” lead study author Christoph Voelter of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna told AFP.
The team of Austrian researchers put headgear on 20 dogs to detect exactly where the pooches looked when they were confronted with a range of scenarios.
The test subjects included eight mongrels as well as Staffordshire terriers, Australian shepherds and poodles.
For the experiment conducted in the university’s Clever Dog Lab, each canine faced a scientist on their knees. A bowl was placed on each side of the scientist, only one of which contained a hidden treat.
The dogs were then presented with five different scenarios, six times each.
The scientists would point at the bowl while staring at the dog, or point and look at the bowl at the same time, or look only at the bowl.
They even used the classic prank that many dog owners play on their pets — they pretended to throw a ball in the direction of the bowl, while really keeping it in their hand.
Recordings from the headgear showed that the dogs fared best when the scientist both pointed and stared at the bowl that contained the treat.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they did the worst when the scientists pretended to throw the ball.

For the researchers, this finding pointed toward the hypothesis that dogs follow human referential communication cues, rather than simply directional ones.
In other words, the dogs could understand the meaning of the information they were being given — in this case, a treat is that way — rather than just running in the direction they are being pointed.
But the researchers were careful not to hastily draw conclusions.
Exactly how much the dogs understood what is happening remains an open question, Voelter emphasized.
“Is it for them more like an imperative directive to go somewhere? Or do they understand it more in a communicative way?” he said.
More research in this field of natural pedagogy would be needed, according to the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
The field normally studies how communication clues — such as pointing and looking at an object while naming it — help young children learn the names of everything around them.
The researchers are also looking into how this works for dogs, Voelter said.
The next step is figuring out whether dogs are also better at learning and memorising things “when we address them,” he added.
 

 


Indian police shut down Ed Sheeran’s street gig

Updated 10 February 2025
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Indian police shut down Ed Sheeran’s street gig

  • British singer-songwriter and four-time Grammy winner is touring the world’s most populous country
  • Sheeran denied he had broken the law, saying he had been granted permission to busk ‘in that exact spot’

BENGALURU, India: Pop megastar Ed Sheeran has denied that he unlawfully serenaded the Indian public after police said he lacked the necessary permission to play and abruptly terminated a street performance.

The British singer-songwriter and four-time Grammy winner is touring the world’s most populous country but took time out between concerts to busk to a surprised crowd in tech hub Bengaluru on Sunday.

Videos shared on social media show a police officer disconnecting his microphone midway through a rendition of his hit “Shape of You” on Church Street, a bustling retail hub.

Local authorities said that while Sheeran had a permit to play at concerts, that did not extend to impromptu outdoor performances.

“He is a very famous singer and naturally there will be chaos. To prevent that, police had not given him permission,” Karnataka’s home minister G. Parameshwara said on Monday.

“In spite of that, he has come and tried to perform, so police prevented him. Nothing beyond that.”

 

 

Sheeran denied he had broken the law, saying he had been granted permission to busk “in that exact spot.”

“It wasn’t just us randomly turning up,” he wrote on Instagram shortly after the incident, adding magnanimously that it was “all good though.”

Local lawmaker PC Mohan said on Sunday that “even global stars must follow local rules — no permit, no performance!”

Social media users were critical of the police yanking out Sheeran’s microphone cables, with one calling it “abysmal and embarrassing.”

Another criticized Indian police for failing to effectively prosecute crimes against women, but Sheeran “singing on the street is where they draw the line.”

Sheeran is currently on a six-city tour of India and also had a sold-out performance in Mumbai last year.

Booming demand from young affluent Indians looking to splurge on new entertainment experiences are drawing international acts to play in the country.

British rock band Coldplay performed what it called its “biggest-ever show” at a massive cricket stadium in the western city of Ahmedabad in January.


Super Bowl halftime performer detained after unfurling Sudanese-Palestinian flag

Updated 10 February 2025
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Super Bowl halftime performer detained after unfurling Sudanese-Palestinian flag

  • The NFL confirmed the person was part of the 400-member field cast
  • The performer stood on a car used as a prop for Lamar’s performance and held up the flag

NEW ORLEANS: A performer in Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show was detained on the field and could face charges after unfurling a combination Sudanese-Palestinian flag with “Sudan” and “Gaza” written on it.
The NFL confirmed the person was part of the 400-member field cast. The New Orleans Police Department said in a statement that “law enforcement is working to determine applicable charges in this incident.”
“The individual will (be) banned for life from all NFL stadiums and events,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said in an emailed statement.
The performer stood on a car used as a prop for Lamar’s performance and held up the flag. The NFL said “the individual hid the item on his person and unveiled it late in the show” and that “no one involved with the production was aware of the individual’s intent.”
Roc Nation, the entertainment company which produced the show, said that the act “was neither planned nor part of the production and was never in any rehearsal.”
The show continued without interruption, and it did not seem as though the person was shown on the broadcast of Lamar’s performance.


Afghan wedding halls light up somber Kabul nights

Updated 10 February 2025
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Afghan wedding halls light up somber Kabul nights

KABUL: As night settles over Afghanistan’s capital, only a few small lights and neon signs pierce the darkness and thick blanket of winter pollution.
But on some street corners, glittering colossal wedding halls loom out of the gloom, a rare display of opulence in the Afghan capital.
The city of more than six million people is often plunged into shadow due to ubiquitous power outages, which only the wealthiest can remedy with expensive generators or solar panels.
Apart from a few vendors, the streets are deserted, a stark contrast with the chaotic hustle of the daytime.
People huddle at home to shelter from the cold and for lack of nighttime activities.
Since the Taliban took power in 2021 and imposed their strict version of Islamic law, a veil of sadness has enveloped the capital.
There is no music spilling out from restaurants because it is forbidden, women are banned from parks, and walls decorated with colorful pro-peace graffiti have been splashed with calls to holy war.
The only bright lights emanate from the wedding halls that dot the city center and escape some of the Taliban’s scrutiny, as marriage is prized in Afghan culture.
The high-ceilinged halls are segregated by gender, with music only tolerated on the women’s side.
“In Afghanistan, the marriage ceremony is the most important event for girls and boys. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event — we don’t have much divorce,” said Mohammad Wassil Qaumi, director of the Imperial Continental, a palatial white-and-gold hall that shines with a glitz reminiscent of a Las Vegas casino.
“It’s the start of a new life so the light should be everywhere, that’s why the city is bright, it should have a little bit of luxury!” he told AFP.

DECORATIONS
Bunches of plastic flowers, throne-style sofas, gilded trimming and neon lights fill the complex’s four halls, some of which can accommodate up to 7,000 guests.
Qaumi, 32, says he spends $25,000 to $30,000 per month for municipal electricity, which provides a few hours of power per day.
To keep the lights on, he also pays just under $15,000 for generators.
To recoup his costs, he charges up to $20,000 for a wedding, in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
“Weddings are a necessity in the Afghan culture, you have to invite more and more people” even if it means going into debt, said Hajji Safiullah Esmafi, owner of the Stars Palace hall.
In another district of the capital, the City Star welcomes its guests with a beige and gold facade topped with three sculpted domes and a huge sparkling arch out front.
“Electricity is very expensive,” admits the owner, 24-year-old Siyer Paiman.
But, he added, “people in Afghanistan like bright colors.”

ELECTRICITY
He has invested in solar panels and spends the equivalent of $12,000 to $19,900 on generators and electricity, which only covers six to seven hours a day, “and not always at night.”
Afghanistan depends on its Central Asian neighbors for imported electricity.
With the hopes of increasing supply, the country is involved in several regional interconnection projects, but progress is slow.
“The current demand in Afghanistan is about 7,000 to 8,000 megawatts but they currently produce locally about 1,000 megawatts and import the rest from Central Asia,” a sector expert who asked for anonymity told AFP, adding that renewable energy sources should be developed but that funding was lacking.
Power cuts also affect heating, with temperatures easily dropping below 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
Kabul’s residents use stoves, burning almost anything from coal and wood to plastic or household waste, creating a fog of pollution in the city slung between mountains 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) above sea level.
In the nighttime gloom, wedding halls are “the brightness of the city,” said Qaumi. “Here, everyone is very happy.”
“People come here to meet friends and family, (they) wear new clothes, jewelry... showing off so much,” he said of patrons enjoying one of the only places left in Kabul where this is still possible.


‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes

Updated 09 February 2025
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‘Anora’ wins top Hollywood producer and director prizes

  • “Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars

LOS ANGELES: “Anora” was named the best film of the year by Hollywood’s directors and producers on Saturday, cementing its new status as the film to beat at the upcoming Oscars.
The black comedy from director Sean Baker, about an erotic dancer’s whirlwind romance gone wrong, picked up the prestigious Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America top awards, just a day after capturing the foremost US critics’ prize.
“My imposter syndrome is skyrocketing right now!” said Baker, a 53-year-old indie director, previously best known in arthouse circles for his empathetic portrayals of life in US subcultures, as he accepted his prize at a swanky Beverly Hills DGA gala.
Baker thanked his producers for being “able to pull off a $6 million film, shot on film, in New York City in 2023 — almost impossible.”
“Anora” won the Cannes film festival top prize Palme d’Or back in May, yet had more recently lagged behind other films including “Emilia Perez” in terms of Oscar nominations.
Besides Saturday’s coup, “Anora” also won best picture at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday, propelling it as a renewed favorite for the Academy Awards — which will take place on March 2.
Accepting his prize from Christoper Nolan, last year’s DGA winner, Baker joked that campaigning for Hollywood’s seemingly never-ending awards season had made him feel like he was “actually doing work” for “the first time.”
“I’ve been able to play — and I feel like the luckiest guy in the world, being able to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since I was five years old,” said Baker.
He also thanked his mother for supporting his career — but the director, whose films mainly center around sex work and pornography, admitted he was glad she had not seen his latest, somewhat graphic project.
Nineteen of the past 21 DGA winners have gone on to also win the Oscar for best director that same year, including the last two winners — “Oppenheimer” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The DGA prize for best movie from a first-time filmmaker went to another Oscar best picture nominee, “Nickel Boys,” from RaMell Ross.
Ross, whose film about abuses at a 1960s Florida reform school for juvenile boys — shot as if from the eyes of its characters — said it was too “rare” to see the Black gaze represented in Hollywood cinema.
Meanwhile across town in Los Angeles Saturday, “Anora” also won the PGA top prize.