Lebanon Returns 337 Artifacts of Different Eras to Iraq

An Iraqi clay tablet is displayed between a Lebanese flag, right, and an Iraqi flag during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut, before 337 artifacts were handed over by Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
An Iraqi clay tablet is displayed between a Lebanese flag, right, and an Iraqi flag during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut, before 337 artifacts were handed over by Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
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Lebanon Returns 337 Artifacts of Different Eras to Iraq

An Iraqi clay tablet is displayed between a Lebanese flag, right, and an Iraqi flag during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut, before 337 artifacts were handed over by Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
An Iraqi clay tablet is displayed between a Lebanese flag, right, and an Iraqi flag during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut, before 337 artifacts were handed over by Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture handed over to Iraq on Sunday 337 ancient artifacts that had been on display in a Lebanese museum for years.

The items, which included clay tablets, were returned by Minister of Culture Mohammed Murtada to Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon during a ceremony held at the National Museum of Beirut.

Murtada told Iraq’s state-run news agency in a Saturday report that a Lebanese committee had been investigating the items since 2018, The Associated Press reported.

The artifacts had been stored most recently at the private Nabu Museum in northern Lebanon. The report gave no further details about the artifacts’ provenance.

“We are celebrating the handing over of 337 artifacts that are of different eras of civilizations in Mesopotamia,” Iraq’s ambassador to Lebanon Haider Shyaa Al-Barrak said at the ceremony. This will not be the last handover, he added, without elaborating.

Many of Iraq’s antiquities were looted during the country’s decades of war and instability, mostly since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Iraq’s government has been slowly recovering the plundered antiquities since then. Archaeological sites across the country however continue to be neglected due to lack of funds.

At least half dozen shipments of antiquities and documents have been returned to Iraq’s museum since 2016, according to Iraqi authorities.



Fans Bid Farewell to 4 Giant Pandas at Japan Zoo Before their Return to China

Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
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Fans Bid Farewell to 4 Giant Pandas at Japan Zoo Before their Return to China

Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Giant panda Saihin, one among the four pandas on loan to Japan which will soon be heading back to China sits inside an enclosure at Adventure World in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)

Thousands of fans bid a teary farewell Friday to a family of four giant pandas at a zoo in Japan’s coastal town of Shirahama as the animals made their last public appearance before their return to China.

Around 3,000 visitors flocked to the Adventure World theme park to get a last glimpse of the beloved animals. Many rushed straight to the panda exhibit zone, calling out the names of their favorites, The Associated Press reported.

Although the 24-year-old mother Rauhin and her three daughters — Yuihin, Saihin and Fuhin — were all born and raised at the park, they remain on loan from China and must now be returned.

Once they return to China, Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei at Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo will be the only pandas left in Japan.

More than 1,000 people, many wearing panda-themed attire, queued outside the entrance of the theme park hours before it opened while some camped outside the night before.

Some people wiped off tears while viewing throwback images of the pandas when they were cubs.

Yoshihiko Fukuzumi recalls the arrival of the first two pandas at the park 30 years ago and has watch their family grow. Since retiring three years ago, he and his wife have visited them nearly everyweek. “To us, they are like our grandchildren."

Giant pandas are native to southwestern China and serve as an unofficial national mascot. Beijing lends them to other countries as a sign of goodwill but maintains ownership over them and any cubs they produce.

Born in 2000, Rauhin had seven other cubs with Eimei, a male panda sent from China in 1994. Eimei returned home two years ago and has since died.

Despite strained political ties between Japan and China, giant pandas are hugely popular in Japan.

“We feel comforted just by looking at pandas,” said zoo director Koji Imazu.

Imazu said the departure of the four pandas marks the end of the zoo's 30-year joint project with China. He thanked Chinese specialists for sharing their expertise with the Japanese staff and said the zoo will be ready for a new arrival at any time.

“Of course we all miss them, but I hope you could send them off with a cheerful wave and wish them well in China,” Imazu said.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said giant pandas are “friendly ambassadors" conveying the goodwill of the Chinese people.

Guo said that China and Japan have collaborated on panda conservation and research since 2000, and that China is ready to further strengthen international cooperation, including with Japan.

Rauhin and her daughters will be flown to China on Saturday where they will join other pandas at a facility in Sichuan province near their original habitat. There, the three young ones will find partners.

“I still can't believe they're all leaving,” said Junko Ikeda, a Fuhin fan from neighboring Nara prefecture who spent Thursday night in her camper van for the send-off. "I hope she finds a partner, becomes a mother and lives a happy life.”