عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

UNESCO Chief Visits Iraq

UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad (AFP)
UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad (AFP)
TT
20
TT

UNESCO Chief Visits Iraq

UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad (AFP)
UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad (AFP)

UNESCO Chief Audrey Azoulay arrived on Monday in Iraq at the start of a three-day visit. She visited several workshops and archaeological sites in Baghdad and discussed with officials the matters related to supporting culture and education.

A UNESCO spokesman told Agence France-Presse that the visit is dedicated to rebuilding Iraq and the organization’s investment in its reconstruction.

Azoulay stopped at the National Museum in Baghdad and toured the old city and al-Mutanabbi Street which is famous for its libraries.

The spokesman added that the Iraqi authorities are studying several ideas for preserving the heritage and considering how UNESCO can help shed light on the country’s cultural aspect and pave the way for development.

Iraq includes six UNESCO-listed World Heritage Sites, among them the ancient city of Babylon, and is the cradle of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian civilizations.

After the US invasion in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime, many of Iraq’s antiquities were stolen and smuggled outside the country.

The Iraq Museum was not immune to looting in 2003 amid the chaos that followed the US invasion.

During her visit to the museum, Azoulay congratulated the museum staff who have been working since 2003 to return the stolen artifacts.

The spokesman said that during 20 years, the staff had done a tremendous job recovering the scattered Iraqi antiquities.

On Tuesday, Azoulay is scheduled to visit Mosul to inspect the rehabilitation workshops of archaeological sites that UNESCO is funding in this large city in northern Iraq, a stronghold of the terrorist ISIS organization before its defeat in 2017.

On Wednesday, the official will land in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, and will visit the ancient Erbil Citadel, classified as a UNESCO heritage site.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
TT
20
TT

Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.
The US Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.