An Iraqi man who reportedly confessed to raping and killing a German teenage girl has been deported back to Germany. Ali Bashar, a failed asylum seeker aged 20, disappeared after Susanna Maria Feldman, 14, was found strangled near the city of Wiesbaden near Frankfurt last month. He was detained on Friday in Iraqi Kurdistan and police there say he confessed to the crime.
Meanwhile, influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr proposed a country-wide disarmament initiative following a deadly explosion in a Baghdad district after a weapons cache blew up last week. Sadr said everyone should comply because the blood of Iraqis is more precious than anything else. The explosion was reported to have left at least 18 dead and more than 90 wounded Wednesday night when weapons and munitions being transported into vehicles from a mosque in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood somehow ignited.
Lastly, after the fashion’s world shocking loss of designer Kate Spade, food and cooking enthusiasts this weekend learned of the tragic loss of world-renowned chef Anthony Bourdain. Anthony Bourdain, a world traveling chef who had even visited Kurdistan, a writer, and Emmy-winning television personality, died Friday morning of an apparent suicide at the age of 61 while filming his show in France. His and Spade’s high profile suicides have raised awareness about mental health and for those in need of help to speak up.
