Daesh stages deadly attack on Baghdad mall

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• In Canada, the leader of the Green Party has blasted the government over the sales of armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia despite the kingdom's human rights violations. Elizabeth May said exporting weapons to countries that have a persistent record of human rights violations is prohibited under the law.
   
• Human Rights Watch has slammed Saudi Arabia for suppressing freedom of speech and jailing people for peacefully expressing reform-oriented opinions. Rights body’s Middle East Director Sarah Leah Whitson also accused the kingdom's judicial system of giving activists lengthy prison terms on vague charges.
   
• Researchers are warning about the fatal consequences of a difficult-to-treat bacterial disease. New estimates show that as many as 89,000 out of 165,000 people who caught Melioidosis worldwide last year died from the disease. Melioidosis is caused by bacteria which are present in soil.
   
• Syria accuses Turkey of helping the Daesh terrorist group steal Syria’s oil and ship it to Israel. Syrian permanent representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja’afari said the illegal energy business is done in contrary to a UN resolution on combating terrorism.
   
• The Syrian permanent representative to the United Nations says terrorist groups use civilians as human shields by besieging towns and villages, stealing their food and medicine, and causing starvation. Bashar al-Ja’afari made the remarks at a press conference at the United Nations headquarters.
   
• 44 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered the Syrian town of Madaya where over two dozen people have reportedly starved to death. Aid agencies say the situation in the town is extremely dire. 21 aid trucks have also arrived in the northwestern villages of Foua and Kafriya.
   
• Daesh terrorists have attacked a mall in a mainly Shia neighborhood in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 18 people and injuring 40 others. The assailants detonated a car bomb outside the mall and then charged into the building. Officials say all the attackers have been killed.
   
• Venezuela’s Supreme Court says all actions of the opposition-held National Assembly are void. The decision came after the assembly swore in three lawmakers who had been suspended by the court. Meanwhile the parliament has launched a probe into allegations that President Nicolas Maduro illegally packed the Supreme Court with his allies.

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