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The conflict in the region has intensified, with Iraq becoming a two-way battlefield between armed factions and the United States during its war with Iran. The US carried out strikes against the Shia paramilitary umbrella group, also known locally as Hashed al-Shaabi, late on Sunday after attacks on a US diplomatic and logistics centre at Baghdad International Airport.The attack was carried out after Iraqi security officials said four explosions were heard near Camp Victory, a US logistics centre at the capital’s main airport. No casualties were reported as the positions were deserted.The PMF is part of Iraq’s regular armed forces and includes some pro-Iranian groups. Pro-Iran armed groups have claimed responsibility for attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region while strikes have also targeted these groups.Economic worries also are weighing heavily after Iraq’s Ministry of Oil last week announced a case of force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign oil companies, citing disruptions to navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, which have halted most of the country’s crude exports.“Iraq relies on that revenue,” said Nicolas Haque, a reporter from Iraq’s capital. “That’s 90 percent of its revenues, so that’s going to have an impact on people.”US President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz was not fully restored in 48 hours. On Monday, hours before his deadline was to expire, Trump ⁠ordered the US ⁠military to postpone ⁠strikes ⁠against the power plants for five days.

Lemi Limbu, a woman with severe intellectual disabilities in Tanzania, has had her conviction and death sentence quashed after spending more than a decade in prison awaiting execution. Limbu, now in her early 30s, was convicted of the murder of her daughter in 2015.On 4 March, a court in Shinyanga, northern Tanzania, declared she can appeal. She will face a retrial, but a date has yet to be set. Lawyers and activists have condemned her sentence, saying she should not be in prison at all. Limbu, who remains incarcerated, is a survivor of brutal and repeated sexual and domestic violence and has the developmental age of a child.Under Tanzanian and international law, Limbu should not be held criminally liable, given her intellectual disability. “She was not supposed to be in prison in the first place,” said Anna Henga, executive director of Legal and Human Rights Centre, a Tanzanian human rights advocacy organisation.At her first trial, Limbu pleaded not guilty. Unable to read or write, she said she did not know the contents of a statement that police claimed she had made admitting to the murder. Her original conviction in 2015 was nullified in 2019 due to procedural errors. In 2022, she was retried and sentenced to death a second time.The court did not allow evidence to be heard from medical professionals about her intellectual disabilities or history of abuse. A clinical psychologist who evaluated her had concluded she had a severe intellectual disability and the developmental age of a 10-year-old child or younger.A coalition of 24 African and international human rights groups last year condemned Limbu’s sentence as part of an appeal to the African court on human and peoples’ rights to look at the plight of women on death row throughout Africa. In Tanzania, the death penalty is the mandatory sentence for murder, although no executions have been carried out since 1995.

A meteorite event occurred over Ohio on Tuesday morning, producing a significant sonic boom that was felt across a wide area, including parts of Pennsylvania. According to NASA, the meteorite entered Earth's atmosphere at approximately 9 am local time. The meteorite, described as a small asteroid about 2 meters in diameter and weighing around 6 tons, moved at a speed of 45,000 mph. This event caused widespread reports of a loud boom, with residents in Cleveland and as far east as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and into New York state, describing the sound as similar to fireworks or thunder. NASA's meteoroid environment office confirmed that the asteroid was spotted near Medina, Ohio. Despite its relatively small size, the meteorite produced a considerable sonic boom, which was captured on video by a National Weather Service (NWS) employee in Pittsburgh. The NWS's Cleveland office confirmed that satellite data suggested the boom was caused by a meteorite. So far, there have been no reports of debris being found, although it's possible that small fragments may have fallen to Earth. NASA noted that about 17,000 meteorites fall to Earth annually, but most burn up in the atmosphere. The agency also stated that space rocks smaller than a football field typically break apart in Earth's atmosphere, although they can occasionally explode in mid-air.