Briefly

SWEDEN

Trio honored as Nobel season wraps up

Canadian David Card, Israeli-American Joshua Angrist and Dutch-American Guido Imbens on Monday won the Nobel Economics Prize for insights into the labor market and "natural experiments", the jury said. The researchers were honored for providing "new insights about the labor market "and showing "what conclusions about cause and effect can be drawn from natural experiments", the Nobel committee said in a statement. Unlike the other Nobel prizes, the economics award wasn't established in the will of Alfred Nobel but by the Swedish central bank in his memory in 1968, with the first winner selected a year later. It is the last prize announced each year.

IRAN

20% enriched uranium stockpile exceeds 120 kg

Mohammad Eslami, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, or AEOI, said that his country's stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium had exceeded 120 kilograms, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday. According to 2015 nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,"20-percent uranium fuel was supposed to be given to the Teheran reactor, but it was not given", Eslami said. The 20-percent uranium enrichment process was launched as a part of Iran's Strategic Action Plan to counter the United States' sanctions, which was approved by the Iranian Parliament in December 2020.

IRAQ

Senior leader in Islamic State group arrested

Iraq said on Monday it has detained a senior leader of the Islamic State group and a longtime al-Qaida operative in a cross-border operation. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted the news, identifying the man as Sami Jassem, who oversees the IS group's financial operations and served as the deputy leader of IS under the late Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Agencies - Xinhua