“In the past 25 years, significant progress has been made in reducing child marriage globally, with 68 million child marriages averted during that time. However, child marriage still remains a sad reality for too many girls, with stark regional differences highlighting the need for tailored strategies:

• South Asia continues to drive global reductions and is on pace to eliminate child marriage within 55 years, but it still accounts for nearly half (45 per cent) of the world’s child brides — 290 million in total.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 127 million child brides, shouldering the second-largest global share (20 per cent). At its current pace, the region is over 200 years away from ending the practice.
• Latin America and the Caribbean are falling behind and are on course to have the second-highest regional level of child marriage by 2030.
• In the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, progress has stagnated after previous periods of steady improvement.”

From UNICEF.

“Iraq recorded a 15% decline in overall crime rates in 2024 compared to the previous year, with significant drops in violent crimes, theft, and drug-related offenses, according to the Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq…

The data showed a 22% drop in homicides, with 1,200 cases recorded in 2024 compared to 1,540 in 2023. Serious assaults also fell 18%, with 3,500 reported cases versus 4,270 the previous year.

Theft-related crimes also saw a decline. Home burglaries dropped 10%, with 8,000 cases recorded, down from 8,900 in 2023. Car thefts decreased by 14%, with 5,500 reported cases compared to 6,400 last year.

Drug-related offenses also declined, with trafficking cases falling 18% to 2,500 in 2024 from 3,050 a year earlier. Drug use cases dropped 15%, with 4,000 cases recorded compared to 4,700 in 2023.

Financial crimes followed the downward trend, with fraud cases dropping 20%, from 1,125 cases in 2023 to 900 this year. Corruption-related crimes, including bribery and embezzlement, fell 25%, with 1,200 cases recorded, down from 1,600 last year.”

From shafaq media.

“Armenian and Azerbaijani officials said Thursday that they had agreed on the text of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict between the South Caucasus countries, a sudden breakthrough in a fitful and often bitter peace process…

However, the timeline for signing the deal is uncertain as Azerbaijan has said a prerequisite for its signature is a change to Armenia’s constitution, which it says makes implicit claims to its territory.

Armenia denies such claims, but Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has repeatedly said in recent months that the country’s founding document needs to be replaced and has called for a referendum to do so. No date has been set.”

From NBC News.

“Visa has invested $12 billion over the last five years to improve its cyber, fraud, and risk tools. The scam disruption practice is part of that broader effort.

The new practice includes an intelligence team that goes beyond Visa’s own payment network and studies the dark web and social media to uncover scammers’ actions, Michael Jabbara, senior vice president of payment ecosystem risk and control at Visa, told Axios.

Visa also has a dedicated disruption team that partners with industry peers and law enforcement to shut down scam networks, including fraudulent merchant sites and scammers’ financial accounts found on Visa’s networks…

Visa estimates its team, which it has been building over the last year, disrupted more than $350 million worth of attempted fraud in 2024.”

From Axios.