Supporters watch a live stream of the trial of South Korea's former first lady Kim Keon Hee, who has had her prison sentence for corruption increased on appeal

A North Korean women's football club will become the first sports team from the country to play in South Korea since 2018 when they visit this month, Seoul's unification ministry said Monday.

The neighbours remain technically at war after their 1950–53 conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and sporting and cultural exchanges between them are very rare.

Naegohyang Women's FC will play the South's Suwon FC Women on May 20 in the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League.

The visiting delegation will include 27 players and 12 club staff, the ministry said. South Korea's football association told AFP that the team would arrive on May 17.

They will fly into Incheon airport on an Air China flight from Beijing, a unification ministry official told reporters.

The winner of the match at Suwon Sports Complex, south of the capital Seoul, will play the final of Asia's top women's club competition against either Australia's Melbourne City or Japan's Tokyo Verdy Beleza on May 23.

"The losing team in the semi-final will return home on Thursday, May 21, with no third-place playoff scheduled," the ministry said in a press release.

The match will be the first time a North Korean sports team has played in the South since shooting, youth football and table tennis delegations travelled there in 2018.

The last time Pyongyang sent a women's football team to the South was in 2014, when the North Korean national team took part at the Asian Games in Incheon.

Founded in 2012 and based in the North Korean capital, much of Naegohyang's squad is "made up of national team-level players", the ministry said.

North Korea's national team is one of the dominant forces in Asian women's football, winning multiple international titles in recent years, especially at youth level.

The most recent one came in November last year, when they defeated the Netherlands 3-0 in the final of the U-17 Women's World Cup.

- Peace overtures -

The announcement comes as Seoul seeks a rapprochement with Pyongyang after years of bad blood.

South Korea's dovish President Lee Jae Myung has called for talks with the North without any preconditions, saying the countries are destined "to make the flowers of peace bloom".

The North has not responded to the Lee administration's overtures and has repeatedly labelled the South its "most hostile" adversary.

For Seoul, the match is an opportunity to establish "at least a basic communication channel between North and South Korea", Lim Eul-chul, a North Korea expert at the South's Kyungnam University, said.

"It could become a chance to test peaceful coexistence," he told AFP.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to boost his nuclear forces, and Pyongyang conducted four missile tests in April, the most in a single month for over two years.

Pyongyang has also drawn closer to Russia, sending troops and artillery shells to support its invasion of Ukraine.

Observers say Pyongyang is receiving military technology assistance from Moscow in return.

kjk-mjw/pst

Tech firms led a rally across most Asian markets Monday following another healthy day on Wall Street fuelled by more strong earnings, while investors were also cheered by news that Iran had submitted fresh proposals to end its war with the United States.

While the Middle East crisis continued to rumble along, with the Strait of Hormuz still effectively choked off, dealers turned their focus on the corporate world as they jumped back into the AI trade that has propelled several markets to record highs.

Forecast-beating reports from Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung have reawakened interest in the artificial intelligence sector after the market tumult caused by the US-Israel strikes on Iran at the end of February.

Companies in the S&P 500 are on track to report earnings growth of 27.1 percent, the highest rate in more than four years, according to Factset.

Investors have been playing a waiting game since a ceasefire was agreed at the start of April, with just one round of talks taking place that came to nothing.

In the meantime, the United States maintains a blockade of Iranian ports and Tehran is keeping the strait -- through which a fifth of global oil and gas usually passes -- closed.

Optimism was given a boost Friday after an Iranian report that Tehran had delivered the text of a new proposal to mediator Pakistan the night before.

The offer was said by the Tasnim News Agency as calling for a complete end to the conflict within 30 days along with guarantees against renewed strikes.

It also reiterated previous demands that include the withdrawal of US forces from near Iran, the blockade to be lifted and sanctions removed.

Iran's foreign ministry said Tehran had submitted a 14-point plan "focused on ending the war" and that Washington had already responded to it in a message to Pakistani mediators, which Iran was reviewing.

Oil prices fluctuated Monday after dropping on Friday.

Donald Trump said Sunday that "very positive discussions" were underway and that US forces will soon start escorting ships out of the Strait of Hormuz in a a "humanitarian gesture" dubbed "Project Freedom".

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said many of the marooned ships "were running low on food", but offered few details on how the mission would work.

US Central Command said on X that its forces would begin supporting Project Freedom with guided-missile destroyers, over 100 land and sea-based aircraft, multi-domain unmanned platforms and 15,000 service members.

However, a senior Iranian official warned Monday that Tehran would consider any US attempt to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz a breach of the ongoing ceasefire.

"Whether this will lead to sustained weakness in oil remains to be seen," wrote Fawad Razaqzada at Forex.com.

"In my view, as long as the Strait of Hormuz situation remains unresolved, these types of headlines are likely to provide only temporary pressure on prices rather than drive a prolonged move lower."

Equities started the month on a broadly positive note, following all-time highs for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in New York on Friday.

Seoul and Taipei jumped more than four percent to hit fresh records.

South Korean chip giant SK hynix was the standout, piling on more than 10 percent, while rival Samsung was up around four percent. Taiwanese counterpart TSMC was almost seven percent up.

Hong Kong also saw strong gains thanks to a surge in Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, while Singapore, Manila and Jakarta were also up.

Tokyo and Shanghai were closed for holidays.

However, Chris Weston at Pepperstone said: "After a strong April for risk assets, we need to remain open-minded about what May will bring.

"This week should provide early signals, but with risk assets pricing in a lot of good news, and rightly so, the time for that to be validated may now be here."

On currency markets, the yen was holding its own against the dollar after a rally on Thursday was said to have come on the back of Japanese intervention.

Officials were said to have spent at least $32 billion in the foreign exchange market, according to multiple reports, in its first such move to prop up the yen since 2024.

- Key figures at around 0300 GMT -

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 1.9 percent at 26,268.77

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday

Shanghai - Composite: Closed for a holiday

West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.1 percent at $101.82 a barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.1 percent to $108.29 a barrel

Dollar/yen: UP at 157.19 yen from 157.06 yen on Friday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1726 from $1.1720

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3586 from $1.3578

Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.31 pence from 86.32 pence

New York - Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 49,499.27 (close)

London - FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 10,363.93 (close)

dan/abs

An Australian inquiry opened public hearings Monday into an antisemitic shooting that killed 15 people at a Jewish festival on Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The federal royal commission -- the highest level of government inquiry -- was called to probe factors leading to the attack by two gunmen on Jewish families at Australia's most famous beach in December.

Public hearings began with members of Sydney's Jewish community talking about their experience of antisemitism.

"The sharp spike of antisemitism that we have witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East," inquiry chief Virginia Bell said in opening remarks.

"It's important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they are Jews."

- 'Oldest hatreds' -

The inquiry has received thousands of submissions about the impact of "one of society's oldest hatreds", said the counsel assisting the inquiry, Zelie Hegen.

Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was killed in the Bondi attack, told the inquiry there had been a shift in antisemitism since 2023, when the Gaza war began.

"Antisemitism was allowed to come into the open," she said.

Her refugee parents had met at Bondi Beach, a scene of many happy childhood memories for her.

"Now Bondi holds a really, really heavy weight in our community's heart," she said.

The inquiry heard from witnesses, granted pseudonyms because of their fear of reprisals, about the impact on the Jewish community of antisemitic chants during a protest against the war in Gaza outside Sydney's Opera House in October 2023, shortly after the Hamas attack on Israel.

Jewish community groups recorded 2,062 antisemitic incidents the following year.

- 'An un-Australian thing' -

A "summer of terror" saw a string of arson and graffiti attacks against synagogues and Jewish businesses in Sydney and Melbourne, the inquiry was told.

A woman who works with a Jewish security group recounted having to escort people to safety from a Melbourne synagogue in November 2023 on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom as a "mob" of around 30 people dressed in black, their faces masked, appeared.

A Jewish woman whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors, and grew up at Bondi, told the inquiry she was "shocked to see flags being burnt at the Opera House -- it was such an un-Australian thing".

She was "incredibly disappointed that police hadn't stepped in before things got as bad as they did", she said.

In her experience, many Australians she worked with had never previously met a Jewish person, and she asked the community to listen when Jewish people "feel like history is repeating itself".

Sajid Akram and son Naveed are accused of opening fire as Jewish families thronged Bondi Beach for a Hanukkah celebration in December, carrying out Australia's deadliest mass shooting for 30 years.

Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the assault. 

His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.

kln/djw/abs

Boeing is scheduled to return to court Monday to face its latest lawsuit over a deadly 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia, brought by the family of a young American NGO worker.

Barring a last-minute settlement, the case will go before a federal court in Chicago, with jury selection expected Monday and Tuesday and opening statements Wednesday.

Samya Stumo was killed in the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash, when she was en route to Kenya for her first assignment with ThinkWell, a public health NGO that aimed to increase access to health care in Africa and Asia.

But the plane went down shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa, killing everyone aboard. The Ethiopian crash followed a Lion Air crash about four and a half months earlier in Indonesia.

The two crashes claimed 346 lives in total.

Boeing acknowledged that anti-stall software was implicated in both accidents.

The plane maker initially faced 155 civil cases alleging wrongful death and negligence, among other claims, but it has settled the vast majority of claims.

The few cases that have gone to trial, including Stumo's, are not intended to determine criminal liability but rather to determine the financial compensation due to the victims' relatives.

The disasters led to congressional hearings, with irate lawmakers demanding answers, and to leadership shake-ups at the aviation company.

The 737 MAX crashes marked the start of a long downturn at Boeing that resulted in annual losses each year between 2018 and 2024. However, the company has shown signs of improvement under CEO Kelly Ortberg, who has said more work must be done to win back credibility.

In November, a Chicago jury awarded $28.45 million to the widower of Shikha Garg of New Delhi, who died in the Ethiopian crash.

A second trial that got underway in January ended with an out-of-court settlement that was not made public.

Stumo's parents have emerged as vocal critics of Boeing and have advocated for tougher government aviation safety oversight.

Her mother, Nadia Milleron, a niece of consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, is running for Congress as an independent. 

Stumo's father, Michael Stumo, works on economic policy for the Office of Management and Budget after previously leading the Coalition for a Prosperous America, an advocacy group representing US manufacturers and producers.

elm-jmb/md/pnb

In the western Spanish village of Almaraz, the uncertain future of the country's biggest nuclear power plant casts a pall over daily life.

The Almaraz plant, which contributes around seven percent of Spain's electricity production, is slated to close in 2028 as part of the leftist government's plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2035.

But last year's nationwide blackout and recent fuel supply disruptions linked to the war in the Middle East have rekindled debate over the phase-out, mirroring a wider reassessment of nuclear power across Europe.

"It's sad that they want to shut it down," said Jose Antonio Morgado, a 59-year-old mechanic who has worked seasonal refuelling operations at the plant since 1989.

Each year, during the complex process of replacing nuclear fuel in the reactors, Morgado joins hundreds of temporary workers brought in to support the facility's roughly 800 permanent employees.

The work can pay up to 6,000 euros (about $7,000) a month -- a substantial income in one of Spain's poorest regions.

Those wages will disappear if Spain follows through on plans announced by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in 2019 to close the plant's first reactor in 2027, and the second in 2028, as part of a transition to renewable energy.

The three Spanish energy companies that own the site initially agreed to that timetable. But they now argue that keeping the reactors online until 2030 would strengthen energy security and help stabilise electricity prices. 

The government is expected to decide by the end of October.

- 'Desert' -

In the centre of Almaraz, a village of about 1,500 people surrounded by gently rolling countryside, businesses are increasingly worried.

"It would be a desert here" if the site closes, said David Martin, 32, who runs a restaurant in Almaraz that his parents opened in the 1980s at the same time as the plant.

During refuelling periods, Martin serves up to 260 meals a day. In quieter periods, that falls to around 80.

Without the nuclear plant, he estimates business would drop by nearly half, forcing him to lay off half of his 12 employees.

The economic stakes have mobilised local residents.

Last year, supporters of the plant formed a grassroots campaign group called "Si a Almaraz, Si al Futuro" (Yes to Almaraz, Yes to the Future) to pressure the government to reconsider the closure schedule.

The group's leader, Fernando Sanchez Castilla, a long-time plant employee who also serves as mayor of a nearby village, warns that shutting the facility would devastate dozens of surrounding communities.

"This is the region's main industry," he said, estimating the plant accounts for roughly five percent of the economic output of the western region of Extremadura and supports about 4,000 direct and indirect jobs.

- 'Be brave' -

The Almaraz plant, with its two large white domes rising above the countryside, could continue operating for several more years, said Patricia Rubio Oviedo, head of the site's technical operations office.

"Nuclear energy is essential in the energy mix," she said, arguing it provides stable electricity, unlike renewable sources such as wind and solar, whose output can fluctuate.

The European Commission has urged member states to avoid prematurely shutting existing nuclear facilities as part of efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and strengthen energy independence.

Sanchez's government, however, remains firmly committed to its green energy agenda.

Drawing on Spain's sunny plains, windy hillsides and fast-flowing rivers, the country aims to increase the share of electricity generated by renewables to 81 percent by 2030, up from around 60 percent today.

"The government has to be brave. It cannot change its mind because its credibility is at stake," said Francisco del Pozo Campos, a spokesman for Greenpeace Spain.

Extending the plant's operation until 2030 would raise costs for consumers and lead to an estimated 26 billion euros loss in renewable energy investment, he added.

Spain's ecological transition ministry said it was preparing support measures for workers, including retraining programmes linked to a planned electric vehicle battery factory set to open nearby by a Chinese industrial group.

This is little comfort to local residents.

"If these families leave, what will be left for us?" asked Martin, as he scanned his nearly full restaurant.

rbj/ds/imm/giv/lga

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi opened talks in Australia on Monday as the two countries seek to navigate a global oil supply squeeze.

Australia is a major supplier of coal and liquefied natural gas to Japan, which in turn is a source for about seven percent of Australia's diesel.

Takaichi held talks with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese before jointly addressing the media, with energy, critical minerals and defence expected to be on the agenda.

"Gas plays a role in all our discussions because it fundamentally underpins the shared energy security between our countries," Foreign Minister Penny Wong told journalists in Canberra before the talks.

"Our export partners have always put to us they want reliability," she said.

Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil normally flows through the Strait of Hormuz, where shipping has been throttled by Iran since it was attacked by the United States and Israel.

Japan's government has said it is also keen to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals, essential for semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries and weapons systems.

Australia has touted its abundant critical minerals as a way to loosen China's grip over global supplies of rare earths.

"We want to make sure that we're resilient in a time where we see a lot of economic and global disruption," Wong said.

"Critical minerals are necessary for our economy."

Australia and Japan have strengthened their defence ties, too, striking a Aus$10 billion (US$6 billion) deal last year for Japan to to provide Mogami-class stealth warships to the Australian navy.

In a foreign policy address delivered in Vietnam at the weekend, Takaichi promised to do more to ensure a "free and open Indo-Pacific" -- a strategy that has rankled China.

Japan aimed to build its resilience, she said, notably strengthening its supply chains for energy and critical minerals, and enhancing security cooperation.

First articulated a decade ago by Takaichi's mentor Shinzo Abe, the idea of a "free and open" Indo-Pacific has since been embraced by multiple US partners and allies seeking to curb China's influence in the region.

djw/abs

US video game retailer GameStop made a takeover bid on Sunday to buy eBay for about $55.5 billion in an attempt to turn the online marketplace into a competitor to e-commerce giant Amazon.

Gamestop is offering $125 per share in a combination of stock and cash, a 46 percent premium over the average stock price since it began acquiring shares in eBay on February 4, it said in a release.

"EBay should be worth — and will be worth — a lot more money," GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Sunday.

"I’m thinking about turning eBay into something worth hundreds of billions of dollars," he said.

“It could be a legit competitor to Amazon."

GameStop confirmed it had received a letter of commitment from TD Bank, an American subsidiary of the Canadian TD Bank Group, for approximately $20 billion in financing through a debt issuance. 

In the press release, the company also said it had about $9.4 billion in cash reserves as of January 31.

It stated it could generate $2 billion in annualized cost reductions within 12 months of the transaction's completion. 

These cost reductions alone would boost eBay's comparable-store earnings per share from $4.26 to $7.79 in the first year, the release said.

But if eBay's management is not receptive to his offer, Cohen told the Journal he will not hesitate to approach shareholders.

EBay's next annual general meeting is scheduled for June, but the deadline for submitting resolutions has passed, the WSJ pointed out. 

At Friday's close, GameStop's market capitalization reached $11.89 billion, while eBay's stood at $46.21 billion.

elm/mjf/sla

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in "critical but stable condition," his spokesman said Sunday, without disclosing what ails the 81-year-old former politician.

"Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he's fighting with that same level of strength as we speak," spokesman Ted Goodman said in an X post.

Goodman did not say where Giuliani was receiving care or how long he had been there, but he asked "that you join us in prayer for America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani."

The New York Times reported that Giuliani was hospitalized in Florida.

Giuliani earned the moniker of "America's mayor" for leading New York City through the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in Manhattan. 

Earlier in his career, he gained fame as the fearless Mafia-busting prosecutor whose aggressive use of racketeering laws brought down New York's organized crime families. 

But Giuliani experienced a stunning fall from grace in recent years, including in 2023 when a federal jury ordered him to pay $148 million to two election workers after defaming them by falsely tying them to alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Giuliani, a Republican, became a fierce defender of President Donald Trump, joining his personal legal team in Trump's first White House term.

He came under scrutiny by the Manhattan US attorney's office in 2019 over his activities connected with investigations about Ukraine and apparent efforts to dig up dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Joe Biden. 

Giuliani was also part of the effort to reverse his client's clear election loss to Biden in 2020. But one by one, the post-election court challenges were withdrawn or dismissed as groundless.

He has since been disbarred in New York and Washington.

Giuliani was facing criminal charges in Arizona related to the 2020 election and other legal issues when Trump issued him a sweeping pardon last November.

On Sunday Trump hailed Giuliani as a "true warrior" and New York's best-ever mayor.

"What a tragedy that he was treated so badly by the Radical Left Lunatics, Democrats ALL — AND HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!" Trump added. 

"They cheated on the Elections, fabricated hundreds of stories, did anything possible to destroy our Nation, and now, look at Rudy. So sad!" 

mlm/sla

European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gather in Armenia Monday as they seek to navigate a fraught geopolitical environment under an unpredictable White House.

US President Donald Trump will loom large over the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC). It takes place in Yerevan, a crossroads between Russia and the Middle East -- the two main issues on the agenda. 

"Leaders from across the continent, with Canada as a guest, will discuss how to cooperate to strengthen security and collective resilience," European Council President Antonio Costa wrote on social media as he arrived in the Armenian capital Sunday.

The Iran war, which has rattled the global economy by sending energy prices soaring, has deepened a rift in transatlantic ties.

Following a spat between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had criticised Washington's handling of the conflict, the United States announced it would withdraw 5,000 US troops from Germany.

That has added to the doubts surrounding the US commitment to defend its European allies as Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine grinds into a fifth year.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO chief Mark Rutte will be present in Yerevan, while Merz will be represented by France's Emmanuel Macron.

They will be joined by Canada's Carney -- the first-ever non-European leader to join the EPC talks, in a sign of the ever-closer ties between Ottawa and Europe ushered in by Trump. 

The summit "in a nutshell, will be an opportunity to emphasise that Europe's security is a 360-degree challenge", said a senior EU official.

Like Europe, Canada's economy has been hurt by Trump's tariffs -- but Carney has remained defiant, emerging as something of a figurehead for countries looking to stand up to the Republican president. 

In a stirring speech earlier this year, he urged middle powers to join forces in the face of a new global reality defined by great power competition and a "fading" rules‑based order. 

"The EPC was initially perceived as an anti-Putin club," said Sebastien Maillard, a special adviser at the Jacques Delors Institute, a think tank.

"With the invitation to Canada, this initiative -- which was initially driven by geography -- is now taking on an anti-Trump slant."

Moving to diversify away from its southern neighbour, Ottawa has joined the EU's defence financing scheme -- the first non-European country to do so -- and sought to increase cooperation on trade.

"Canada has a way of looking at the world and looking at ways to solve the challenges we have currently that Europe shares to a great extent," said the EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

- 'Reorientation' - 

A biannual political forum, the EPC was established on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron in 2022 in response to the invasion of Ukraine. 

It brings together the members of the European Union and, this time, 21 other countries, from Albania to Britain.

EPC summits do not normally produce concrete decisions but offer the opportunity for leaders to exchange in groups and bilaterally. Most leaders arrived in the Armenian capital for an informal dinner on Sunday.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was expected to join the meeting on Monday, Madrid said, after a technical problem with his plane forced him to make an emergency landing in Turkey and spend the night in Ankara. 

The Yerevan gathering is the first of its kind in the Caucasus and comes as Armenia fosters closer ties with Europe while seeking to cautiously loosen itself from Russia's grasp.

It will be followed Tuesday by an EU-Armenia summit with the bloc's chief officials Costa and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who described it as a "major milestone" in the country's rapprochement with Europe.

Relations between Yerevan and its traditional ally Moscow have become strained in recent years, in part because Russian peacekeepers failed to intervene during military conflicts with neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia has formally pursued a strategy of what he calls "diversification", in which the landlocked country pursues ties with both Russia and the West.

Costa says the bloc looks forward to "deepening this relationship" with the country of three million, which signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with the EU in 2017 and last year declared its intention to apply for membership.

In April the EU established a mission to help the former Soviet nation tackle foreign interference, with Russia suspected of a disinformation push ahead of June elections.

Putin has declared himself "completely calm" about Armenia's overtures to Europe -- while also warning that belonging to both the EU and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union was "simply impossible".

ub/ec/pdw/lga

In Iraq's holy city of Najaf, the majestic shrine of Imam Ali stands quiet, its vast courtyards no longer echoing with the multilingual whispers of pilgrims from before the Middle East war.

The absence of tourists leaves nearby shopkeepers and hotel owners with little to do, their days dragging on as they hope for the crowds to return and revive their businesses. 

"Iranians used to keep us busy, whether the jeweller, the fabric merchant or the taxi driver. Now there are none," said jewellery shop owner Abdel Rahim Harmoush.

"It used to be hard even to step into the market because of foreigners... Even street vendors drew huge crowds of visitors," the 71-year-old added. 

Millions of Shia Muslims from around the world typically flock to Najaf and fellow holy city Karbala every year. 

But the regional war ignited in late February by US-Israeli strikes on Iran has stemmed the usual influx of pilgrims from the Islamic republic, Lebanon, the Gulf states, India, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Iraq was drawn into the conflict from the onset, with strikes targeting US interests and Tehran-backed armed groups in the country.

People in the holy cities "live on religious tourism", said Harmoush, who for 38 years has worked in the old market near Najaf's golden-domed mausoleum.

The shrine is the ornate burial place of Ali -- the Prophet Mohammed's son-in-law, the fourth Islamic caliph and the first Shia Imam.

Harmoush warned of economic ruin were the crisis to persist: shop owners unable to pay rent and taxes, cab drivers left without passengers and labourers struggling to find work.

- Hotels closed -

Hotel owner Abu Ali, 52, was forced to lay off five employees, leaving just one to tend to nearly 70 empty rooms.

"How can I pay salaries if there is no work?" he said.

Saeb Abu Ghneim, head of the hotel association in Najaf, told AFP that 80 percent of the city's 250 hotels had closed, with more than 2,000 employees laid off or on unpaid leave.

He added that most of Najaf's religious tourism relies on Iranians, followed by Lebanese visitors -- also trapped at home by war -- and other nationalities. 

The sector, which already weathered the closure of mosques and shrines in the pandemic, is a rare type of tourism in a country reeling from decades of conflicts.

Religious tourism also constitutes a significant source of revenue for Iraq's non-oil economy.

Before the war, 28-year-old Moustafa al-Haboubi could barely manage the crowds queuing to exchange foreign currency for Iraqi dinars.

He now spends the long hours idly scrolling through his phone or chatting with neighbours.

"We barely receive one or two customers," he said. "There are no pilgrims now, Iranian or otherwise."

Even after a fragile ceasefire took effect on April 8 and Iraq's airspace reopened, little has changed.

Some pilgrims trickle through during the week, while on weekends the area grows somewhat livelier as Iraqis visit the sacred sites.

- 'Catastrophe' -

The situation is no different in Karbala, which is around 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Najaf and home to the shrines of the revered grandsons of Prophet Mohammed, Imam Hussein and his brother Abbas. 

The main corridor linking the two golden shrines and the surrounding alleyways were once alive with the murmurs of tourists walking to prayers. 

Today, the visitors are almost exclusively Iraqi.

"The situation is dangerous... a catastrophe," said Israa al-Nasrawi, head of Karbala's tourism committee.

She warned that the war had devastated the city's economy, slashing tourist numbers by around 95 percent and forcing hundreds of hotels to close.

The city's many pilgrim tour companies sit idle.

Akram Radi, who has worked in the sector for 16 years, said his company once helped up to 1,000 visitors a month but is now operating at only 10 percent of capacity.

"I might have to close and look for another job," he said.

sf-str/rh/amj/lga