Iraq has come a long way since major fighting ended over five years ago against IS, putting an end to their self-declared "caliphate" which once stretched across swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The match on Thursday in Riyadh is set to pit Messi's Paris Saint-Germain against a select side made up of players from Ronaldo's new club Al Nassr and their Saudi rivals Al Hilal.
David Carrick's crimes -- described by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's office as "appalling" -- is the most high-profile police case since a fellow officer kidnapped, raped and murdered a young woman in 2021.
On December 30, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution requesting an opinion from the International Court of Justice on the issue of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Soldiers used ropes and stretchers to retrieve bodies from the 300-metre (1,000-foot) deep ravine late into the night, with recovery efforts set to resume on Monday.
