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FIFA President Infantino celebrates in Beirut after receiving a Lebanese passport

BEIRUT (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino received a Lebanese passport at the Interior Ministry in Beirut on Monday, months after he was granted citizenship by the country’s president.

Infantino, who is married to Lebanese citizen Lina al-Ashkar, thanked President Joseph Aoun at a meeting at the Interior Ministry where Infantino filed documents and had a photograph and fingerprints taken before being handed his new blue Lebanese passport.

Infantino also has citizenship in Italy and Switzerland.

“I’m very proud and very happy to be here in Beirut at the Ministry of Interior to finally get my Lebanese passport,” Infantino said in a video carried by local TV stations. “I love Lebanon.”

Lebanese women normally cannot pass their citizenship to their foreign husbands and children under Lebanese law. But Aoun made and exception for Infantino and granted him and his family members citizenship.

Lebanese men married to foreign women automatically pass their nationality to their children, while their wives become eligible for citizenship after being married for a certain period of time.

FIFA is the international soccer governing body.

Satellite images begin to show damage wrought by Iran war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Satellite images are beginning to be released giving a glimpse into the toll of the Iran war, with ships ablaze in an Iranian port and destroyed buildings at American bases in the region. Information has so far been scarce about the damage being done across the Middle East, particularly when it’s inside closed military facilities, since the war started on Feb. 28. The images come from Planet Labs PBC, a San Francisco-based firm used by media outlets, including The Associated Press. Planet Labs has put a two-week delay on its imagery becoming public, citing concerns its imagery could be used by “adversarial actors.” High-resolution images also have been published by competing firms. Other providers, like the U.S. Geological Survey, have been publishing lower-resolution imagery as well that’s been useful.
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