Russia to West: Drop Assad condition to unite against ISIS
MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the West had to drop its demands about the political exit of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if it wanted a genuinely international coalition against ISIS. Lavrov, who said there was still no agreement about Assad's political fate after international talks in Vienna,...One dead, 8 wounded in West Bank
WEST BANK — At least one attacker opened fire from a car then crashed into a group of pedestrians near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank Thursday, killing an Israeli and wounding eight people, police and the army said. The army said an assailant was shot, but the condition of the attacker was unclear. The incident...Lebanon arrests man in connection to Beirut bomb attacks
Lebanon's security forces arrested a Lebanese man on Wednesday in connection with twin suicide bomb attacks that killed 44 people in Beirut last week, a security source said. The authorities had arrested five Syrians and a Palestinian linked with the attacks, which took place on Thursday in a crowded residential and commercial area of...Syrian army seizes strategic town in Aleppo countryside
Syrian pro-government forces walk at the Kweyris military air base, in Aleppo, Nov. 11 - AFPDAMASCUS — The Syrian army and allied forces captured the town of Al Hader in the northern province of Aleppo on Thursday, state television said, opening the way for advances into a strategic rebel-held area northern Syria with the backing of...Kurds expect to recapture Sinjar soon
BAGHDAD — Kurdish forces who have launched an offensive to retake Sinjar from ISIS militants expect to enter and clear the northern Iraqi town soon, the Kurdistan regional security council said on Thursday. More than 58 square miles have been seized from the extremist group and dozens of bodies of its fighters were left behind in a...Undercover Israeli troops raid hospital, kill Palestinian
HEBRON — Israeli undercover forces raided a hospital in the West Bank on Thursday, shooting dead a Palestinian during an attempt to detain another man suspected of carrying out a stabbing, the Palestinian health ministry and doctors said. The Israeli army confirmed the raid and shooting but did not have details of the man's condition....Saudi Arabia seizes 48,000 cans of beer disguised as Pepsi
RIYADH — A smuggler has been caught trying to sneak beer into Saudi Arabia, where alcohol is forbidden. Customs officers at the Al Batha border crossing with the UAE discovered the contraband disguised as soda, according to MBC.net. "A truck carrying what first seemed to be normal cans of the soft drink Pepsi was stopped and after...
Explosions rip thorough southern Beirut suburb
November 12th, 20150 Photo: AnnaharBEIRUT — Two explosions ripped through the southern Beirut suburb of Borj El-Barajneh Thursday afternoon.Lebanon's Red Cross reported that 37 people died in the explosions.Last year, Beirut's southern suburbs were repeatedly targeted by al-Qaeda suicide bombers.Initial reports cited by Lebanese media say the explosions...EU moves forward with labeling goods made in Israeli settlements
A worker carries boxes of wine bottles for export at Shiloh Wineries, north of Ramallah/REUTERSThe European Union published new guidelines on Wednesday for labeling products made in Israeli settlements, a move Brussels said was technical but Israel branded "discriminatory" and damaging to peace efforts with Palestinians.Drawn up over...Two Americans, one S. African shot dead at Jordan security training site
The King Abdullah Training Center where a Jordanian officer went on a shooting spree, Nov. 9AMMAN — Two American military personnel and one South African were killed when a Jordanian officer went on a shooting spree on Monday at a U.S.-funded security training facility near Amman, Jordan's government spokesman said.Mohammad Momani...Power struggle threatens top Tunisia party with collapse
TUNIS — Rival ambitions, insults and accusations of violence have brought Tunisia's ruling party to the brink of collapse as the country struggles to lead the way towards a post-Arab Spring democracy. The secularist Nidaa Tounes party was already weakened by the departure of its leader Beji Caid Essebsi, in line with the...Cyclone kills eight in Yemeni coastal province
A man tries to save a vehicle swept away by flood waters in Socotra Nov. 2SANAA — A rare tropical cyclone struck Yemen's arid eastern coastal province of Hadramout on Tuesday and killed eight people before gradually petering out inland, regional officials said. The storm was the worst the country had suffered in decades and came with...Bomb in northeast Lebanon kills nine
BEIRUT — A roadside car bomb killed at least nine people and wounded four others in northeast Lebanon on Thursday, in an area close to the Syrian border where violence has spilled over from the war next door, security sources said. The blast ripped through a commercial area of the Sabil neighborhood of the town of Arsal. Emergency...Report: ISIS used chemical weapons in Syria
DAMASCUS — Chemical weapons experts have determined that mustard gas was used in a Syrian town where ISIS insurgents were battling another rebel group, according to a report by an international watchdog seen by Reuters. A confidential Oct. 29 report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a summary of...Britain says ISIS likely brought down Russian plane
Wreckage of the Russian plane crash/REUTERSBritain said Thursday there is a significant possibility that the Egyptian affiliate of ISIS was behind a suspected bomb attack on a Russian airliner that killed 224 people in the Sinai Peninsula.Russia dismissed the claim as speculation and Egypt said there was no indication so far that a bomb......
Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi who encouraged Bush to invade Iraq dies
Ahmed Chalabi speaks during a news conference in Baghdad, July 15, 2014.BAGHDAD — Ahmed Chalabi, the smooth-talking Iraqi politician who encouraged Washington to invade Iraq in 2003 with discredited information on Saddam Hussein's military capabilities, died on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack.Haitham al-Jabouri, secretary of the...Saudi-led air strike kills 10 Yemeni factory workers
SANAA — Warplanes from a Saudi-led military coalition bombed a bus carrying workers to a factory in the southwestern Yemeni city of Taiz on Thursday, killing 10 of them, medics said. The attack took place as battles for control of Yemen's third-largest city rage, with Gulf Arab countries backing local Islamist militias against the...Right wing Israelis push for takeover of Al-Aqsa compound
Since Oct. 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 66 Palestinians.JERUSALEM — Right-wing political leaders and groups have called for Israel to exercise control over the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as the Israeli government takes harsh measures to quell ongoing Palestinian unrest. Returning to the Mount, a hardline right-wing...Death toll in Saudi Hajj disaster more than 2,000
Pilgrims on a road in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca Sept. 24. REUTERSThe deadly crush that occurred during the Hajj near Mecca last month killed at least 2,070 people, nearly triple the number reported by Saudi authorities, a Reuters tally indicated on Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism for its handling of......
Yemeni hospital bombed, Saudi-led coalition denies responsibility
People move boxes from a damaged truck outside a building hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Oct. 25.A hospital in north Yemen run by the medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), was destroyed by a missile strike late Monday, MSF said.The Saudi-led Arab coalition involved in Yemen’s civil war denied that its planes hit...Saudi prince held in record Beirut airport drug bust
The five Saudi citizens were held in the airport to be questioned by Lebanon's customs authority A Saudi prince and has been detained in Lebanon in the largest drug bust in the history of Beirut airport, according to a security source. Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four others were detained by airport security......
One dead in suicide attack at Saudi mosque
The bombing took place in Najran, the capital of the region in southern Saudi ArabiaA suicide bomber blew himself up at a Shi'a mosque in Najran in southern Saudi Arabia on Monday. At least one person was killed and several others were wounded, the Saudi interior ministry said.The SPA news agency and Al Arabiya television delivered the...U.S. commando killed in raid to free ISIS hostages in Iraq
BAGHDAD — One member of a U.S. special operations force was killed during an overnight mission to rescue hostages held by ISIS militants in northern Iraq, the first American to die in ground combat with the militant group, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Sixty-nine hostages were rescued in the action, which targeted an ISIS prison......