Russia raises stakes on Syriaa head of U.N. meeting
DAMASCUS – By refusing to clarify the scale of its military presence in Syria, Russia keeps the West fearing a considerable build-up to win a stronger bargaining position when world powers sit down to talks on the conflict, Western diplomats in Moscow said. Those discussions could take place as soon as this month, when Russian...
Mother of burned Palestinian baby dies of wounds
September 7th, 20150 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha pictured with his father Saad and mother Riham RAMALLAH — The mother of an 18-month-old Palestinian baby burned to death in an arson attack in the occupied West Bank, has herself died from injuries sustained during the attack.Reham Dawabsheh, 26, who died on Sunday night in an Israeli hospital, had...Palestinians push to fly their flag at the U.N.
RAMALLAH — Israel complained to the United Nations on Tuesday about a Palestinian initiative to fly the Palestinian flag alongside those of full member states at the world body's headquarters, calling it "another cynical misuse of the U.N. by the Palestinian Authority." Currently, only member states' flags fly at the U.N....Former ICC chief prosecutor pushes for Yazidi genocide case
The former chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) is pushing for a case to be opened into the "ongoing genocide" against Iraq's Yazidi community at the hands of ISIS militants. Luis Moreno Ocampo said he was approached in the United States recently by Yazidi activists who are seeking justice for the systematic...ISIS attack kills 28 in Sanaa mosque
SANAA — ISIS's Yemen branch claimed responsibility for two bombings at a mosque in a northern district of the capital Sanaa that killed at least 28 people and wounded 75 on Wednesday. The al-Mo'ayyad mosque, in the al-Jarraf neighborhood of Sanaa, has previously been targeted by ISIS, who regard the Iran-allied Houthis as...
Photo of drowned Syrian toddler alert world to refugees’ suffering
September 3rd, 20150 ANKARA — The distraught father of two Syrian toddlers who drowned with their mother and several other migrants as they tried to reach Greece identified their bodies on Thursday and prepared to take them back to their home town of Kobani. Abdullah Kurdi collapsed in tears after emerging from a morgue in the city of Mugla near Bodrum...ISIS attack kills 28 in Sanaa mosque
SANAA — ISIS's Yemen branch claimed responsibility for two bombings at a mosque in a northern district of the capital Sanaa that killed at least 28 people and wounded 75 on Wednesday.The al-Mo'ayyad mosque, in the al-Jarraf neighborhood of Sanaa, has previously been targeted by ISIS, who regard the Iran-allied Houthis as...Twelve Syrians drown heading from Turkey to Greek island
A Turkish police officer stands next to the body of the young boy. Photo: ReutersANKARA — An image of a drowned toddler washed up on the beach in one of Turkey's prime tourist resorts swept across social media on Wednesday, after at least 12 presumed Syrian refugees died trying to reach the Greek island of Kos.The picture showed a...ISIS accused of launching chemical attack in Iraq
ERBIL, Iraq — Kurdish authorities said on Tuesday they suspected a homemade rocket fired by ISIS at their peshmerga forces in northern Iraq contained chemical substances, accusing the terrorists of an increasing use of chemical weapons.The Kurdistan Region's Security Council (KRSC) said the attack had taken place along the front line...ISIS shows images of ancient Syrian temple destruction
DAMASCUS — ISIS militants published photos on Tuesday purporting to show the destruction of a Roman-era temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO has called a war crime. Syria's antiquities chief, Maamoun Abdulkarim, told Reuters the images did appear to show the destruction of the ancient...Warring sides in Syria agree to local ceasefires
DAMASCUS — Warring sides in Syria have agreed to extend a ceasefire in a rebel-held town near the border with Lebanon and two Shi'a villages in the northwest, and to evacuate wounded, sources close to talks said. The truce is the second in a month in those areas between the Syrian army and its Hezbollah allies on one side and...Lebanon braced for more protests as crisis deepens
BEIRUT — Activists have promised to renew protest in downtown Beirut as the government continues to fail to solve the continuing garbage crisis. Protests against the government turned violent over the weekend, and Prime Minister Tammam Salam threatened to resign as public discontent brought thousands into the...Saudi Arabia holding main suspect in 1996 Khobar Towers bombing
RIYADH — The main suspect in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured after nearly 20 years on the run, a Saudi-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday. Asharq al-Awsat said Ahmed al-Mughassil, leader of the Hezbollah al-Hejaz who had been indicted by a U.S. court for...ISIS attack kills two senior Iraqi commanders in Ramadi
BAGHDAD — Two senior Iraqi military commanders were killed on Thursday in suicide car bomb attacks claimed by ISIS in Anbar province where pro-government forces are battling the insurgents, a military spokesman and police sources said. The military and police, backed by Shi'a militias, Sunni tribal fighters and U.S.-led coalition air...Videos show Libyan officials abusing jailed Gaddafi son
TRIPOLI — New videos show Libyan security officials threatening Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi in an effort to force him to talk, two weeks after footage emerged showing guards beating him in the same Tripoli jail. The videos, posted on social media, are an apparent attempt to embarrass the government controlling Tripoli, one of the......
ISIS bomb wounds 30 at Cairo courthouse
CAIRO — ISIS's Egypt affiliate said it was behind a car bombing that wounded 30 people, including eight policemen, near a state security building and courthouse in a Cairo suburb on Thursday. A statement circulated on Twitter by supporters of the group, Sinai Province, said the bomb was a reprisal for the execution of six of its...Four Hamas militants abducted in Sinai
GAZA — Four members of Hamas' armed wing were abducted in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Wednesday after the bus they were on was stopped by unidentified gunmen, sources close to the Palestinian group and Egyptian security officials said. Russian news agency Sputnik reported that the Egyptian branch of ISIS abducted the...Israel launches strikes into Syria after rocket attack
BEIRUT — Rockets hit an Israeli village near the Lebanese border on Thursday and Israel struck back in the Syrian Golan Heights, saying the rare attack had been launched there by an Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group. The group, Islamic Jihad, denied the Israeli allegation. It had previously threatened reprisals should one of...War-torn Yemen on brink of famine and partition
SANAA — War-torn Yemen is on the brink of famine, with millions of women and children most at risk of starvation, as fighting around major ports stalls imports of food and other humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations. Some 13 million people in the impoverished Arab state, half the population, are hungry, while 6 million......
Leading Israeli journalist: Israel is an apartheid
JERUSALEM — A leading Israeli journalist—writing in Haaretz, Israel’s oldest and most-prestigious daily newspaper—says “It’s Time to Admit It. Israeli Policy Is What It Is: Apartheid.” The author, Bradley Burston, a Haaretz columnist and senior editor of Haaretz.com, is well-known in the Israeli media. He has all the...Beheaded guardian of Palmyra was hostage like the city itself
ISIS has killed "the guardian of Palmyra." Tortured for a month and then beheaded for refusing to betray the secret location of the Roman’s city’s priceless artifacts, Khaled al-Asaad’s gruesome death has appalled his fellow archeologists. “ a joyful guy. You had to see him if you went to Palmyra. He was a guardian of the......
Blast near Cairo state security building wounds six
CAIRO — At least six people were wounded early on Thursday in a car bombing near a state security building and courthouse in a Cairo suburb, security sources said.The sources, who inspected the site of the blast in Shubra al-Khaima, said there was a burned-out vehicle and crater.Comments on Twitter indicated the blast was heard...Lebanon arrests fugitive cleric Ahmed al-Assir
AssirBEIRUT - Lebanese authorities say they have arrested a fugitive extremist cleric who was wanted on suspicion of being involved in a deadly shootout with government troops last year.Two senior security officials say Ahmed al-Assir was detained on Saturday at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport as he was trying to flee the......