Suicide bomb kills 5, injures dozens in northeast Lebanon
BEIRUT- Nusra Front in Lebanon claimed responsibility on Thursday, Jan. 16, for a deadly blast in northeast Lebanon that killed five and wounded 42, saying the attack was in retaliation to Hizbullah’s involvement in Syria. Lebanese security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb that went off in Hermel, near the border with Syria.The...Syrian army advance as rebel infighting rages
DAMASCUS - The Syrian government has retaken territory around the northern city of Aleppo, the military said on Tuesday, Jan. 14, after two weeks of rebel infighting that has weakened the insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad.The military advances will give the Syrian government delegation greater leverage at the negotiating...Gaza loses an underground lifeline
GAZA CITY — The border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip used to buzz with activity until a few months back as traders brought in an array of Egyptian goods – from food supplies to raw material – through hundreds of tunnels.But these underground structures, located 40 km from here, between Rafah in Gaza and Sinai in Egypt,...Trial in Hariri murder startsProsecutor: Assassination meant to spread panic in Lebanon
THE HAGUE — The huge explosion that killed former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and 21 others in 2005 was an act of terror meant to spread panic throughout the country, a prosecutor said at the start of a trial of four men charged with planning the attack.The four members of Hizbullah are accused of murder, terrorism and...Breaking down Egypt’s new constitution
The army-backed constitution was approved overwhelmingly by voters in a referendum that took place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Here is an overview of the main elements of the new constitution, which experts say deepened the influence of the military, police and judiciary:Freedoms and rightsPolitical parties cannot be formed on the...Hundreds voice anger over torching of decades-old library in Lebanon
TRIPOLI — Hundreds of Lebanese took to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday, Jan. 4, to protest the torching of a decades-old library owned by a Greek Orthodox priest.The demonstrators held up banners that read "Tripoli, peaceful town" and "This is contrary to the values of the Prophet Mohammad."Assailants set alight...
How people in Muslim countries prefer women to dress in public
January 10th, 20140 An important issue in the Muslim world is how women should dress in public. A recent survey from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research conducted in seven Muslim-majority countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey), finds that most people prefer that a woman completely cover her...Saudi plane makes emergency landing, 29 injured
MEDINA- Twenty nine people were injured when a Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Boeing 767-300ER made an emergency landing at Medina airport in the west of the country early on Sunday, the General Authority of Civil Aviation said.It said 18 of the injured were treated at the airport while 11 were taken to hospital. A spokesman for Saudi...Saudi sentenced to jail, lashes for Twitter defamation
RIYADH - A Saudi court has sentenced a man convicted of defaming a Kuwaiti singer by accusing her on Twitter of adultery to three months in jail and 80 lashes, a news website reported, on Jan. 2.The Saudi national, apparently a fan of a rival pop star, was sentenced for "accusing (Kuwaiti singer) Shams of adultery without providing...Tribes attack Yemen oil pipeline twice
SANAA- Tribesmen in the eastern Yemen province of Hadramawt have blown up an oil pipeline for the second time in two days, disrupting an important source of revenue for the impoverished state.The attacks targeted a pipeline with a capacity of 120,000 barrels a day carrying crude from the Masila field, the most important in Yemen, local...Egyptian courts hand prison sentences to 113 Brotherhood supporters
CAIRO- Egyptian courts convicted 113 Muslim Brotherhood supporters on Thursday, Jan. 9, on charges including attacking police, rioting and weapons possession in three separate cases brought after protests against the army-backed government.The authorities have been cracking down hard on the Brotherhood since the military deposed Islamist...Suicide bomber kills 23 Iraqi army recruits
BAGHDAD- A suicide bomber killed 23 Iraqi army recruits and wounded 36 in Baghdad on Thursday, Jan. 9, officials said, in an attack on men volunteering to join the government's struggle to crush al-Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province.The bomber had blown himself up among the recruits at the small Muthanna airfield, used by the army...Rouhani: Syria talks will fail without Iran
TEHRAN- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday, Jan. 9, a Syrian peace conference planned for later this month will fail if Tehran, Damascus's main regional ally, does not participate in it.The remarks came ahead of a meeting Monday at which Russia and the United States will discuss Tehran's possible involvement in the talks,...Breaking down Syria’s rebel groups
Syria's rebel movement has been a constantly shifting array of groups and alliances since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began nearly three years ago.Assad's security crackdown transformed Syria's largely peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into an armed insurgency in the first year of the revolt, and since then...
Dahiyeh residents blame Saudi for recent bombing
January 3rd, 20140 BEIRUT - On December 2, a car bomb detonated by a suicide bomber, exploded in Dahiyeh (southern Beirut suburb) again. On al-Arid Street of Haret Hreik, scores were killed and injured. This was not an isolated incident, but part of the same “death chain” as Bir al-Abed, Roueiss, Tripoli, and Bir Hassan. The bombing does not compare......
2013: Assessing the conflict in Syria and Egypt
2013 has expectedly been a terrible year for several Arab nations. It has been terrible because the promise of greater freedoms and political reforms has been reversed, most violently in some instances, by taking a few countries down the path of anarchy and complete chaos. Syria and Egypt are two cases in point.Syria has been hit the...
Beirut car bomb kills former minister and four others, dozens injured
December 27th, 20130 BEIRUT- A strong explosion ripped through the heart of Beirut on the morning of Friday, Dec. 27. The blast targeted former Lebanese minister of finance Mohamad Chatah.The former minister died at age 62.The blast killed at least five people and injured 21. The number of casualties is expected to rise as we go to press. The explosion hit...Christmas bombings kill 34 in Iraq
BAGHDAD - At least 34 people were killed in three bombings in Christian areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, Dec. 25, including a car bomb that exploded as worshipers were leaving a Christmas service, Iraqi police and medics said.Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 10 people were killed in three attacks that targeted police and Shi'a pilgrims.The...Egypt designates Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist group
CAIRO - The Egyptian government intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday, Dec. 25, formally listing the group as a terrorist organization after accusing it of carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a police station that killed 16 people.The move marked a major escalation in the army-backed government's campaign to......
Egypt to try Morsi for international conspiracy with Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran
CAIRO - Egypt's public prosecutor charged former President Mohamed Morsi and 35 other top Islamists on Wednesday, Dec. 18, with conspiring with foreign groups to commit terrorist acts in Egypt, in a case that could result in their execution.Declaring it "the biggest case of conspiracy in the history of Egypt", a statement detailed a...Yemeni parliament votes against drone attacks
SANAA - Yemen's parliament on Sunday, Dec. 15, called for a stop to drone attacks in a symbolic vote that reflected growing public anxiety about Washington's use of the unmanned aircraft to combat al-Qaeda in the impoverished country.Motions passed by the Yemeni parliament are not binding and can be struck down by the president, and are......
Suicide bombers kill 36 Shi’a pilgrims in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombings in Iraq killed at least 36 people on Thursday, Dec. 19, in attacks targeting Shi'a pilgrims ahead of a major holy day next week, police said.Two years after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, violence is at its highest level since 2006-7, when sectarian violence killed tens of thousands of people.The first major...
Amnesty International: Syria Islamists perpetrate ‘shocking abuses’
December 20th, 20130 DAMASCUS - Islamist militants are perpetrating "a shocking catalogue of abuses" in secret jails across northern Syria, including torture, flogging and killings after summary trials, Amnesty International said on Thursday, Dec. 19.It said in a report that the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS), one of the most powerful......