Rights group urges Lebanon to probe deaths of Syrians in custody
July 5th, 20170 BEIRUT ― Human Rights Watch on Wednesday demanded an independent inquiry into the deaths of four Syrians who died while in Lebanese army custody and said anyone responsible for wrongdoing should be held to account. The Lebanese army said on Tuesday that the four Syrian men arrested during a raid on a refugee camp on Friday had died...
Iraq declares end of ISIS in Mosul
July 3rd, 20170 MOSUL — After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops captured the ruined mosque at the heart of ISIS' de facto capital in Mosul, on Thursday and the prime minister declared the group's self styled caliphate at an end. Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in coming days as remaining ISIS...
Iraqi forces to enclose on ISIS in Mosul’s Old City
June 19th, 20170 ERBIL, IRAQ — Iraqi forces said they were about to complete the encirclement of ISIS's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, after taking control of a neighboring district on Thursday. Iraq's military said it had captured Bab Sinjar, north of the historic, densely-populated district where the militants launched their cross-border...
FIFA: Qatar World Cup not under threat
June 19th, 20170 DOHA — FIFA president Gianni Infantino does not believe that the diplomatic crisis which has embroiled 2022 World Cup host nation Qatar will threaten its staging of the tournament, he said on Sunday. The global soccer body also confirmed that it had replaced a Qatari refereeing team who were due to officiate at a World Cup...
Lebanese cabinet approves electoral law for parliamentary election next May
June 19th, 20170 BEIRUT — Lebanon is likely to hold long-delayed elections in May 2018, ministers said on Wednesday, after the cabinet approved a new law for a legislative vote that has spared the country a major political crisis. Recent disputes over an election law that is at the heart of the nation's sectarian political system had pushed Lebanon...
Muslims observing Ramadan saved residents in London high-rise fire
June 19th, 20170 LONDON — Early Wednesday morning, a 24-story high-rise in London caught fire, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more. Most people were asleep when the fire broke out, but Muslims awake early for Ramadan helped usher people out of the building. Residents reported that fire alarms didn't go off when the fire broke out...
Saudi air strikes kill dozens at Yemen market
June 18th, 20170 SAADA — At least 25 Yemenis were killed when Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck a market in the northern Saada province, a local health official said on Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly incidents in the 27-month-old conflict. Yemen has been torn by a civil war in which the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour...
50 years later, the 1967 Naksa continues to shape policies and inflict misery
June 10th, 20171 DEARBORN — The 1967 Six Day War was one of the most salient events of the Arab-Israeli conflict, its effect evident through its shaping of Israeli and Arab political discourse. While its byproducts continue to resonate, the events of the Six Day War are solidified largely through oration and narrative. "There's historical...
Al Jazeera TV says it’s combating cyber attack, not intimidated by Gulf dispute
June 8th, 20170 DOHA ― Pan-Arab satellite network Al Jazeera is combating a large-scale cyber attack but all its entities remained operational, a company source told Reuters on Thursday. "There were attempts made on the cyber security of Al Jazeera but we are combating them and currently all our entities are operational," said a senior employee who...
Arab powers sever Qatar ties, citing support for militants
June 5th, 20170 DUBAI ― The Arab world's biggest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday over alleged support for Islamists and Iran, reopening a festering wound two weeks after President Trump's demand for Muslim states to fight terrorism. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in a coordinated...
Lebanese ministry bans ‘Wonder Woman’ film over Israeli actress
June 2nd, 20170 Lebanon's Interior Ministry banned the new "Wonder Woman" film from cinemas on Wednesday because an Israeli actress plays the lead role, a ministry source and a security official said. Lebanon considers Israel an enemy country and the Ministry of Economy and Trade oversees a boycott of any business transactions concerning...
Saudi artist reflects the unspeakable through works, exhibitions
June 2nd, 20170 RIYADH — Saudi artist Abdulnasser Gharem spent years pursuing his passion on the side, working a government job as a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army. Like his art suggests, he, too, is a diasporic duality of conflicting cultures, identities and ideas. "I went into the army because it was hard to be an artist at the...
Trump delays moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem by six months
June 1st, 20170 WASHINGTON — President Trump signed an order on Thursday to keep the U.S. Embassy in Israel in Tel Aviv temporarily instead of relocating it to Jerusalem, despite his campaign pledge to go ahead with the controversial move. After months of fierce debate within his administration, Trump chose to continue his predecessors' policy of...
Morocco arrests activist leading northern protests
May 30th, 20170 RABAT — A leading Moroccan activist was arrested on Monday alongside other protesters caught up in a wave of rallies against official abuses and corruption in the north, state media said. Nasser Zefzafi, who has helped organize months of protests, would be investigated on charges of "threatening national security" and other crimes,...
Suicide bomber kills 13, injures 24 at Baghdad ice cream shop
May 29th, 20170 BAGHDAD - On Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated a rigged vehicle outside of a popular ice cream shop in the Karrada district of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding at least 30 others, officials said. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) claimed responsibility, stating its intent in attacking a "gathering of......
Suicide bombers kill 3 police officers, wound 10 in Indonesia
May 25th, 20170 JAKARTA ― Two suspected suicide bombers killed three Indonesian police officers and injured 10 people on Wednesday night in twin blasts near a bus station in the eastern part of the capital, police said. The blasts went off five minutes apart at Jakarta's Kampung Melayu terminal, police said. National Police spokesman Setyo...
Jewish nation-state bill: Israel’s precarious identity is Palestine’s nightmare
May 19th, 20170 The Israeli Knesset (parliament) has hurriedly passed a new bill that defines Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people." Although the association between Jewishness and Israel goes back to the foundation of the state, the new law also carries clear discriminatory elements that target the country's Arab communities, numbering...
Palestinian killed as settler opens fire during clashes
May 19th, 20170 WEST BANK — A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts. A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show...
U.S. nears $100 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia
May 19th, 20170 WASHINGTON — The United States is close to completing a series of arms deals for Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100 billion, a senior White House official said on Friday, a week ahead of President Trump's planned visit to Riyadh. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the arms package could end up......
Trump visit seen as long shot to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking
May 19th, 20170 JERUSALEM — Just four months after taking office, Donald Trump will make the earliest foray into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking by any U.S. president next week. But with mounting obstacles at home and abroad, he faces long odds of succeeding where more experienced predecessors have failed. Even as last-minute changes are being made...Fresh Syria peace talks off to another stumbling start
GENEVA — Syria peace talks hosted by the United Nations in Geneva spawned a new series of meetings on Thursday with no hint of tangible progress toward a deal to end the six-year-old civil war. U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura had promised a refreshingly brisk pace of business-like meetings over a short four-day round, with new......
Syrian government denies U.S. accusation of crematorium at prison
May 19th, 20171 DAMASCUS — The Syrian government on Tuesday denied U.S. accusations that a crematorium had been built at one of its prisons that could be used to dispose of detainees' remains. A foreign ministry statement published by state news agency SANA said the U.S. administration had come out with "a new Hollywood story detached from reality"...
Spread of fighting, cholera pushes Yemen to collapse
May 19th, 20170 SANAA, Yemen — Spilling into the hallways of crowded Yemeni hospitals, children writhe in pain from cholera. Displaced villagers roam baking hot plains and barren mountains to evade warring militias. The escalating outbreak of disease and displacement of tens of thousands by recent fighting has inflamed one of the world's worst......
