Pentagon admits there was no specific evidence of attack on four U.S. embassies
January 12th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defense Secretary Mark Esper contradicted President Trump on Sunday, saying he did not see any specific evidence from intelligence officials that Iran had plans to attack four U.S. embassies. Trump has used these purported plans to justify the Jan. 2 killing of Iran Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani in...
Washington rebuffs Iraqi request to pull out troops
January 10th, 20200 BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has rebuffed an Iraqi request on Friday to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions following the U.S. killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad. Iraq looks set to bear the brunt of any further violence between its neighbor Iran and the United States, its...
Ukraine says Iran cooperating in plane crash probe, cautious on blaming missile
January 10th, 20200 KIEV — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said on Friday that Iran was cooperating with an investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian passenger plane, and that Kiev was not ruling out any version yet of what might have happened. Canada and others have said the plane was brought down by an Iranian missile, probably by...
U.S. flirts with war in the Middle East: A looming military conflict with Iran
January 10th, 20200 The world has been in the grips of an uncertain fear since it woke up to news of the Jan. 2 assassination of a top Iranian general at the hands of the U.S.. Images from recent memory of endless, expensive and insane military ventures in the Middle East became vivid once more as Tehran promised revenge and President Trump goaded the...
Trump indicates deescalation with Iran, promises further economic sanctions
January 8th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. - At the White House on Wednesday, President Trump seemed to simmer down days of heated rhetoric and said the U.S. would not respond to early morning missile attacks on Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops with military force. Early Wednesday, both Iranian authorities and U.S officials confirmed Tehran launched a series of...
Iran responds with missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq
January 7th, 20200 TEHRAN - Tensions came to a head on early Wednesday as Iran retaliated against the U.S. killing of Iran Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani by launching a series of surface-to-surface missiles at two Iraqi bases housing U.S. troops. Reuters reports the firing of more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian...
As throngs of Iranians gather to mourn Soleimani, uncertainty over response grows
January 6th, 20200 TEHRAN — On Monday, in the wake of the January 2 targeted killing through a missile strike of Iran Revolutionary Guard General and important political figure Qassem Soleimani, throngs of Iranians mourned the death of a beloved leader. Aerial views and independent reports on the ground told of a vast procession of mourners, a mass...
Gaza rocket sends Netanyahu to shelter during campaign rally
January 2nd, 20200 TEL AVIV — A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip at a southern Israeli city on Wednesday as it hosted a campaign rally by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prompted him to take shelter briefly before resuming the event, Israeli TV stations reported. The Israeli military confirmed the launch against Ashkelon, which is 12 km (7.5...
Privacy concerns pushing people across the world to change their behavior online, new poll finds
December 26th, 20190 TBILISI — People across the world are changing their behavior online in order to elude tracking, a new survey of almost 10,000 people in nine countries has found. More than seven in 10 respondents to the survey said they were worried about how tech firms collected and used their personal data, a Reuters report stated. About half...
Newly named Lebanon PM vows to form government quickly
December 21st, 20190 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s newly named prime minister said on Thursday he would quickly form a government to pull the country out of economic crisis after he was designated with backing from the Hezbollah group, Amal Movement, Free Patriotic Movement and their allies. Hassan Diab, a little-known academic and former education minister who...
Singing all the way to the bank: Lebanese protesters fear for their savings
December 13th, 20190 BEIRUT — Protests in Lebanon took a musical turn on Thursday when a group of activists toured banks, performing songs voicing fears over the fate of savings locked up in the banking system, which has been caught up in a major economic crisis sweeping the country. In lyrics set to the scores of famous Lebanese songs, a half dozen...
Lebanon’s largest Christian political party says it won’t join government on Hariri’s terms
December 13th, 20190 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s largest Christian political party, Free Patriotic Movement, will not join a new government under the terms set by caretaker premier Saad al-Hariri, but will not obstruct the formation of a new cabinet, its leader said on Thursday. The position of the Free Patriotic Movement led by Gebran Bassil could ease the...
Israel bars Gaza’s Christians from visiting Bethlehem and Jerusalem at Christmas
December 13th, 20191 GAZA — Christians in the Gaza Strip will not be allowed to visit holy cities such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem to celebrate Christmas this year, Israeli authorities said on Thursday. Gazan Christians will be granted permits to travel abroad, but none will be allowed to go to Israel and the occupied West Bank, home to many sites holy...
Side by side, glimpses of Palestinian refugee camps then and now
December 13th, 20190 History has marched on since they arrived in the middle of the last century, seeking refuge for what they thought would be a few weeks, but staying for a lifetime. Around them the Middle East lurched from conflict to civil war to peace and back again. But for Palestinian refugees in these camps, there has been little movement over...
Money, power and turf: Winning the Middle East media war at any cost
December 11th, 20190 It is hardly surprising to see Middle Eastern countries at the bottom of the World Press Freedom Index, as the worst violators of freedom of the press. But equally alarming is the complete polarization of public opinion as a result of self-serving media and, bankrolled by rich Arab countries, whose only goal is to serve their specific,......
Paralyzed man walks again thanks to Arab American doctor’s innovative procedure
November 29th, 20190 Rochester, Minnesota — A historic medical trial lead by Dr. Mohamad Bydon, a neurosurgeon and spine specialist at the Mayo Clinic, has yielded miraculous results for a patient who was paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury. Chris Barr told ABC’s Good Morning America that he had given up hope after the prognosis...
Iraqi PM quits after cleric’s call, but violence rages on
November 29th, 20190 BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi announced his resignation on Friday after the country’s senior Shi’a Muslim cleric urged lawmakers to reconsider their support for a government rocked by weeks of deadly anti-establishment unrest. Violence raged on in southern Iraq, however, killing at least 21 people, and protesters...
Yemeni nationals in U.S. backed into a deadly corner by uncertain TPS policies
November 26th, 20190 By Mark Hedin WASHINGTON, D.C.— "If I go back to Yemen, I have only one option: To die." So said a Brooklyn shopkeeper as he movingly described how a lifeline provided him by the United States has allowed him to thrive despite the horrors of the war afflicting his native country. The Department of Homeland Security could end that...
Iran claims foreign interference in last week’s violent protests
November 26th, 20190 TEHRAN – After 143 people have reportedly died in protests in Iran over rising fuel prices, which took a particularly violent turn last week, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is threatening the U.S. and its allies against encroachments into the nation’s affairs. General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guard, told supporters......
Report warns of technology-based threats from WhatsApp, other apps prior to 2020 election
November 26th, 20190 NEW YORK CITY —A major New York-based university is warning of potential technology-based threats that could compromise the 2020 presidential election, the website Tech Times reported. In a report released this September by the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, the organization said that bad actors...
Israel’s Netanyahu Indicted on bribery and fraud charges
November 23rd, 20190 TEL AVIV — Shortly after Israel’s ceremonial President Reven Rivlin informed parliament that neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor his main political rival were able to form a coalition, the country’s attorney general formally charged Netanyahu on serious charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. With an......
Lebanese protesters pack streets to mark independence day
November 23rd, 20190 BEIRUT - Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in Lebanon on Friday to mark independence day with a fresh wave of demonstrations against a ruling elite accused of rampant corruption and steering the country into a deep crisis. The unprecedented wave of nationwide protests erupted five weeks ago, leading to the...
Coalition of churches applauds EU’s decision to accurately label Israeli products
November 20th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), a coalition of 29 church communions and organizations, applauded this week the European Union’s Court of Justice November 12 decision that products made in Israeli settlements could no longer be labeled as though they were made in Israel. Since 1984, CMEP has worked to......
