U.S. lawmakers renew push for penalties against Saudi Arabia
February 8th, 20190 WASHINGTON, DC — Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers renewed their push on Thursday to penalize Saudi Arabia for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and address the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, introducing legislation to bar some arms sales and impose sanctions on those responsible for his death. Democrats Bob...
Study: Religious engagements key factor to happiness and health
February 4th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to a new study by the Pew Research Center, participation in a religious congregation is a key factor to civic engagements, happiness and health. People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members...
America’s first Muslims were slaves
February 1st, 20191 WASHINGTON, DC — In 1807, a wealthy 37-year-old scholar was captured in West Africa, in what is now Senegal, and transported to the United States to be sold into slavery. That man, Omar Ibn Said, lived the remainder of his life enslaved in the American South, and his story might have been forgotten if not for the handwritten...
Senate advances measure opposing troop withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan
January 31st, 20190 WASHINGTON, DC - In a rebuke of President Trump, the Republican-led U.S. Senate advanced largely symbolic legislation on Thursday opposing plans for any abrupt withdrawal of troops from Syria and Afghanistan. The Senate voted 68-23 in favor of a non-binding amendment, drafted by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, saying it...
UAE uses cyber-weapon “Karma” to spy on adversaries
January 30th, 20190 UAE - The United Arab Emirates employed a team of former U.S. government intelligence operatives to hack into the iPhones of activists, diplomats and rival foreign leaders with the help of a spying tool called Karma. This campaign shows the potential of dangerous cyber-weapons that are passing through the hands of world’s superpowers...
Iranian commander threatens Israel’s destruction if it attacks his country
January 28th, 20190 TEHRAN - A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander on Monday threatened Israel with destruction if it attacks Iran, state media reported. The comments by Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, came after an Israeli attack on Iranian targets in Syria last week - the...
Nasrallah: Hezbollah could enter Israel now and before tunnels were found
January 26th, 20190 BEIRUT — Hezbollah has “for years” been able to enter Israel, the Lebanese group’s leader said on Saturday, responding for the first time to Israel’s discovery of tunnels dug into Israeli territory from Lebanon. Israel’s unveiling of what it called Hezbollah “attack tunnels” last month, and Lebanon’s accusation that...
Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki makes Oscar history
January 25th, 20190 It's definitely a great day for Nadine Labaki, who has made history as the first Arab female filmmaker to ever be nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category. Labaki's film, Capernaum, gives Lebanon back-to-back foreign-language nomination following Ziad Doueiri's The Insult, which was nominated last...
Earth’s magnetic North Pole shifting drastically
January 25th, 20191 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Rapid and irregular movements of Earth’s north magnetic pole prompted an emergency update to a model assisting with navigation. The scheduled fix was supposed to happen on January 15, but the U.S. government shutdown forced a delay. In the last 30 years, the rate of distance that the magnetic north pole moves per...
American diplomats given 72 hours to leave Venezuela after Maduro breaks off relations with the U.S.
January 24th, 20190 CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Venezuelan socialist leader Nicolas Maduro has reportedly declared that the country is breaking relations with the United States. Maduro, who became president in 2013 and whose continuing tenure is now in dispute, has given American diplomats 72 hours to leave Venezuela, according to a report from...
Israel strikes in Syria in more open confrontation with Iran
January 21st, 20190 The head of Iran’s air force said on Monday the country was impatient to fight Israel and destroy it, a state-linked news website said. “The young people in the air force are fully ready and impatient to confront the Zionist regime and eliminate it from the Earth,” Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh was quoted as saying by the...
FBI detains American-born journalist without charge
January 17th, 20190 ST. LOUIS, MO — An American-born Iran-based journalist has been detained inside U.S. territories without charge. On Sunday January 13, the FBI took into custody American-born journalist and anchor Marzieh Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin, upon her arrival at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, according to her family and...
Bernie Sanders slams ‘absurd’ introduction of anti-BDS bill in Congress
January 15th, 20190 WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the U.S. government shutdown continues, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has slammed the “absurd” introduction of a bill targeting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, may run again for president in 2020. He tweeted out an article in the...
Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun lands in Canada after Trudeau grants her asylum
January 13th, 20190 TORONTO — Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun tweeted an image of herself with the caption “third country – I did it” on Friday, January 11 next to an airplane, as she landed in Toronto to begin the next phase of her life. The 18-year-old had been barricaded inside a Bangkok, Thailand hotel room to avoid deportation and...
Japanese citizens hold most powerful passport ranking
January 12th, 20190 Japan has the strongest passport in the world, followed by Singapore and South Korea. Japanese citizens can travel visa free and obtains visas on arrival in 190 destinations. according to the 2019 Henley Passport Index. Singapore and South Korea share second place. Those countries’ citizens can visit 189 nations without needing......
Iran rejects U.S. warning against space launches, ballistic missiles
January 3rd, 20190 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected a U.S. warning against carrying out space vehicle launches and missile tests, saying on Thursday they did not violate a U.N. resolution. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a pre-emptive warning to Iran earlier on Thursday against pursuing three planned space rocket...
Survey finds many Americans lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust
January 3rd, 20191 The conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany released survey findings that show one-third of Americans think “substantially less" than 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The survey, which highlights a lack of basic knowledge about the World War II genocide, showed a notable lack of understanding among...
Brazil wants to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, but no date set yet
January 3rd, 20190 BRASILIA - There is still no date set for when Brazil will move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but there is a clear intention to do so, the national security adviser to newly inaugurated President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday. Speaking in the capital Brasilia, retired army general Augusto Heleno said there were,...
Immigrants to high-income countries may be healthier than native-born people
December 29th, 20180 A new research review has suggested that international migrants who come to high income countries to work, study or join families are less likely to die prematurely than people born in their new homelands, according to a report from Reuters. “Migrants to rich countries have lower rates of death due to most major disease areas......
Sudanese security forces use stun grenades to disperse protesters
December 28th, 20180 KHARTOUM - Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at anti-government protesters in Khartoum and other cities on Friday, the tenth day of demonstrations sparked by an economic crisis. Protests over rising prices, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crunch erupted in the city of Atbara over a week ago and...
Government reviewing reports of Chinese forced labor goods in U.S. market
December 21st, 20180 WASHINGTON— The U.S. government said Tuesday it is reviewing reports of forced labor at a Chinese internment camp where ethnic minorities are sewing clothes being shipped to the U.S. market. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that reports from the AP and other media “appears to link the internment camps......
Several killed, arrested as protests over soaring prices spread in Sudan
December 21st, 20180 KHARTOUM — At least eight people were killed in protests across Sudan on Thursday as thousands took to the streets against soaring prices, with some calling for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, officials and witnesses told Reuters. Six died in the eastern city of al-Qadarif and two more in northern Nile River state,...
Israel claims it sealed off cross-border tunnels from Lebanon
December 21st, 20180 TEL AVIV — The Israeli military claimed it sealed off four tunnels on Thursday that it said had been dug by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah under the border from Lebanon. The work was being carried out on the Israeli side of the frontier demarcation, known as the “Blue Line”, according to an Israeli military......
