Israel to expand West Bank settlements
Israel has given preliminary approval for the construction of more than 800 new homes in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank, an Israeli official has said.Guy Inbar, the spokesman for Israel's military-run Civil Administration in the West Bank, said on Thursday, Aug. 8, that initial plans to build 800 new settler homes were...
Municipal primary election results
August 9th, 20130 Tuesday’s Aug. 6 Primary Election results from races in the cities of Detroit, Hamtramck and Dearborn are listed below. Arab Americans claimed victories in major races. Yemeni American Hamtramck Mayoral Candidate Dr. Abdul Algazali managed to beat the City’s current mayor, Karen Majewski, and first time Dearborn City Council...Duggan surprise victory intensifies Detroit Mayoral race
DETROIT — After a long and challenging start to his campaign, Mike Duggan was finally able to celebrate a victory, after the Primary results came in for the Detroit mayoral race this week.As a write-in candidate, Duggan received the most votes in the Primary, more than any candidate on the ballot, including Wayne County Sheriff Benny...UN: July deadliest month in Iraq since 2008
The UN has released the latest casualty figures and expressed concern about the high number of dead and wounded who were killed in the month of July. According to United Nations Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), 1,057 Iraqis were killed and another 2,326 were wounded in July 2013.The number of civilians, including civilian police, killed was...Assad visits troops in Daraya, assures them of victory
Damascus — State television said Assad visited the town of Daraya, southwest of Damascus, on Thursday, Aug. 1, to meet members of the security forces.A picture posted on the presidency's Facebook page showed Assad, in a suit, shaking the hand of a uniformed soldier. Behind them was a scene of war; wires hanging from electricity pylons...Ex-envoy to Israel to oversee Mideast “peace talks”
WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday named a former ambassador to Israel as the top envoy to negotiate the new round of talks between Israel and officials from the western-backed Palestinian Authority.Just hours before Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to resume talks frozen for three years, Kerry said...Saudi Arabia sentences secular activist to 600 lashes, seven years prison
RIYADH - A Saudi court sentenced, on Monday, a rights activist to seven years in jail and 600 lashes for setting up a "liberal" network and alleged insults to Islam, activists said."Raef Badawi has been sentenced to seven years in jail and 600 lashes," lawyer Waleed Abualkhair wrote on his Twitter account, adding that the judge ordered...Egypt’s rulers tell pro-Morsi protesters to clear the squares
Egypt's army-backed government warned supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, on Thursday Aug. 1, to abandon their Cairo protest camps, promising them a safe exit, if they gave up without a fight.The appeal, made by Interior Ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif on state television, followed the government's declaration, on July 31,...
Egypt braces for rival rallies, army signals crackdown
July 26th, 20130 A deeply polarised Egypt braced for bloodshed on Friday, July 26, in rival mass rallies summoned by the army that ousted the state's first freely elected president and by the Islamists who back him.Both sides warned of a decisive struggle for the future of the Arab world's most populous country, convulsed by political and economic...Politician assassination sparks new wave of protests in Tunisia
Tunis - Tunisian opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi was shot dead outside his home in Tunis on Thursday, July 25, in the second such assassination this year, setting off violent protests against the Islamist-led government in the capital and elsewhere."This criminal gang has killed the free voice of Brahmi," his widow, Mbarka Brahmi,...WHO’s Iraq birth defect study omits causation
UNITED NATIONS - A long-awaited study on congenital birth defects by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Iraq is expected to be very extensive in nature.According to WHO, 10,800 households were selected as a sample size for the study, which was scheduled to be released early this year, but has not yet...Hizbullah says EU decision invites Israeli attack on Lebanon
BEIRUT - Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Wednesday, July 24, the European Union had given Israel justification to attack Lebanon by blacklisting the armed wing of his group, and would bear responsibility for any Israeli military action.The bloc agreed earlier this week to list what it described as the military wing of...Syria war spills violence into Lebanon, Turkey
A convoy carrying members of Hizbullah was hit by a roadside bomb near the Syrian border on Tuesday, July 16. The bomb killed one Hizbullah security official and wounded two, security sources said.The conflict is spilling over Syria's northern border, where Turkish troops returned fire, after stray bullets from Syria struck the police...Report: CIA tips Hizbullah of bombing plot
BEIRUT — The CIA recently tipped off Hizbullah about a bomb plot, even though the two have been engaged in a feud, going back 23 years, Lebanese officials said.On March 8, 1985, at the height of Lebanon's civil war, a team of Lebanese hard cases, hired by the CIA, killed 80 people in a car bombing in the Hizbullah-controlled...U.S. suggests Egyptian military may have averted civil war
Egypt may have avoided a civil war this month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, saying this was one factor to weigh as Washington decides whether to cut off most U.S. aid to the Arab nation.The armed forces deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on July 3 after huge street protests against his rule, clearing the......
Fatah, Israel snub Kerry draft peace plan
Palestinian politicians rebuffed Thursday a peace blueprint hashed out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with president Mahmoud Abbas in a major blow to the American politician's marathon peace efforts.A senior Fatah official said the party wanted changes to what Abbas had agreed."Fatah wants to make some alterations to Kerry's...Reconciliation is crucial for Egypt’s future
Has the recent coup in Egypt served the cause of democracy? Time will tell.In removing President Morsi from power, the military has swiftly responded to a second round of a popular uprising and to a rapidly worsening economy. In one year, Morsi managed to accelerate the deterioration of an already dysfunctional socio-economic......
Russia: Syrian rebels likely behind Aleppo chemical attack
July 12th, 20130 Russian scientific analysis indicated a deadly projectile that hit a suburb of the Syrian city of Aleppo on March 19 contained the nerve agent sarin and was most likely fired by rebels. The incident at Khan al-Assal in the northern province of Aleppo killed more than two dozen people. Both the government and rebels have blamed each...Study: Corruption worsens in Arab countries since uprisings
DUBAI — Corruption has worsened in most Arab countries since the 2011 revolutions, even though anger with corrupt officials was a major reason for the uprisings, according to a public opinion poll released on Tuesday.The survey by Transparency International, a global non-governmental body, which studies bribery around the world,...Egypt faces potential wheat shortage
Egypt has less than two months' supply of imported wheat left in its stocks, ousted President Mohamed Morsi's minister of supplies said, revealing a shortage more acute than previously disclosed.Speaking to Reuters on July 11 in a tent at a vigil where thousands of Morsi supporters are protesting against the Islamist president's removal,...Gulf countries pledge billions to post- Morsi Egypt, U.S. to maintain aid
In the aftermath of the military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, Saudi Arabia approved $5 billion in aid to Egypt on Tuesday, July 9, and the United Arab Emirates has offered $3 billion in desperately needed support for the economy.In addition, the Obama Administration sent a clear message that it would continue its foreign aid to......
Violence across Iraq kills at least 44
July 12th, 20130 Bombers and gunmen attacked policemen and a wake in Iraq among other targets, killing at least 44 people across the country on Thursday, July 11.Gunmen opened fire on two checkpoints, guarding oil installations on the road between Haditha and Baiji, 111 miles north of the capital, killing 11 people, police said.In the town of Muqdadiya,...Election officials allow Duggan to run write-in campaign
DETROIT — Mayoral candidate Tom Barrow's efforts to keep Mike Duggan off the election ballot as a write-in candidate have been rejected by Michigan Election Director Chris Thomas.In a letter sent out by Thomas on Tuesday, he explains that the State has no authority to remove write-in candidates. The Detroit City Charter requires no......
Mixed regional reaction to Morsi’s removal
In an unprecedented move, the Egyptian army ousted President Mohamed Morsi after three days of mass protest— Reuters, TAAN on Wednesday, July 3. Army Chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, surrounded by the country's mainstream religious leaders, announced a "road map" that suspended the Constitution, ousted Morsi and named Supreme...
Assad says only an invasion would topple him, as the battle rages in Central Syria
July 5th, 20130 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he and his government would survive the civil war, having endured everything his opponents could do to topple him, and only the distant prospect of direct foreign military intervention could change that.After steady rebel gains in the first two years of civil war, Syria became stuck in a bloody......
