Terror shakes Baghdad in deadliest attacks this year
The scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City, May 11BAGHDAD — Three suicide bombings claimed by ISIS across Baghdad killed at least 80 people on Wednesday, Iraqi police and hospital sources said, in the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year.Security has gradually improved in Baghdad, which was the target of daily...Iraqi government says ISIS controls 14 percent of the country
Iraqi security forces with an ISIS flag pulled down in the town of Hit, April 2BAGHDAD — Iraq said on Wednesday its U.S.-backed military campaign against ISIS had retaken around two-thirds of the territory seized by the militants in their lightning sweep across the country's north and west in 2014."Daesh's presence in Iraqi cities and...Saudi security operation kills ISIS fighters outside Mecca
RIYADH — Saudi security forces shot dead two alleged ISIS fighters and two others blew themselves up outside the holy city of Mecca on Thursday, the interior ministry said.State-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported that the security forces surrounded the group in the Wadi Noman area south of the city, showing images of police trucks...Egyptian journalists demand sacking of interior minister
CAIRO — Thousands of Egyptian journalists called on Wednesday for the presidency to dismiss the interior minister and apologize for a police raid on the press syndicate and arrest of two opposition reporters.Defying a heavy police presence outside their union, around 3,000 journalists attended an emergency meeting to...Iraq’s all-female combat unit seeks revenge on ISIS
Iraqi fighters near Mosul, April 20BAGHDAD — When ISIS swept into the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in 2014, a few young Yazidi women took up arms against the militants attacking women and girls from their community."They took eight of my neighbors and I saw they were killing the children," Asema Dahir told Reuters last month at a...Yemen peace talks resume following world pressure
KUWAIT — Yemen's warring factions agreed on an agenda on Tuesday for U.N.-backed peace negotiations, delegates said, following heavy pressure from world powers.The talks to end fighting between the Iran-allied Houthis and supporters of Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi were launched last week but were...ISIS turns to selling fish, cars to offset oil losses
BAGHDAD — ISIS earns millions of dollars a month running car dealerships and fish farms in Iraq, making up for lower oil income after its battlefield losses, Iraqi judicial authorities said on Thursday.Security experts once estimated the terrorist group's annual income at $2.9 billion, much of it coming from oil and gas...U.N. council voices alarm at Israeli statements on Golan Heights
Benjamin Netanyahu poses with ministers prior to a cabinet meeting in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, April 17.The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday unanimously voiced alarm over Israeli statements about the Golan Heights on Syria's border with Israel, a declaration that elicited a sharp response from...Iraqi army makes modest advance south of Mosul
BAGHDAD — Iraq's armed forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air power captured a village in Nineveh province from ISIS on Wednesday, the first advance on the northern front since the offensive was paused three weeks ago.Mahana, sitting south of a main east-west road, became just the fourth village seized by the army in the...Israeli forces kill Palestinian woman and brother
PALESTINE - Israeli police shot dead a Palestinian woman and her teenage brother on Wednesday, saying they were armed with knives and tried to carry out an attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.Police said the woman, holding a knife, and a man walked rapidly towards police and other Israeli security guards in a...Egyptian police detained Italian student before his murder
CAIRO — An Italian student who was tortured and murdered in Egypt had been detained by police and then transferred to a compound run by Homeland Security the day he vanished, intelligence and police sources say. The claims contradict the official Egyptian account that security services had not arrested him.Giulio Regeni, a...Battle between Syrian government and Kurdish force kills 26
DAMASCUS —More than 21 pro-government militiamen have been killed in two days of battles with Syrian Kurdish forces in northeast Syria that has widened the Kurds' control over a city at the border with Turkey, a Syrian Kurdish official said.Five members of the Kurdish internal security force, the Asayish, were also killed...Obama, Saudi king talk Middle East conflicts
RIYADH — President Barack Obama met Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday to seek joint action on security threats including Iran and ISIS - and to talk through tensions between the two allies that have been laid bare in recent weeks.Obama's fourth and likely last visit to the world's top oil exporter has been...Syrian refugees in Lebanon at growing risk of forced labor
BEIRUT — A growing number of children whose families have fled the Syrian war to Lebanon are being forced to work for little or no pay, many of them in dangerous conditions, anti slavery experts said on Tuesday.About one million Syrians have fled to Lebanon, where they make up a quarter of the country's population. Many have no...Egyptian government warns against protests over Red Sea islands
CAIRO — Egypt's interior ministry said on Thursday it would take legal action against people who participate in demonstrations called by activists to protest Egypt's unexpected decision to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.The ministry urged Egyptians "not to get carried away by tendentious calls for protests and......
FIFA must step up human rights commitment
BOSTON — Soccer's embattled world governing body must make human rights one of its primary goals, on a par with promoting the sport and making money, according to recommendations by a former top U.N. official released on Thursday.FIFA should be prepared to use its negotiating leverage to ensure that countries bidding for its World...Jordanian police shut Muslim Brotherhood headquarters
AMMAN — Police in Jordan sealed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Amman on Wednesday, a senior figure in the Islamist movement said, as the authorities clamp down further on the kingdom's most vocal opposition group.The Brotherhood, which is close in ideology to its Egyptian namesake and has strong ties with the......
Sisi silences question on Red Sea islands
Sisi with King Salman of Saudi ArabiaCAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's speech on Wednesday was meant to staunch uproar over the transfer of two islands to Saudi Arabia, but his reprimand to an audience member ignited a furor over free speech.Parliamentarians, ministers and senior editors were invited to the...Saudi grand mufti: Driving would expose women to evil
Abdul Aziz Al ShaikhROYADH — Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz Al Shaikh has reiterated his opposition to allowing women to drive.The Mufti who has regularly held out against the lifting of the ban said driving would leave women vulnerable to a number of grave problems.“Driving cars could mean the opening of floodgates that...Israel intensifies demolition campaign against Palestinians
A Palestinian girl plays outside her family structure after it was demolished by Israeli forces, April 7UNITED NATIONS — In the past three months, the Israeli military has more than tripled its demolitions of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, United Nations' figures show, raising alarm among diplomats and human rights...Lebanon detains Australian TV crew over child custody row
The grandmother of the kidnapped children carries a picture of one of her grandkids BEIRUT — Lebanese police have detained an Australian film crew and accused them of involvement in a kidnapping of two children from their Lebanese father on behalf of their Australian mother."Four Australian nationals have been stopped on suspicion of......
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces will join offensive to retake Mosul
PMF fighters fire at ISIS militants near Tikrit, May 25, 2015BAGHDAD — An Iraqi Shi'a paramilitary group said it will join government forces preparing to fight ISIS for Mosul despite objections of politicians who fear this could instigate sectarian bloodshed in the mostly Sunni Muslim city.A much-touted government offensive to retake...
UAE jails three for alleged Hezbollah links
April 5th, 20160 DUBAI — A United Arab Emirates court sentenced two Lebanese nationals and a Lebanese-Canadian citizen to six months in jail followed by expulsion for setting up a group affiliated to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, local media said on Monday.The state news agency WAM did not identify the three but said they had set up a group of......
War is killing starving children in Yemen
UNITED NATIONS — Hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen face life-threatening malnutrition, millions lack access to health care or clean water, and some have been drafted as soldiers in the year-old war, the United Nations Children's Fund said on Tuesday.A UNICEF report said all sides had "exponentially increased" the use of...EgyptAir hijacker wanted to see ex-wife
LARNACA, Cyprus — An Egyptian man accused of hijacking a passenger plane and diverting it to Cyprus has told police he acted because he wanted to see his estranged wife and children, saying "what should one do?"The suspect, whom Cypriot and Egyptian authorities have identified as Seif Eldin Mustafa, 59, surrendered on......