UAE court convicts 11 on terror charges
ABU DHABI — A United Arab Emirates court convicted 11 men including UAE, Syrian and Comoros nationals of helping to form an al-Qaeda affiliate and sending fighters to join Syrian rebel groups, newspapers reported on Wednesday. Four Emiratis among the 11 were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the state security division of...Saudi Arabia links “Islamic State” to shooting of Danish man
RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has arrested three suspects in connection with the shooting of a Danish man in Riyadh last month, and investigations show it was carried out on behalf of "Islamic State", an interior ministry spokesman said on Thursday. The spokesman, Major General Mansour Turki, said security forces recovered the handgun and a...Egyptian pro-democracy activist sentenced to three years
CAIRO — Egyptian pro-democracy activist Ahmed Douma was sentenced to three years in jail on Tuesday after he accused the judge of bias and denounced his trial on charges of violence against the state as political. Douma was a leading youth figure in the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak at the height of the "Arab Spring." He is...Al-Azhar urges Christians to stand firm in face of extremists
Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (R), Coptic Pope Tawadros (C) at conference on fighting extremism on Dec. 3.CAIRO — Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious center of learning, on Thursday urged Christians in the Arab world to stand firm in the face of jihadist violence and not flee into exile.The call, made at a Cairo conference organized by...UAE arrest suspected of killing US teacher
ABU DHABI — An Emirati woman has been arrested over the fatal stabbing of an American teacher and a foiled plot to bomb the home of another U.S. citizen, UAE authorities said Thursday.Kindergarten teacher Ibolya Ryan, 47, was found stabbed to death Monday in a bloody bathroom in an Abu Dhabi mall.Interior Minister Sheikh Saif Bin...Egyptian court sentences 185 to death for attack on police
Police officers stand in front of a police station damaged after being set ablaze by supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi in Kerdasa, Sept. 19, 2013.CAIRO — An Egyptian judge sentenced 185 Muslim Brotherhood supporters to death on Tuesday over an attack on a police station near Cairo last year in which 12 policemen were...UNICEF: Food aid halt pushing more Syrian refugee girls to early marriage
Syrian refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.DAMASCUS — The halt in U.N. food supplies to 1.7 million Syrian refugees makes it more likely that refugee children will be forced to go to work or marry early to help their families survive, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Thursday.The World Food Programme (WFP)...Assad: U.S. airstrikes illegal and ineffective
Assad.DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Thursday he expected his country's conflict to be long and difficult but vowed to defeat the insurgents battling to oust him and said he would not be driven from power.Assad told the French magazine Paris Match nobody could predict when the war with...UNESCO calls for ending “cultural cleansing” in Iraq and Syria
the Umayyad Mosque in the old city of Aleppo, on fire during clashes between government troops and rebels.PARIS — UNESCO chief Irina Bokova on Wednesday called for the creation of "protected cultural zones" to save heritage sites in conflict-torn Iraq and Syria that were at risk of "cultural cleansing."Efforts should start with the...Militant ambush kills 6 soldiers in northeast Lebanon
BEIRUT — Unidentified militants ambushed a Lebanese Army patrol in the country's restive northeast Tuesday, killing six soldiers and wounding one, the Army and security sources said.According to an Army statement, a military unit was ambushed by a "terrorist group" in the outskirts of Ras Baalbek around 5:10 p.m. during a routine...Bombs kill 35 in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Bombs in the Iraqi capital Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk killed 35 people on Thursday, mostly in Shi'a and Kurdish neighborhoods, police and medical sources said.The five separate attacks come as Shi'a militia and Kurdish peshmerga fighters battle militants from the "Islamic State" who have taken over large parts of...Tunisia’s parliament appoints secularist speaker
TUNIS — Tunisia's first full elected parliament on Thursday appointed Mohammed Nacer, vice president of the secular party that won last month's election, as its speaker.Nidaa Tounes won 86 of the 217 seats in parliament, ahead of the Islamist Ennahda party, with 69.Nacer, 80, held several ministerial posts under Habib Bourguiba,...Saudi suspends aid to Yemen after Houthi takeover
SANAA — Saudi Arabia has suspended most of its financial aid to Yemen, Yemeni and Western sources said, in a clear indication of its dissatisfaction with the growing political power of Shi'a Houthi fighters backed by Riyadh's regional rival, Iran.Yemen, which is battling an al-Qaeda insurgency, a southern secessionist movement, endemic...“Islamic State” gaining foothold in Libya
An armed motorcade proceeds along a road in Derna, eastern Libya, Oct. 3.TRIPOLI — With Libya engulfed in chaos, the town of Derna in the east of the largely lawless country is emerging as a new stronghold for the "Islamic State", experts say.The North African state has been wracked by instability since the overthrow of autocratic...Israeli bus driver runs over two Palestinians
Noor Hassan Naim Salim, victim in Jenin bus attack.RAMALLAH — An Israeli bus driver ran over two Palestinians at al-Jalama checkpoint in Jenin, killing one and injuring the other, Palestinian security sources said Tuesday. The security sources said Noor Hassan Naim Salim, 22, and Alaa Kayid Salim, 20, from Nablus were injured......
Sectarian clashes kill five in Sanaa
SANAA — Five people were killed in clashes between Houthi fighters and Sunni tribal opponents in Sanaa early on Wednesday, medical sources said, in some of the worst violence in Yemen's capital since it was seized by the Houthi movement in September.Residents of the Hasba area of the capital said clashes erupted between Houthi fighters...Egypt plans anti-terrorism law against ‘disrupting order’
Students of Cairo University march during an anti-coup protest in Cairo on Nov. 17.CAIRO — Egypt's cabinet approved on Wednesday a draft anti-terrorism law that would give the government blanket power to ban groups on charges ranging from harming national unity to disrupting public order.Authorities have cracked down hard on Islamist,......
Tunisian secularist wins first round in presidential elections
Beji Caid Essebsi (C), leader of Tunisia's secular Nidaa Tounes party and a presidential candidate, gestures after casting his vote at a polling station in Tunis Nov. 23.TUNIS — Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi has narrowly beaten incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of a landmark presidential election,...Qatar training Syrian rebels near Doha
Rebel fighters prepare to fire a machine gun towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the Jabal al-Akrad area in Syria's northwestern Latakia province Nov. 25.DOHA — At a desert base, Gulf state Qatar is covertly training Syrian rebels with U.S. help to fight both President Bashar al-Assad and the "Islamic State"...Syrian warplanes bomb “Islamic State” stronghold
Smoke rises after airstrikes by the Syrian army in Raqqa, Nov. 25.DAMASCUS — At least 63 people, half of them civilians, were killed when Syrian war planes struck the northeastern city of Raqqa on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria.Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based...Bomb injures two policemen in Bahriain
MANAMA — A bomb injured two Bahraini policemen on Tuesday, authorities said, amid high tension after the opposition boycotted the country's first elections since unrest rocked the island kingdom in 2011.The Interior Ministry said the explosion in the small village of Deraz, west of the capital Manama, was a "terror blast", but provided......
Closing of Egypt’s Rafah crossing leaves thousands of Gazans stranded
CAIRO — Egypt's decision to shut its border with the Gaza Strip has stranded thousands of Palestinians on the Egyptian side of the border, while around a thousand people in Gaza are desperate to get out for medical treatment in Egypt, officials in Gaza say.Egypt closed Rafah, the only crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Trip,...Aoun proposes face off with Geagea for president
BEIRUT — Member of Parliament Michel Aoun said Wednesday he was ready to face off with his Christian rival, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, in a presidential vote in Parliament if there was no third candidate, an unexpected stance that was quickly rebuffed by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.Jumblatt said he would not withdraw his......
Egypt arrests Brotherhood leader as crackdown intensifies
Ali Bishr.CAIRO — Egyptian police on Thursday detained Mohamed Ali Bishr, one of the few Muslim Brotherhood leaders to escape jail after last year's overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, extending a sweeping crackdown on political dissent.Bishr, a veteran politician who served as a cabinet minister under Morsi, was accused of...“Islamic State” beheads American aid worker
Abdul-Rahman (Peter) Kassig is pictured collecting bread for a delivery to refugee populations in this undated handout photo.DAMASCUS — "Islamic State" militants have beheaded another American hostage, Peter Kassig, issuing a video claiming the killing on Sunday and warning the United States they would kill other U.S. citizens "on......