Iraqi militia executes 15, hangs them in public square
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Shi'a militia forces executed 15 alleged Islamic State militants and then hung them from electricity poles in a public square in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday, police said.With Iraq sliding ever closer to all-out sectarian civil war, a car bomb exploded near restaurants and shops in the...
Israel bombs school, market, as world watches
August 1st, 20140 A boy stands in the ruins of a UN school in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip.GAZA — Israel and Hamas have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire in their conflict in the Gaza Strip starting on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday."The ceasefire will begin at 8:00 am local time on Friday,...Israel lobby galvanises support for Gaza war
WASHINGTON — Pro-Israel activists assembled a huge crowd and a long list of congressional leaders and diplomats to declare their unconditional support for Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip on Monday, largely downplaying tensions between Jerusalem and Washington.Key congressional figures from both the Republican...Three killed in car bomb in Cairo
CAIRO — Three people were killed in a car bomb blast on Wednesday in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt's state-run Nile Television said.Another state news outlet, Al-Ahram, quoted Brigadier Mahmoud Shawki, a police officer, as saying those killed had been inside the car and were likely to have been on their way to carry out a...Army breaks up protests as Yemen raises fuel prices
A demonstrator blocks a street with burning tyres during a protest against fuel price hikes in Sanaa July 30.SANAA — One woman was killed in protests that erupted in Sanaa on Wednesday after the Yemeni government announced a rise in fuel prices.Witnesses and a medical source told Reuters the protester was killed as the army fired into...Libyan jihadists declare Benghazi ‘Islamic emirate’
Fighters from the Benghazi Shura Council, which includes former rebels and militants from al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Sharia, gesture on top of a tank next to the camp of the special forces in Benghazi.BENGHAZI — Libya’s Islamist militant group Ansar al-Sharia has said that it seized complete control of Benghazi late on Wednesday,...Islamic State militants open office for potential wives
DAMASCUS — Islamic State insurgents have opened an office in northern Syria where single women and widows can register to marry fighters from the radical al Qaeda offshoot, a monitoring group said on Monday.The office in al-Bab, a town northeast of Aleppo city, records the names and addresses of the women so that Islamic State...What the August 5 primary ballot proposals mean to you
Voters are being asked to go to the polls next week to not only cast their ballots for candidates in various primary races, but also to weigh in on important statewide and county-level proposals that will impact businesses, school districts and public transportation. It is crucial to vote on these proposals because of the...Recruiting to kill – Western ‘Israeli Jihadists‘
To some, Secretary of state John Kerry may have appeared to be a genuine peacemaker as he floated around ideas during a Cairo visit on July 25 about a ceasefire between Israel and resisting Palestinian fighters in Gaza. But behind his measured diplomatic language, there is a truth not even America’s top diplomat can easily hide. His...U.S. Condemns Shelling of U.N. School in Gaza
WASHINGTON - The White House condemned on Wednesday the shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip that was sheltering Palestinians displaced by the fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.The U.S. didn't assign responsibility for the shelling, but Gaza officials say Israel struck the school, killing 15 and wounding 90....Qatar Emir visits Saudi king to discuss Gaza
RIYADH — Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Tuesday, July 22, met Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Jeddah for talks that focused on the situation in Gaza."Qatar is committed to the Palestinian people and wants to do everything to stop the killing," said a Doha-based source "The emir's visit to Saudi comes as part of...ISIS deadline for Iraqi Christians passes with mass flight
A Chrisitan home marked with the Arabic equivilant of the letter "N" by ISIS.The last Christians in northern Iraq are fleeing from places where their communities have lived for almost 2,000 years, as a deadline passed for them to either convert to Islam, pay a special tax or be killed.It is the greatest mass flight of Christians in the...
Israel bombs UN shelter in Gaza as its army suffers heavy losses
July 25th, 20140 Israeli soldiers evacuate their wounded comrades at an army deployment area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, on July 20, 2014.GAZA — Gazan authorities said Israeli forces shelled a shelter at a U.N.-run school on Thursday, July 24, killing at least 15 people as the Palestinian death toll in the conflict climbed over 760 and...Watchdog: All toxic chemicals removed from Syria
DAMASCUS — According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), all the toxic chemicals removed from Syria under a deal with the Syrian government to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country.OPCW said in a statement, Thursday, July 23, that the...Kuwait’s government strips opposition figures of citizenship, shuts media outlets
Anti-government demonstration in Kuwait City.KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait's government has revoked the citizenship of two opposition figures and some family members and shut two media outlets, the state news agency, Kuna reported, in moves that could deepen a political crisis in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state.The move comes after the cabinet......
Yemen president: Houthis agree to return town to state control
SANAA — On Wednesday, July 23, Yemen's president visited a town close to the capital that had been captured by Shi'a Houthi fighters this month, and said all sides had agreed to allow the state to retake control, state news agency Saba reported.President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi went to Amran, 50 kms (30 miles) north of Sanaa, to check...Algerian plane crashes north of Mali, 20 Lebanese passengers on board
Randa Daher and her daughter, two reported Lebanese passengers who were on the ill-fated plane.ALGIERS — An Air Algerie flight crashed on Thursday, July 24, en route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers with 110 passengers on board, an Algerian aviation official said.There were few clear indications of what might have happened......
Clashes in Benghazi kill at least nine
BENGHAZI — At least nine people were killed and 19 wounded, mostly civilians, in heavy clashes overnight in Benghazi as government forces tried to oust Islamist militants holed up in Libya's eastern port city, medical sources said on Thursday, July 24.The fighting late on Wednesday involved aircraft and ground troops and followed more...Australian woman arrested in Lebanon for adultery
BEIRUT — A Sydney woman was arrested arrested for adultery in Lebanon. Mahassen Issa, a mother of two, who had recently separated from her husband, was arrested after traveling to Tripoli last month to visit her new boyfriend.The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed it is providing assistance to an Australian...Bahrain asks court to temporarily suspend two more opposition groups
MANAMA — Bahrain has asked a court to temporarily suspend the activities of two more opposition groups, state news agency BNA said on Thursday, July 24, in a move that could further deepen political tensions in the Gulf Arab state.The decision came less than a week after the Justice Ministry filed a lawsuit against Bahrain's main...
Ficano: ‘Don’t brush aside our accomplishments’
July 18th, 20140 DEARBORN — “We've accomplished a lot things that many critics will try to brush off," said Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.Ficano, a former Wayne County sheriff, assumed his duties as county executive in 2003 and is hoping to earn a fourth four-year term. He faces a tough primary challenge next month. But even as his......
Israel launches Gaza ground invasion
July 18th, 20140 A mother of one of the four children killed on Gaza beach.GAZA — Israeli tanks entered Gaza on Thursday night after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion, a major escalation in a 10 day offensive that has already killed more than 231 Palestinians. Witnesses in Gaza reported heavy bombing from jets,...Baghdad blast claimed by Islamic State, suicide car bomb kill nine
People gather at the site of bomb attack at a market in Baghdad's Sadr City, July 16. At least nine people were killed when two car bombs went off simultaneously in a popular market in Baghdad , police and witnesses said. REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili BAGHDAD — A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State militant group killed three......
Confident Assad launches new term in stronger position
A still image taken from the inauguration video of Syria's president Bashar Al Assad who was sworn in, on July 16.DAMASCUS — Bashar al-Assad was sworn in for a new term as Syria's president on Wednesday, July 16, after a June 3 election, which his opponents dismiss as a sham but which he said proved he had achieved victory after a...Report: Child marriages on the rise among Syrian refugees in Jordan
AMMAN — The number of child marriages has doubled among Syrian refugee girls in Jordan because of poverty and fear of sexual violence, international agencies said on Wednesday, July 16.Save the Children, in a report, "Too Young to Wed," said children marrying in Syria before the country's conflict erupted in 2011 accounted for 13......