Morocco arrests activist leading northern protests
May 30th, 20170 RABAT — A leading Moroccan activist was arrested on Monday alongside other protesters caught up in a wave of rallies against official abuses and corruption in the north, state media said. Nasser Zefzafi, who has helped organize months of protests, would be investigated on charges of "threatening national security" and other crimes,...
Suicide bomber kills 13, injures 24 at Baghdad ice cream shop
May 29th, 20170 BAGHDAD - On Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated a rigged vehicle outside of a popular ice cream shop in the Karrada district of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding at least 30 others, officials said. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's (ISIL) claimed responsibility, stating its intent in attacking a "gathering of...
Suicide bombers kill 3 police officers, wound 10 in Indonesia
May 25th, 20170 JAKARTA ― Two suspected suicide bombers killed three Indonesian police officers and injured 10 people on Wednesday night in twin blasts near a bus station in the eastern part of the capital, police said. The blasts went off five minutes apart at Jakarta's Kampung Melayu terminal, police said. National Police spokesman Setyo...
Jewish nation-state bill: Israel’s precarious identity is Palestine’s nightmare
May 19th, 20170 The Israeli Knesset (parliament) has hurriedly passed a new bill that defines Israel as the "national home of the Jewish people." Although the association between Jewishness and Israel goes back to the foundation of the state, the new law also carries clear discriminatory elements that target the country's Arab communities, numbering...
Palestinian killed as settler opens fire during clashes
May 19th, 20170 WEST BANK — A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts. A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show...
U.S. nears $100 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia
May 19th, 20170 WASHINGTON — The United States is close to completing a series of arms deals for Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100 billion, a senior White House official said on Friday, a week ahead of President Trump's planned visit to Riyadh. The official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the arms package could end up...
Trump visit seen as long shot to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking
May 19th, 20170 JERUSALEM — Just four months after taking office, Donald Trump will make the earliest foray into Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking by any U.S. president next week. But with mounting obstacles at home and abroad, he faces long odds of succeeding where more experienced predecessors have failed. Even as last-minute changes are being made...Fresh Syria peace talks off to another stumbling start
GENEVA — Syria peace talks hosted by the United Nations in Geneva spawned a new series of meetings on Thursday with no hint of tangible progress toward a deal to end the six-year-old civil war. U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura had promised a refreshingly brisk pace of business-like meetings over a short four-day round, with new...
Syrian government denies U.S. accusation of crematorium at prison
May 19th, 20171 DAMASCUS — The Syrian government on Tuesday denied U.S. accusations that a crematorium had been built at one of its prisons that could be used to dispose of detainees' remains. A foreign ministry statement published by state news agency SANA said the U.S. administration had come out with "a new Hollywood story detached from reality"...
Spread of fighting, cholera pushes Yemen to collapse
May 19th, 20170 SANAA, Yemen — Spilling into the hallways of crowded Yemeni hospitals, children writhe in pain from cholera. Displaced villagers roam baking hot plains and barren mountains to evade warring militias. The escalating outbreak of disease and displacement of tens of thousands by recent fighting has inflamed one of the world's worst...
Palestinian killed as settler opens fire during peaceful protest
May 18th, 20170 WEST BANK ― A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts. A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show...
Trump revealed classified intelligence to Russians about ISIS
May 15th, 20170 WASHINGTON ― President Trump disclosed highly classified information to the Russian foreign minister about a planned ISIS operation during their meeting last week, two U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation said on Monday. The intelligence, both officials said, was supplied by a U.S. ally in the fight against the militant...
U.S. to arm Syrian Kurds fighting ISIS
May 10th, 20170 VILNIUS ― Despite fierce opposition from NATO ally Turkey, President Trump has approved supplying arms to Kurdish YPG fighters to support an operation to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from ISIS, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Ankara views the Kurdish YPG militia, fighting within a larger U.S.-backed coalition, as the Syrian...
Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe
May 7th, 20171 PARIS- Emmanuel Macron was elected French president on Sunday with a business-friendly vision of European integration, defeating Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist who threatened to take France out of the European Union. The centrist's emphatic victory, which also smashed the dominance of France’s mainstream parties, will bring...
Syrian opposition returns to Astana after Erdogan, Putin summit
May 5th, 20170 SOCHI, RUSSIA — On Wednesday, the leaders of Russia and Turkey publicly re-affirmed their commitment to working together to end the conflict in Syria, despite a gas attack on a Syrian city that tested their fragile alliance Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, have formed a pact on Syria......
Thousands protest Yemen president’s discharging of southern leaders
May 5th, 20170 ADEN — Tens of thousands of Yemenis protested in Aden on Thursday against President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's discharging of the provincial governor and a cabinet minister widely praised for helping drive Houthis from the city in 2015. The two men discharged, Aden provincial governor Aydaroos al-Zubaidi and cabinet member Hani bin...Poll: Arab youth disapprove of Trump, see him as anti-Muslim
DUBAI — A majority of young Arabs see President Trump's election as the factor most influencing their region in the next five years, a survey published on Wednesday showed, and they expressed concern that the U.S. president was anti-Muslim. Trump signed an executive order in March banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations......
Turkey’s EU dream is over, for now
VALLETTA — Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan has turned its back on joining the European Union, at least for now, the bloc's top official dealing with Ankara said, offering economic cooperation instead if both sides can restore friendly ties. After years of deadlock on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, EU...
Lebanese army chief visits Washington, meets officials
May 5th, 20170 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Newly-appointed army commander General Joseph Aoun arrived in Washington, D.C. April 29 on an official visit, the first since assuming his post in March. The visit, which runs through May 6, is part of the ongoing Lebanese-U.S. military cooperation. Aoun received the invitation "through the established...
Deadly U.S. strike killed no militants in Mosul
May 5th, 20170 CAIRO — After an American airstrike killed more than 100 Iraqi civilians in a house in the western part of Mosul in March, U.S. officials suggested ISIS was to blame for the horrific toll, saying militants may have crammed the building with people, booby-trapped it with explosives, then lured in an airstrike by firing from the...
ISIS is developing own social media platform
May 5th, 20170 LONDON — ISIS militants are developing their own social media platform to avoid security crackdowns on their communications and propaganda, the head of the European Union's police agency said on Wednesday. Europol Director Rob Wainwright said the new online platform had been uncovered during a 48-hour operation against Internet......
Trump to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia in first foreign trip
May 4th, 20170 WASHINGTON ― President Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel this month as part of his first foreign trip, wading directly into the tangled diplomacy of Middle Eastern politics, a senior administration official said on Thursday. The swing through the Middle East, added to a trip that includes a NATO meeting in Brussels on May...
Pope visits Egypt to mend ties between Muslims and embattled Christians
April 30th, 20170 VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis hopes to mend ties with Muslims on his trip to Egypt on Friday, but faces criticism from church conservatives for meeting Islamic religious leaders after a spate of deadly attacks against Christians. In a video message to the people of Egypt on Tuesday, Francis said the world had been "torn by blind......
Israel strikes alleged arms depot near Damascus airport
April 30th, 20170 BEIRUT — Israeli warplanes struck a weapons supply hub operated by Hezbollah near Damascus airport on Thursday, targeting arms sent from Iran in commercial and military cargo aircraft, Syrian rebel and regional intelligence sources told Reuters. The Israeli military said later that one of its anti-aircraft missiles intercepted a...
China bans ‘Muhammad’ and ‘Jihad’ as baby names in Muslim populated region
April 30th, 20172 BEIJING — The Chinese government has prohibited parents from choosing certain Islamic names for their children, like "Muhammad", "Arafat" and "Jihad." Officials described the ban as part of an effort to "curb religious fervor" in the western region of Xinjiang, home to more than 10 million Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority......
