Iran rejects U.S. warning against space launches, ballistic missiles
January 3rd, 20190 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected a U.S. warning against carrying out space vehicle launches and missile tests, saying on Thursday they did not violate a U.N. resolution. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a pre-emptive warning to Iran earlier on Thursday against pursuing three planned space rocket...
Survey finds many Americans lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust
January 3rd, 20191 The conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany released survey findings that show one-third of Americans think “substantially less" than 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. The survey, which highlights a lack of basic knowledge about the World War II genocide, showed a notable lack of understanding among...
Brazil wants to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, but no date set yet
January 3rd, 20190 BRASILIA - There is still no date set for when Brazil will move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but there is a clear intention to do so, the national security adviser to newly inaugurated President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday. Speaking in the capital Brasilia, retired army general Augusto Heleno said there were,...
Immigrants to high-income countries may be healthier than native-born people
December 29th, 20180 A new research review has suggested that international migrants who come to high income countries to work, study or join families are less likely to die prematurely than people born in their new homelands, according to a report from Reuters. “Migrants to rich countries have lower rates of death due to most major disease areas...
Sudanese security forces use stun grenades to disperse protesters
December 28th, 20180 KHARTOUM - Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades at anti-government protesters in Khartoum and other cities on Friday, the tenth day of demonstrations sparked by an economic crisis. Protests over rising prices, shortages of basic commodities and a cash crunch erupted in the city of Atbara over a week ago and...
Government reviewing reports of Chinese forced labor goods in U.S. market
December 21st, 20180 WASHINGTON— The U.S. government said Tuesday it is reviewing reports of forced labor at a Chinese internment camp where ethnic minorities are sewing clothes being shipped to the U.S. market. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that reports from the AP and other media “appears to link the internment camps...
Several killed, arrested as protests over soaring prices spread in Sudan
December 21st, 20180 KHARTOUM — At least eight people were killed in protests across Sudan on Thursday as thousands took to the streets against soaring prices, with some calling for the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, officials and witnesses told Reuters. Six died in the eastern city of al-Qadarif and two more in northern Nile River state,...
Israel claims it sealed off cross-border tunnels from Lebanon
December 21st, 20180 TEL AVIV — The Israeli military claimed it sealed off four tunnels on Thursday that it said had been dug by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah under the border from Lebanon. The work was being carried out on the Israeli side of the frontier demarcation, known as the “Blue Line”, according to an Israeli military...
Netanyahu threatens to intensify attacks against Iran in Syria after U.S. exit
December 21st, 20180 TEL AVIV — Israel will escalate its attacks against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. Some Israeli officials have said President Trump’s move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a U.S. garrison that...
Trump orders withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, claims victory against ISIS
December 21st, 20180 WASHINGTON — President Trump has begun what will be a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, declaring on Wednesday they have succeeded in their mission to defeat ISIS and were no longer needed in the country. A decision to pull out completely, confirmed by U.S. officials, coincides with the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops finishing...
Israel will authorize thousands of illegal settler homes in occupied West Bank
December 14th, 20180 TEL AVIV — Israel will authorize thousands of the settler homes built illegally in the occupied West Bank, some of them decades ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. The move is likely to please pro-settler members of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition while further angering Palestinians, who want the West...
Jordanians stage new anti-austerity protests in the capital
December 14th, 20180 AMMAN — Jordanian authorities deployed hundreds of riot police in the capital and warned activists to stay within the law on Thursday as hundreds of demonstrators staged more protests against tough austerity measures backed by the International Monetary Fund. Large demonstrations in the summer over an unpopular IMF-backed tax bill...
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell: Congress has a moral responsibility to end the war in Yemen
December 14th, 20180 WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D- Dearborn) has released an official statement highly critical of continued U.S. military action in Yemen, based in large part on feedback from constituents in her hometown of Dearborn. “Families in my hometown are telling me about horrific conditions," Dingell said in a statement released...
Yemen’s warring parties agree to ceasefire in Hodeidah and U.N. role
December 14th, 20180 RIMBO, Sweden — Yemen’s warring parties agreed on Thursday to cease fighting for the Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah and withdraw their troops, the first significant breakthrough for U.N.-led peace efforts in five years of conflict. At the close of a week of talks in Sweden, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a...
U.S. Senate deals Trump double rebuke on Saudi Arabia
December 14th, 20180 WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate delivered a rare double rebuke to President Trump on Saudi Arabia on Thursday, voting to end U.S. military support for the war in Yemen and blaming the Saudi crown prince for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The votes were largely symbolic because to become law the resolutions would have to pass......
Hopeful start to Yemen talks in Stockholm: Free thousands of prisoners
December 9th, 20180 STOCKHOLM — Yemen’s warring sides agreed to free thousands of prisoners on Thursday, in what a U.N. mediator called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in years to end a war that has pushed millions of people on the verge of starvation. U.N. mediator Martin Griffiths told a news conference in a renovated castle outside...
Congresswoman-elect Rashida Tlaib to lead delegation to Israeli-occupied West Bank
December 9th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Due in large part to the abundance of pro-Israel lobbying from organizations like AIPAC, Congressmen and Congresswomen in the United States have largely avoided pledging any support for Palestinians, vocal or otherwise. But newly-elected Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from the 13th District,......
U.S. fails to win enough support at U.N. to condemn Hamas
December 7th, 20180 UNITED NATIONS — A U.S. attempt to get the United Nations to condemn the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the first time failed on Thursday because the draft resolution fell short of votes needed in the General Assembly. The resolution required two-thirds support and while Assembly resolutions are non-binding, they can carry...
America mourns the 41st president, George H. W. Bush
December 7th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — St. Martin's Episcopal Church was the site of Wednesday's memorial service for former President George H. W. Bush, a Republican and father of six, including his eldest son, President George W. Bush. Bush, 94, the nation's 41st president, had been battling several diseases in recent years, including vascular...
Lebanese man fined $50 million, sent to prison for helping Hezbollah
December 7th, 20180 WASHINGTON — A Lebanese businessman sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for being an important financial supporter of Hezbollah pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges associated with evading U.S. sanctions imposed on him, the U.S. Justice Department said. Kassim Tajideen, 63, pleaded guilty to conspiring with at least five...
Francis to become first pope to visit Arabian peninsula
December 7th, 20180 VATICAN CITY — The first visit by a pope to the Arabian peninsula will take place in February when Pope Francis travels to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Vatican said on Thursday. The Feb. 3-5 trip, Francis’ latest to a predominantly Muslim nation, will be centered around the theme of inter-religious peace. The......
Israel asks Lebanon to destroy tunnel allegedly dug by Hezbollah across border
December 7th, 20180 Israel asked Lebanon’s army and U.N. peacekeepers on Thursday to destroy a tunnel it said had been dug by the Hezbollah group across the border into what it called its territory. Israel’s occupation forces said this week it had identified a number of passages and sent diggers and troops close the front line with Lebanon to block...
King of Malaysia marries former Miss Moscow
December 2nd, 20180 MOSCOW —Photos surfaced on Facebook revealing that 49-year-old King of Malaysia Muhammad V of Kelantan married the 25-year old former Miss Moscow. The photos and a video clip were posted to Facebook Friday. Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina apparently married the Malaysian king in Barvikha, a luxury village in Moscow......
From Gaza to Dearborn: Mohammed Abu Hussein lost his leg, but not his hope
December 2nd, 20180 DEARBORN – The Palestinian struggle carries countless stories of suffering and injustice. Such is the case with Mohammed Abu Hussein, a young Palestinian boy who lost his right leg in June during the Great March of Return along the Gaza border against the Israeli occupation. Mohammed is currently in Dearborn, where he will receive a...
The mother of all Arabic dictionaries makes its debut online
December 1st, 20180 WEST BANK — A computer science professor at Birzeit University has built an online tool called Arabic Ontology that is both a comprehensive dictionary of Arabic and a system that will enable the creation of new Arabic-language software, such as better machine translation. Mustafa Jarrar, an associate professor in the department of......
