Toronto Police: Van driver kills nine, injures 16 plowing his rental vehicle into a crowd
April 23rd, 20180 TORONTO - A driver plowed his white Ryder rental van into a crowd, killing nine people and injuring 16 along a roughly mile-long stretch of busy Toronto sidewalk during lunch hour on a sunny Monday afternoon, police said. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) identified the suspect as Alek Minassian, 25, without identifying its...
Bride among 20 killed, 50 wounded in Saudi-led airstrike that hit wedding in Yemen
April 23rd, 20180 SANAA - At least 20 people including the bride were killed when an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition hit a wedding party in northern Yemen, health officials have said. The dead were mostly women and children gathered in a tent set up for the wedding in the Bani Qayis district, according to Khaled al-Nadhri, the leading health...
OPCW inspectors have samples from alleged Douma’s chemical attack site
April 22nd, 20180 DAMASCUS- A team of inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited a site in Douma, Syria on Saturday to collect samples as it tries to determine whether such weapons were used there on April 7, the agency said. In a statement, the OPCW said it would now evaluate and consider whether the team...
Hundreds of refugees return to Syria from Lebanon
April 18th, 20180 SHEBAA, Lebanon — Several hundred Syrians who have lived for years as refugees in Lebanon left for their home country on Wednesday in a rare case of a mass return of those who left the country since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. Nearly 500 people, including children and the elderly, left the Shebaa area in southeast Lebanon in...
Syrian air defenses shoot down missiles in Homs
April 16th, 20180 AMMAN - Syrian anti-aircraft defenses shot down missiles that hit the Syrian air base of Shayrat in Homs province late Monday night, Syrian state television said. State television showed pictures of a missile that was shot in the air above the air base only days after a U.S., British and French attack on Syrian targets in retaliation...
France announces 50 million euro humanitarian aid for Syria
April 16th, 20180 PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday France will contribute 50 million euros ($61.9 million) toward urgent humanitarian aid for Syria following a meeting with a group of non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Paris. “This evening I brought together NGOs working on the ground in Syria. Faced with the...
Four Arab states stick by Qatar demands despite U.S. pressure to end rift
April 13th, 20180 CAIRO – Four Arab states who cut relations with Qatar over its close ties with Iran and Turkey are sticking to an ultimatum they issued the Gulf state last year, Egypt’s MENA news agency said on Thursday, despite U.S. pressure for a swift end to the dispute. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates sent Doha a...
Progress in Iran deal talks, but Trump stance uncertain
April 13th, 20180 WASHINGTON/PARIS – European officials are making headway toward an agreement to address U.S. concerns about the Iran nuclear deal, a European diplomat said on Thursday, but a second diplomat said it was unclear if President Trump would embrace their work. Senior diplomats from the three European nations that are party to the deal...
Fashionably late: Saudi Arabia hosts its first-ever fashion week
April 13th, 20180 RIYADH – Fashionable women, dark-haired Saudis and blonde Eastern Europeans alike, fill the gold-trimmed halls of Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel, marking the start of Saudi Arabia’s first-ever fashion week. Models and makeup artists preparing for the inaugural Saudi episode of Arab Fashion Week said they were surprised the event...
Israeli forces kill more Palestinians as Gaza border tension simmers
April 13th, 20180 GAZA – An Israeli air strike on Thursday killed a Hamas gunman and wounded another and troops later shot dead a man close to the border, Palestinian medical officials said, as tensions across the Gaza Strip border simmered. Israel said the air strike was launched in response to a bomb attack on a military vehicle on the Gaza border...
Spain signs $2.2 billion deal to sell warships to Saudi Arabia
April 13th, 20180 MADRID — On Thursday, Spain signed a framework deal to sell Saudi Arabia warships worth around $2.2 billion, a Spanish Defense Ministry source said. Under the agreement, Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia will sell five small warships, Spain's army will train Saudi military personnel and contractors will build a naval...
Trump says decisions coming “very soon or not so soon at all” on Syria action
April 12th, 20180 WASHINGTON/LONDON - President Trump and his national security aides on Thursday discussed U.S. options on Syria, where he has threatened missile strikes in response to a suspected poison gas attack, as a Russian envoy voiced fears of wider conflict between Washington and Moscow. Fears of confrontation between Russia, Syria’s big...
Missiles ‘will be coming’ to Syria, Trump warns Russia
April 11th, 20180 WASHINGTON/BEIRUT — President Trump warned Russia on Wednesday of imminent military action in Syria over a suspected poison gas attack, declaring that missiles “will be coming” and lambasting Moscow for standing by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Trump was reacting to a warning from Russia on Tuesday that any U.S. missiles...
Mattis does not rule out ‘anything’ after suspected gas attack in Syria
April 9th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday he would not rule out “anything” after a suspected chemical attack in Syria triggered speculation about a U.S. military response, and he piled blame on Russia for falling short on its obligations to ensure that Syria abandoned its chemical weapons...
Ankara summit: Changing the rules of engagement
April 6th, 20180 Turkey, Iran and Russia pledge to work for stability in Syria ANKARA — Turkey, Iran and Russia pledged on Wednesday to accelerate efforts to bring stability to Syria, underlining their joint commitment to the country a day after President Trump raised the prospect of withdrawing U.S. troops. A statement by the three countries after......
Trump postpones planned summit with Gulf leaders amid ongoing dispute between U.S. allies
April 6th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is postponing until September a summit with Gulf Arab leaders that had been planned for this spring amid an ongoing dispute between Qatar and other U.S. allies in the region, according to five U.S. officials. The decision to delay the May summit with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council...
Trump agrees to keep U.S. troops in Syria a ‘little longer,’ but wants out
April 4th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump agreed in a National Security Council meeting this week to keep U.S. troops in Syria a little longer to defeat Islamic State but wants them out relatively soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday. Trump did not approve a specific withdrawal timetable at Tuesday’s meeting, the......
Saudi crown prince: Israelis have right to their own land
April 3rd, 20180 RIYADH — Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said in a published interview that Israelis are entitled to live peacefully on their own land, another public sign of an apparent thawing in ties between the two countries. Asked if he believes the Jewish people have a right to a nation state in at least part of what they consider their...
Egypt’s Sisi wins 97 percent in election with no real opposition
April 2nd, 20180 CAIRO – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been re-elected with 97 percent of votes, the same proportion that the former military commander secured four years ago for his first term but with a lower turnout, official results showed on Monday. Turnout was 41 percent, despite efforts to get as many Egyptians as possible to...
National security veterans urge Trump not to scrap Iran nuclear deal
March 30th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — A bipartisan group of more than 100 U.S. national security experts — including nearly 50 retired military officers and more than 30 former ambassadors — is urging President Trump to remain in the Iran nuclear deal as sources say it is becoming increasingly likely he will withdraw. The statement titled "Keep...
Egypt’s Sisi heads for landslide election win with low turnout
March 30th, 20180 CAIRO — President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi cruised toward a landslide election victory against no real opposition but early results showed a lower turnout than the vote that brought him to power in 2014, despite efforts to get more Egyptians to the polls. The vote this week had long been set to hand Sisi a second term after a crackdown......
U.N. Security Council condemns Houthi missile attacks on Saudi Arabia
March 30th, 20180 UNITED NATIONS — On Wednesday, the United Nations Security Council condemned a barrage of missile attacks against Saudi Arabia by Yemen's Houthi group and expressed grave concern at reports of violations of an U.N. arms embargo on Houthi leaders. In a statement, the 15-member Security Council expressed alarm at a Houthi threat to...
European powers face resistance to Iran sanctions to save nuclear deal
March 30th, 20180 BRUSSELS/PARIS — France, Britain and Germany are struggling to persuade their E.U. partners to back new sanctions on Iran to preserve its nuclear deal, diplomats said, with Italy doubting whether the measures can stop the United States from pulling out in May. At a closed-door meeting of E.U. ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday,......
Russia orders out 60 U.S. diplomats over spy poisoning affair
March 30th, 20180 MOSCOW — Russia expelled 60 U.S. diplomats on Thursday and announced it would eject scores from other countries that have joined London and Washington in censuring Moscow over the poisoning of a spy. The U.S. ambassador was also ordered to shut the consulate in St. Petersburg, in Russia's retaliation for the biggest expulsion of...
Russia: The Syrian offensive in eastern Ghouta is almost over
March 30th, 20180 BEIRUT — The massive Russian-backed Syrian military offensive in the suburbs east of Damascus is almost over, with rebels holed up in just a single town after abandoning the rest of the eastern Ghouta enclave, Moscow declared on Thursday. Russia and the rebel faction controlling Douma, the last Ghouta town still in insurgent hands,......
