Iraq’s militias formally inducted into security forces
March 9th, 20180 BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a decree on Thursday formalizing the inclusion of mostly Shi'a paramilitary groups in the country's security forces. According to the decree, members of the militias, an assortment of militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), will be granted many...
UNIFIL says ‘no appetite’ for war as Lebanon, Israel talk about border dispute
March 9th, 20180 NAQOURA, LEBANON — Lebanon and Israel have been holding talks nearly every day over a border dispute that has raised tensions between the two enemy states, according to the U.N. peacekeeping force on the frontier that is mediating their discussions. "There is a full engagement from all the sides and there have been meetings almost...
Netanyahu warns U.S. lawmakers about Saudi nuclear power deal
March 9th, 20180 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. and Saudi negotiators have yet to reach a deal to allow American companies to build nuclear power reactors in the kingdom, but the idea is already getting pushback from Israeli Prime Minister and Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu. On Tuesday, Netanyahu, during a closed door meeting with the Senate Foreign...
This International Women’s Day, Palestinian women face more challenges than most
March 9th, 20180 March 8 is International Women's Day, a time to commemorate the movement for women's rights and raise awareness of some of the challenges confronted by women around the world. By Rebecca Stead Living under a 50-year-long Israeli military occupation, Palestinian women in the West Bank and Gaza face more challenges than most. Their...
Netanyahu warns U.S. lawmakers about Saudi nuclear power deal
March 8th, 20180 WASHINGTON - U.S. and Saudi negotiators have yet to reach a deal to allow American companies to build nuclear power reactors in the kingdom, but the idea is already getting pushback from Israeli Prime Minister and Trump ally Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, during a closed door meeting with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in...
Palestinians in Gaza plan tent city protest along Israeli border
March 7th, 20180 GAZA ― Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are planning a six-week-long tent city protest near the Israeli border starting on March 30 to demand Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their homeland, what is now Israel, organizers said on Wednesday. Such a demonstration, envisaging families camped out in the sensitive border area,...
Russian military plane crash in Syria kills 39
March 6th, 20180 MOSCOW - A Russian military transport plane crashed in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 39 people on board, Russian news agencies quoted the defense ministry as saying, sharply raising the death toll from the Kremlin’s intervention in the Syrian war. The defense ministry was cited as saying that the plane, a Soviet-designed An-26,...
Syria: Russia offers rebels safe passage out of eastern Ghouta
March 6th, 20180 MOSCOW/BEIRUT - The Russian military has offered Syrian rebels safe passage out of eastern Ghouta, setting out a proposal to let the opposition surrender its last major stronghold near Damascus to the Syrian government forces, which rebels have so far rejected. The Russian defense ministry said rebels could leave with their families and...
Israeli forces kill Palestinian near Gaza border
March 3rd, 20181 GAZA - Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian near the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said that a“suspect had approached a restricted area in the southern Gaza Strip.” Soldiers then“fired warning shots into the air, and when the suspect...
Syrian government forces makes new gains in eastern Ghouta
March 3rd, 20180 BEIRUT - Syrian government forces gained more ground in an assault on eastern Ghouta near Damascus on Saturday as they seek to defeat the last major rebel enclave near the capital, a war monitor and a news service run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah said. The Syrian war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people since 2011, has...
Street artist in Yemen remembers casualties of war
March 2nd, 20180 SANAA — Yemeni street artist Haifa Subay is painting murals to help ensure that victims of Yemen's grueling three-year civil war are not forgotten. Her latest mural, portraying a one-legged casualty of a landmine, is one of many Subay has done in the capital Sanaa during the war, which has killed thousands, driven many more from...
An economy in ruins leaves Gazans with hard choices
March 2nd, 20180 GAZA — The man who makes crisps, chocolate and vanilla snacks for Gaza had just finished explaining how his business was going through the worst economic crisis of his life when the lights went out, shutting down his factory. Again. Wael Al-Wadiya has been running his food manufacturing business since 1985 – in a Gaza Strip that...
Dubai tests autonomous pods in drive for smart city
March 2nd, 20180 DUBAI — Dubai has begun testing autonomous pods in a trial run the Gulf's trade and tourism hub hopes will help its transformation into one of the smartest cities in the world. Officials from Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) displayed two cube-shaped vehicles built by U.S.-based Next Future Transportation company in Italy...
Iraqi parliament demands timeline for foreign troop withdrawal
March 2nd, 20180 BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament demanded on Thursday that the government set a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops stationed in the country to help fight ISIS insurgents, a ruling coalition lawmaker said. A U.S.-led coalition was formed in 2014 and with thousands of troops and air support helped Iraqi security forces and a...
U.N. urges Russia to expand eastern Ghouta aid plan
March 2nd, 20180 GENEVA — A Russian plan for a five-hour pause in fighting in Syria's eastern Ghouta needs to be expanded to allow aid deliveries to enter and civilians and urgent medical cases to leave, United Nations officials said on Thursday. In one of the fiercest onslaughts of Syria's seven-year civil war, hundreds of people have died in 11......
Sanders, Lee and Murphy trying to pull U.S. out of Yemen war
March 2nd, 20180 WASHINGTON - Three senators will attempt to use congressional authority to get the United States to pull out of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. Republican Mike Lee of Utah, Democrat Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut, and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont will attempt to use a provision in the 1973 War Powers Act, Reuters...
Israeli-U.S. teen indicted for bomb threats, hate crimes
March 2nd, 20180 WASHINGTON - A 19-year-old man has been indicted for hate crimes connected to threats against Jewish community centers, as well as threatening the Israeli embassy and cyber-stalking, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. Michael Kadar was arrested in Israel last year and is awaiting trial there. U.S. and Israeli authorities have......
Sources: Syrian government forces gain ground in east Ghouta
March 2nd, 20180 BEIRUT - Syrian government forces have gained ground from rebels at the edge of the eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday, in a ground assault that has continued despite a Russian plan for daily ceasefires. The Syrian army and rebel sources could not immediately be reached for...
Putin unveils ‘invincible’ nuclear weapons to counter West
March 2nd, 20180 MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin announced an array of new nuclear weapons on Thursday, in one of his most bellicose speeches in years, saying they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a U.S.-built missile shield. Putin was speaking ahead of an election on March 18 that polls indicate he should win easily. He said a...
Saudi Arabia: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tightens grip on power, reshuffles military
February 27th, 20180 RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has replaced some of its top military officers in a shake-up that elevates a younger generation, brings a woman into a senior government job and tightens Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grip on power. In a reshuffle announced late on Monday, the military chief of staff, air defense and land forces heads and...
Free clinic opens for Yemenis impoverished by war
February 27th, 20180 SANAA - Volunteer doctors are offering free medical services for a week at a clinic in the Yemeni capital Sanaa to treat people impoverished by a war which has killed thousands and wrecked the economy. The initiative, dubbed “Breeze of Hope,” is the first by a group of nurses and doctors to conduct electrocardiograms, x-rays and......
State Department: U.S. ready to open Jerusalem embassy in May
February 25th, 20180 WASHINGTON - The United States said on Friday it will open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May, a move from Tel Aviv that reverses decades of U.S. policy and is bound to trouble U.S. allies who have already objected. President Trump announced last December that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,...
U.S. envoy visits Beirut, mediating in Lebanon-Israel dispute
February 23rd, 20180 BEIRUT — A senior U.S. diplomat met Lebanese officials on Wednesday in Beirut as part of a U.S. shuttle diplomacy effort to resolve tensions between Israel and Lebanon over a border wall and energy drilling in disputed waters. Disputes over Israeli construction of the border wall, Lebanon's start of oil and gas exploration at sea......
Netanyahu’s confidant becomes state witness in corruption case
February 23rd, 20180 TEL AVIV — A confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to turn state's witness in one of several corruption investigations posing a serious threat to the conservative leader's political survival, local media said. Shlomo Filber's decision to testify for the state against his former boss is a dramatic turn for...
Fighting intensifies in eastern Ghouta as UN pleads for ceasefire
February 23rd, 20180 The United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but it was not immediately clear if the text had won the support of Syrian ally Russia. The vote comes as warplanes pounded eastern Ghouta, the last rebel enclave near Syria's......
