Suicide bombers attack two Afghan mosques, at least 72 dead
October 20th, 20170 KABUL- Suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 72 people including children, officials and witnesses said. One bomber walked into a Shi‘ite Muslim mosque in the capital Kabul as people were praying on Friday night and detonated an explosive, one of the worshippers...
VIDEO: Kuwaiti delegation kicks Israeli delegation from the International Parliament Summit
October 18th, 20170 SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia – Kuwaiti delegation kicked the Israeli delegation out of the International Parliament Summit held this Wednesday in St. Petersburg, Russia. With crowds cheering for Marzouq Al-Ghanim, the Speaker of the Kuwaiti Parliament, who called them “oppressors” and “children killers.” The Israeli delegation...
Federal Judge blocks Trump’s third iteration of travel ban
October 17th, 20170 SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON—A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s latest bid to impose restrictions on citizens from several countries entering the United States, which would have taken effect this week. The open-ended ban, announced last month, targeted people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and...
Trump hostility set to deepen Iran power struggles
October 15th, 20170 ANKARA - Iranians quickly closed ranks against a hawkish new U.S. approach to Tehran, but Iran’s powerful hardliners are set to exploit the latest dispute with Washington to weaken domestic rivals who are open to the West, analysts and insiders say. President Donald Trump’s warning on Friday that he might ultimately...
Russia protests to U.S. over ‘shameful’ theft of consulate flags
October 11th, 20170 MOSCOW - Russia protested to the United States on Wednesday after it said Russian flags were stolen from its consulate in San Francisco. Russian staff left the consulate last month after Washington ordered Moscow to vacate some of its diplomatic properties, part of a series of tit-for-tat actions as relations sour between the two...
U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis recommends sticking with Iran nuclear deal
October 3rd, 20170 WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it were proven Tehran that was not abiding by the agreement or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so. Though Mattis deferred to President Donald Trump’s review of the...
Saudi Arabia makes driving legal for women
September 26th, 20170 RIYADH ― Saudi King Salman on Tuesday ordered that women be allowed to drive cars, state media said, ending the conservative Islamic kingdom’s status as the only country where that is forbidden. The royal decree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to give advice within 30 days and then implement the order by June 2018,...
Home-made bomb injures 22 on packed London commuter train
September 15th, 20171 A home-made bomb on a packed rush-hour commuter train in London engulfed a carriage in flames and injured 22 people on Friday in Britain's fifth major terrorism incident this year, but apparently failed to fully explode. Passengers heading into the British capital fled in panic after the blast as the train was about to depart Parsons...
Lebanon to complain to U.N. over Israel violating airspace
September 14th, 20170 BEIRUT ― Lebanon will file a complaint to the United Nations against Israel for violating the country’s airspace and causing damage by breaking the sound barrier in the south of the country, its foreign minister said on Monday. Israeli jets flew low over the southern city of Saida on Sunday, causing sonic booms that broke windows...
Qatar, neighbors trade insults at Arab League over boycott
September 14th, 20170 CAIRO ― Diplomats from Qatar and the four states boycotting it exchanged heated words at an Arab League meeting on Tuesday. Tensions flared after Qatar’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi discussed the boycott in his opening speech despite the Gulf dispute not being on the agenda. He called the...
ISIS suicide attackers kill 60 in southern Iraq restaurants, checkpoint
September 14th, 20170 BAGHDAD ― Three suicide attacks claimed by ISIS killed at least 60 people in southern Iraq on Thursday, a health official and police sources said, suggesting a shift in the ultra-hardline group’s tactics since it lost control of its stronghold in Mosul. Iraqi and Kurdish security officials say the militants are likely to wage a...
China backs U.N. call for justice in Yemen, while U.S. and Saudis don’t
September 14th, 20170 GENEVA ― China signaled on Wednesday it was willing to back an international inquiry into atrocities in Yemen, as demanded by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, but Saudi Arabia and the United States said they did not support the idea. For three years running U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein has asked the 47...
U.S. military to resume exercises in Egypt
September 8th, 20170 CAIRO — Egypt's armed forces said on Tuesday that joint U.S.-Egyptian military exercises will resume this month for the first time since 2009, after U.S. officials canceled them in 2013 following an Egyptian army crackdown on protests. The joint training is usually held every two years but was also canceled in 2011 after the "Arab...
Trump offers to mediate talks on Qatar crisis
September 8th, 20170 WASHINGTON — On Thursday, President Trump said he would be willing to step in and mediate the worst dispute in decades among the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states and Qatar, and said that he thinks a deal could come quickly. "If I can help mediate between Qatar and, in particular, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, I would be willing to do so,...
Syrian army secures corridor into Deir al-Zor
September 8th, 20170 BEIRUT — The Syrian army and its allies reached Deir al-Zor on Tuesday in a sudden advance following months of steady progress east across the desert. On Thursday, the army advanced against militants in a pocket they still hold further west, pro-Damascus media reported. Syrian state media reported an aid convoy arrived at Deir......
By land, river and sea, Rohingya Muslims make their escape from death
September 8th, 20170 COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh — When his family of six crossed the monsoon-soaked Mayu mountains last week, Mohammed Ishmail tied his 4-year-old daughter to his back with a longyi, or Myanmar sarong. His wife carried their two-year-old the same way. The trek through the dense bush of the mountains took two days, but the journey from his...
Nasrallah declares victory: Lebanon fully liberated from ISIS terrorists
September 3rd, 20170 BEIRUT —A convoy of ISIS fighters and their families left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday under Syrian military escort, surrendering their enclave and traveling to eastern Syria after a week-long battle. A line of ambulances and buses were shown on Syrian state television driving slowly through the arid countryside, the......
Pilgrims return to Mecca as haj winds down without incident
September 3rd, 20170 MECCA - More than two million pilgrims participating in the haj this week began returning to Mecca on Sunday for final prayers as the world’s largest annual gathering of Muslims winds down. Senior Saudi officials said the rituals, which have in the past seen deadly stampedes, fires and riots to which authorities sometimes struggled to...
Governor of Syria’s Deir al-Zor says army to reach city within 48 hours
September 3rd, 20170 BEIRUT - The governor of Syria’s Deir al-Zor province, Mohammed Ibrahim Samra, said the Syrian army would reach Deir al-Zor city, which has been besieged by ISIS for years, within 48 hours. “The heroes of the army will arrive at Deir al-Zor in 24-48 hours at the most,” he told Reuters by phone, adding that the army was now...
War-torn Syria on verge of World Cup fairytale
September 3rd, 20170 HONG KONG - Against all odds, Syria’s footballers have overcome more than six years of civil war and internal political rifts to raise hopes of qualifying for their first ever World Cup. Forced to play their home games away due to security concerns, Ayman Hakeem’s Syria have embarrassed a succession of better-resourced opponents...
UN rights chief: Trump attacks on freedom of press may incite violence against journalists
August 30th, 20170 GENEVA - President Donald Trump’s criticism of journalists amounts to an attack on the freedom of the press and could provoke violence against reporters, the United Nations’ human rights chief said on Wednesday. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said Trump had also made worrying remarks about women, Mexicans and Muslims and went on to......
ISIS forced out form Lebanon-Syria border, Nasrallah declares victory
August 29th, 20170 BEIRUT - A convoy of ISIS fighters and their families left the Lebanon-Syria border region on Monday under Syrian military escort, surrendering their enclave and traveling to eastern Syria after a week-long battle. A line of ambulances and buses were shown on Syrian state television driving slowly through the arid countryside, the...
Iran rejects U.S. demand for inspection of military sites: In your dream
August 29th, 20170 NEW YORK - Iran has dismissed a U.S. demand for U.N. nuclear inspectors to visit its military bases as “merely a dream” as Washington reviews a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers, including the United States. President Donald Trump has called the nuclear pact - negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama -......
Yemen: Saudi-led coalition air raid kills at least 12, including six children
August 25th, 20170 SANAA - An air raid by Saudi led Coalition struck a building in Yemen’s capital on Friday, killing at least 12 people, six of them children, when an adjacent apartment block collapsed, residents said. RThe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) denounced the loss of life as outrageous and put the death toll in the early...
Lebanon scraps law absolving rapists who marry victims
August 20th, 20171 BEIRUT — On Wednesday, Lebanon's parliament abolished a law that absolves rapists if they marry their victims, joining other Arab states that have repealed "marry-your-rapist" laws in recent weeks. Lawmaker Elie Kayrouz, who backed ending the law - article 522 of the penal code - said other clauses also required changes to protect......
