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...
Yemen hit by more airstrikes in first half of 2017 than in all of last year
August 20th, 20170 SANAA — Yemen suffered more airstrikes in the first half of this year than in the whole of 2016, increasing the number of civilian deaths and forcing more people to flee their homes, according to a report by international aid agencies. The pace of clashes on the ground has also intensified this year, especially around Yemen's third......
Militant allies: U.S. forces to stay in Syria for decades
August 20th, 20170 AIN ISSA, SYRIA — Washington's main Syrian ally in the fight against ISIS says the U.S. military will remain in northern Syria long after the jihadists are defeated, predicting enduring ties with the Kurdish-dominated region. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias dominated by the Kurdish YPG,...
Lebanese, Syrian ministers vow to improve economic ties
August 20th, 20170 BEIRUT — Lebanese and Syrian ministers pledged to boost economic ties on Wednesday, part of a visit that has challenged the Lebanese state's policy of neutrality toward Syria's war. Government ministers from Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Amal party arrived in Syria for a trade fair, a trip that has ignited a political row in...
Australian men charged with terrorism over mosque fires
August 20th, 20170 MELBOURNE- Australian police have charged three men with committing terrorist acts on suspicion of starting fires at a Shiite Muslim mosque in Melbourne last year, inspired by ISIS and intending to divide the Muslim community. Two of the men are already in custody and awaiting trial on suspicion of plotting bomb attacks in Australia's...
Van mows down crowd in Barcelona, 13 reported killed
August 17th, 20170 BARCELONA- A van plowed into crowds in the heart of Barcelona on Thursday and Spanish media reported at least 13 people were killed, in what police said they were treating as a terrorist attack. The death toll was reported by Cadena Ser radio, citing police sources. Police said some people were dead and injured but did not confirm the......
Nasrallah says U.S. can’t hurt Hezbollah, dismisses sanctions
August 16th, 20170 BEIRUT — On Sunday, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah dismissed the prospect of tougher U.S. sanctions against his group, which is backed by Iran, and said the U.S. administration had no way to harm it. "The American administration, with all available and possible means, will not be able to damage the strength of the resistance,"...
More than half a million children in Libya need help: UNICEF
August 10th, 20170 UNITED NATIONS - On Wednesday, the United Nations children agency UNICEF warned that more than half a million children in Libya need help and called on warring parties to end the violence and negotiate a political solution to the crisis. Libya has spiraled into turmoil after a civil war ousted longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.......
Clooneys to help 3,000 Syrian refugees go to school in Lebanon
August 2nd, 20170 BEIRUT- George and Amal Clooney said on Monday they would help 3,000 Syrian refugee children go to school this year in Lebanon, where the United Nations says 200,000 children are not receiving an education after fleeing the war in neighboring Syria. The Clooney Foundation for Justice said it has teamed up with Google and HP Inc to help...
Hezbollah: Nearing victory in battle at Lebanon-Syria border
July 28th, 20170 BEIRUT — The leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Wednesday that the group was close to defeating Nusra Front militants in the battle along the Syrian-Lebanese border. "We are in the face of a very big military victory," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. The militants have "effectively lost" most of the land they......
