Turkey’s referendum grants Erdogan increased powers
April 23rd, 20170 ANKARA—On Wednesday, Turkey's electoral authority rejected appeals to annul a referendum granting President Tayyip Erdogan wide new powers, but the main opposition party said it would maintain its legal challenge to the result. Sunday's referendum narrowly backed the largest overhaul of Turkey's political system since the founding...
Emirates reduces flights on five U.S. routes as Trump’s restrictions hit demand
April 19th, 20170 DUBAI ― Emirates, the largest international airline by passenger traffic, said on Wednesday it was cutting flights on five U.S. routes after restrictions imposed by President Trump's administration weakened demand from the Middle East. Since taking office, Trump has signed two executive orders banning refugees and citizens from...
More than a thousand Palestinians in Israeli jails begin hunger strike
April 17th, 20170 WEST BANK ― Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails began a hunger strike on Monday in response to a call by prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a possible future Palestinian president. Palestinians termed the open-ended strike a protest against poor conditions and an Israeli policy of detention without trial that...
Death toll from Aleppo bus convoy bomb attack exceeds 125, half of the victims are children
April 16th, 20170 DAMASCUS, Syria - The death toll from a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy outside Aleppo has reached at least 126 in the deadliest such incident in Syria in almost a year, human rights groups reported on Sunday. Human rights groups and United Nations agencies cited reports that more than 60 children were among the...
ISIS attacks IraqI forces in Mosul with chemical weapons
April 16th, 20171 BAGHDAD, Iraq -Â ISIS used chemical weapons against Iraqi forces taking part in the operation to recapture Mosul, injuring some security personnel, the Iraqi military said on Sunday. ISIS has periodically carried out attacks using chemical weapons, but both the toll and the impact on military operations has been minimal and the...
German cabinet agrees to fine social media over hate speech
April 16th, 20170 BERLIN- Germany's cabinet approved a plan on Wednesday to fine social networks up to 50 million euros ($53 million) if they fail to remove hateful postings quickly, prompting concerns the law could limit free expression. Germany has some of the world's toughest laws covering defamation, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of...
Reagan-era documents detail U.S.’s longstanding commitment to contain Syria
April 14th, 20170 A CIA document recommended that the "U.S. should consider sharply escalating the pressures against Assad" through the orchestration of "simultaneous military threats against Syria." Three years later, that same conviction appeared in a memorandum that "explores alternative scenarios that could lead to the ouster of President...al-Assad...
Lavrov: Moscow and Washington agree U.S. strikes on Syria should not be repeated
April 14th, 20170 MOSCOW - Moscow and Washington have reached an understanding that further US strikes similar to the one carried out against Syria's Shayrat Air Base "should not occur again," the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Lavrov emphasized that this issue was raised during his discussions with the US Secretary of State on...
U.S. drops largest non-nuclear bomb on ISIS in Afghanistan
April 13th, 20171 The United States dropped a massive GBU-43 bomb, the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat, in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday against a series of caves used by ISIS militants, the military said. It was the first time the United States has used this size of bomb in a conflict. It was dropped from a MC-130 aircraft in the...
Russia vetoes U.N. resolution on Syria alleged “chemical attack”
April 12th, 20170 NEW YORK - Russia blocked a Western effort at the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday to condemn last week's deadly gas attack in Syria and push Moscow's ally President Bashar al-Assad to cooperate with international inquiries into the incident. It was the eighth time during Syria's six-year-old civil war that Moscow has used its veto...
ISIS claims responsibilty for the two attacks on Coptic churches in Egypt
April 9th, 20170 CAIRO, Egypt - ISIS has claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks on Coptic Christian churches in Egypt which have killed at least 36 people. “A group that belongs to Islamic State carried out the two attacks on the churches in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria,” the group’s news agency Amaq said. In the first, a bomb exploded...
Bombing at Egyptian churches kill and injure dozens on Palm Sunday
April 9th, 20170 CAIRO, Egypt - At least 36 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb attacks on two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, in the latest assault on a religious minority increasingly targeted by Islamic extremists. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, which come a week before Coptic Easter and in the same...
Russia and Iran draw a red line in Syria, warn U.S. of retaliation
April 9th, 20170 DAMASCUS, Syria - A joint command center made up of the forces of Russian, Iran and allied militia alliance supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad said the U.S. strike on a Syrian air base crossed "red lines" and it would now respond to any new aggression and increase their level of support to their ally. "What America waged in...
British PM to raise ‘hard issues’ with Saudi Arabia
April 8th, 20170 RIYADH —British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Tuesday she would raise "hard issues" with Saudi Arabia's leaders on a visit to the country, as critics urged her to pressure Riyadh over its air war in Yemen and human rights record. May also said she was appalled by reports of a chemical weapons attack in northern Syria that...
Trump’s son-in-law visits Iraq with top U.S. general
April 8th, 20170 BAGHDAD — President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, flew into Iraq last week with the top U.S. general to get a first-hand assessment of the battle against ISIS from U.S. commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders. For Kushner, who has not been to Iraq before, the trip comes at a critical time as Trump examines ways to accelerate......
Israel Aerospace Industries signs near $2 billion missile deal with India
April 8th, 20170 JERUSALEM — State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has struck a deal worth almost $2 billion to supply India's army and navy with missile defense systems, the company said on Thursday, describing it as Israel's largest ever defense deal. IAI said in a statement it would supply an advanced air defense system, including...
With healthcare faltering in Gaza, care in Israel is sought after
April 8th, 20171 GAZA — For many patients suffering from life-threatening diseases in the Gaza Strip, treatment in neighboring Israel or the occupied West Bank is a much sought-after option. But Israel tightly restricts Palestinian passage from the Gaza Strip, one of its bitterest enemies. Although it exempts from the ban Gazans seeking "life-saving......
U.S. warships strike Syrian airfield in response to Idlib ‘chemical attack’
April 7th, 20170 President Trump ordered missile strikes against a Syrian airfield from which a deadly chemical weapons attack was allegedly launched, declaring he acted in America's "vital national security interest." The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in the rebel-held northern Idlib province on Tuesday...
Russia denies Assad to blame for chemical attack, on course for collision with Trump
April 5th, 20170 MOSCOW- Russia denied on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was to blame for a poison gas attack and said it would continue to back him, setting the Kremlin on course for its biggest diplomatic collision yet with Donald Trump's White House. Western countries, including the United States, blamed Assad's armed forces for a...
Syrian government denies responsibility in Idlib’s chemical attack, blames rebels
April 4th, 20170 BEIRUT, Lebanon - The deadliest chemical weapons attack in years in Syria killed dozens of people in northern Idlib province on Tuesday morning, including children, and sickened scores more, according to medics, rescuers and witnesses in the rebel-held province. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack...
Trump welcomes Egyptian President Sisi to the White House: “He has done a fantastic job”
April 3rd, 20170 WASHINGTON, DC - President Donald Trump met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the White House. Trump said the Egyptian President had done a "fantastic job" and declared his support for Egypt and the Egyptian people. He also said he was “very much behind” Sisi and been very close to him since the first time they......
Arab leaders on display: Division and declining influence
April 3rd, 20170 AMMAN — For years, the stage was almost as big as the larger-than-life strongmen that made it their own. Muammar Qaddafi. Saddam Hussein. Yasser Arafat. At times both politics and pageantry, the annual gathering of leaders at the Arab Summit has been a guiding force in Arab politics and a source of drama for Arab citizens, who have...
Yemeni Americans stage New York protest, urge U.S. to rethink Saudi alliance
April 2nd, 20170 NEW YORK CITY — On a cold, snowy Sunday morning, more than 100 Arab Americans gathered outside the United Nations headquarters to protest the United States' support for Saudi Arabia, which they say is the culprit responsible for extreme devastation and famine in Yemen. Dozens of Yemeni, Lebanese and Iraqi American demonstrators met......
Iraq: ISIS second-in-command killed in airstrike
April 1st, 20170 BAGHDAD - Ayad al-Jumaili, believed to be a deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an air strike on Friday, an Iraqi intelligence spokesman said on Saturday. The U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition said it was unable at the moment to confirm the information that was reported earlier in the day by Iraqi...
CAIR-OK releases report showing dramatic increase in Anti-Muslim hate incidents
March 30th, 20170 OKLAHOMA CITY-The Council for American Islamic Relations in Oklahoma released its 2016 Civil Rights report Thursday showing a dramatic increase in complaints regarding vandalism and property damage to Islamic centers. A similar report showed an increase in hate crime-related incidents that involved violence. A few key findings of......
