UN: No more working hospitals in eastern Aleppo
November 24th, 20160 GENEVA — There are no more functioning hospitals in the eastern part of Syria's Aleppo, where more than 250,000 people are living under siege and many need urgent medical care, the UN has said. Health facilities have repeatedly been targeted during the country's brutal civil war, a pattern that has continued in a ferocious...
Iran warns of retaliation if U.S. breaches nuclear deal
November 24th, 20160 BEIRUT — Extending U.S. sanctions on Iran for 10 years would breach the Iranian nuclear agreement, Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Wednesday, warning that Tehran would retaliate if the sanctions are approved. Last week the U.S. House of Representatives re-authorized the Iran Sanctions Act, or ISA, for 10 years. The...
Israel proposes 500 new settlement homes near Jerusalem
November 24th, 20160 JERUSALEM — Jerusalem's municipality has proposed building 500 more housing units in an area of the city annexed by Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israel war, a settlement monitoring group said on Wednesday. There was no immediate confirmation of the move by the Israeli government, but France condemned it. The proposal is the first...
Dubai drops case against UK woman charged after reporting rape
November 24th, 20160 DUBAI — Dubai has dropped the case against a British woman who was accused of extramarital sex after reporting that she had been raped by two British men while on holiday in the Gulf state. The Dubai government said the public prosecutor had closed the case against the 25-year-old woman after examining a video on the mobile phone of...
EU lawmakers call for end to Turkey membership talks
November 23rd, 20160 STRASBOURG, FRANCE — The leaders of the European Parliament's two largest groups called on Tuesday for the European Union to halt membership talks with Turkey because of its post-coup purges. "Our message to Turkey is very clear: accession negotiations should be frozen immediately," said Manfred Weber, the head of the largest...
Lebanon building wall near Palestinian refugee camp
November 23rd, 20160 BEIRUT — Lebanon is building wall near the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp to prevent extremists from infiltrating, a military source said Monday. In September, the army said security forces had arrested a Palestinian refugee suspected of links to ISIS who was in the camp. "The construction of the wall began some...
Trump team urges Israel right to tone down enthusiasm
November 18th, 20161 JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday said Donald Trump's aides were urging right-wing Israeli politicians to curb their public jubilation at his election as US president, Israeli media reported. Trump is seen as likely leading to a far more favorable policy toward Israel, though many analysts have...
Iraqi militia threatens ISIS’ supply route to Syria
November 18th, 20160 BAGHDAD — Iraqi militias said on Wednesday they had driven ISIS fighters from an air base west of Mosul, a victory which would threaten the group's supply route from Syria to its last major stronghold in Iraq. "The airport of Tal Afar has been liberated," Yusif al-Kallabi, a spokesman for Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mainly...
UN: Arab Spring cost more than $600 billion worth of growth
November 17th, 20160 NEW YORK — A new report from the United Nations suggests that the turmoil in the years since 2010 has left a heavy economic imprint in the Arab region — in particular, leading to a net loss of $613.8 billion in economic activity, or about 6 percent of gross domestic product from 2011 to 2015. The commission noted that it was not...
Turkey aims to fully secure borders early next year with Syria campaign
November 17th, 20160 ANKRA — Turkey aims to have fully secured its borders in the first half of next year, Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Thursday, as Turkish-backed forces pursue a campaign to clear ISIS and Kurdish fighters from a strip of northern Syria. NATO member Turkey sent tanks, warplanes and artillery into Syria in August in support of...
Yemen’s Houthis say they want to end war, form unity government
November 17th, 20160 HODEIDAH — Yemen's Houthi group said on Wednesday it was ready to stop fighting and join a national unity government, raising hopes of a resolution to a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people. The announcement appeared to confirm the details of a deal set out by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a day earlier that he said...
British woman faces jail time in Dubai for reporting gang rape
November 16th, 20160 DUBAI - A British woman who was allegedly gang-raped by two men in Dubai faces jail after police accused her of "extra marital sex". The 25 year old claims she was attacked by fellow British tourists in October while on holiday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).After she went to the authorities, she was arrested and charged with having...
Chef says he was beaten by Muslim men because he ‘looks like Trump’
November 15th, 20160 SWEDEN - While Muslims are facing a wave of attacks and insults as a result of Trump's election in the U.S., one man in Sweden claims the reverse effect happened to him. A Swedish chef was reportedly assaulted by three Muslim men who punched and kicked him in the face and head, sending him to the emergency room. Writing...
Iraqi forces preparing advance on south Mosul
November 11th, 20160 BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces are preparing to advance toward Mosul airport on the city's southern edge to increase pressure on ISIS militants fighting troops who breached their eastern defenses, officers said on Thursday. The rapid response forces, part of a coalition seeking to crush the terrorists in the largest city under...
Israeli minister: Trump’s victory ends prospects of Palestinian state
November 11th, 20160 Donald Trump's election victory means the Palestinian people will never have a state of their own, right-wing Israeli government education minister Naftali Bennett has said. He hailed the demise of a "two-state solution" in the Middle East. Bennett is an advocate of expanding Jewish illegal settlements in the West Bank, which......
U.N. says rations run out in east Aleppo, hopes for aid deal
November 11th, 20160 UNITED NATIONS — Aid workers in eastern Aleppo were distributing the last available food rations on Thursday as the quarter of a million people besieged in the Syrian city entered what is expected to be a cruel winter, U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said. Speaking in Geneva, Egeland said he was hopeful of a deal on a...
Sandstorm hindering Raqqa offensive
November 11th, 20160 DAMASCUS — A U.S.-backed advance on Raqqa, ISIS de facto capital in Raqqa, was being hampered by a sandstorm on Thursday, a commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said. "The situation is dangerous today because there is no visibility due to a desert sandstorm," the commander said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We......
Anxious world leaders seek clarity on Trump policies
November 11th, 20160 WASHINGTON — World leaders offered to work with Donald Trump when he takes over as U.S. president, but expressed anxiety over how he will handle problems from the Middle East to an assertive Russia and whether he will carry out a number of campaign threats. Several authoritarian and right-wing leaders hailed the billionaire...
Royal Jordanian offering last minute cheap flights to U.S. “in case Trump wins”
November 8th, 20160 JORDAN - Just in case Donald Trump wins Tuesday's US presidential election, a tongue-in-cheek Royal Jordanian airlines advertisement is offering last minute flights to Muslims in case they are subject to a ban from entering the US. In a Twitter ad, Jordan's flag carrier airline wrote, "Just in case he wins...Travel to the US while...
Saudi Arabia shows signs of accepting U.N. plan for Yemen
November 3rd, 20160 SANAA — Diplomats promoting a U.N. plan to end Yemen's war detect cautious support for its ideas from Saudi Arabia, raising hopes the proposals might unlock stalled efforts to end the 19-month-old conflict and a worsening humanitarian disaster. The kingdom leads a mostly Gulf Arab military alliance which has launched thousands of...
Rebels step up Aleppo offensive, clash with each other
November 3rd, 20160 DAMASCUS — Syrian insurgents stepped up a week-long offensive on government-held areas in the city of Aleppo on Thursday, detonating three car bombs and firing shells which killed at least a dozen civilians, state media and a monitor said. Rebel groups detonated three large car bombs near pro-government forces on the western edge of......
ISIS leader says ‘no retreat’ from Mosul, as Iraqi troops close in
Iraq's flag is seen during a sand storm in Bartilla, east of Mosul, Iraq Nov. 1MOSUL — ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told his followers on Thursday there could be no retreat in a "total war" against the forces arrayed against them, as advancing soldiers battled the terrorists inside their northern Iraqi stronghold. Expressing...Lebanon’s Hariri named new PM after Aoun’s election
BEIRUT — Lebanon's president asked Saad al-Hariri to form a new government on Thursday after he won the support of a majority of MPs and the endorsement of the influential parliament speaker. Hariri's nomination is part of a political deal that resulted in the election of Michel Aoun, a close ally Hezbollah, as head of state on......
EU grants 348 million euros in aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey
September 9th, 20160 ANKARA — The European Union on Thursday announced it was contracting 348 million euros to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) for humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey, part of the bloc's migration cooperation with Ankara. The money comes as part of a 3 billion euro support for some 3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey,...
British Labor leader Corbyn appear to compare Israel to ISIS
July 1st, 20160 LONDON — Jeremy Corbyn was engulfed in a fresh row over Israel when he appeared to compare the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to Islamic extremists at the launch of an independent review into antisemitism in the Labor party. In prepared remarks, Corbyn said: "Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or......
