Explosion in Turkey’s Ankara kills dozens
Source: Aljazeera At least 27 people have been killed and 125 more wounded after a strong explosion struck the Turkish capital, Ankara, officials say. A bomb-laden car exploded on Sunday […]
The West’s desire to ‘liberate’ the Middle East remains as flawed as ever
As Stalingrad-size casualties mount in civil war Syria today, it’s worth remembering how the French and British thought they could create a ‘modern’ Syria in 1941 Robert Fisk @indyvoices Sunday 6 March 2016 36 comments As General de Gaulle set out for the Middle East in April of 1941, he famously wrote that […]
Migrant crisis: EU and Turkey hold ‘difficult’ summit
Source: BBC European Union leaders are holding a key summit with Turkey in Brussels on ways of dealing with Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War Two. The EU is pressing Turkey, through which many migrants transit, to take some back in return for $3.3bn in aid. Turkey is […]
Dubai’s illusive fog phenomenon
Source: BBC A few times per year – if you are in the right place at just the right time and luck is on your side – you might get […]
Iran billionaire Babak Zanjani sentenced to death for corruption
Source: Gulf News Tehran: Iran’s billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, a judicial official said Sunday, after a long trial in which he was accused […]
Turkish authorities seize country’s largest newspaper
Source: Al Jazeera Police using tear gas and water cannon raided the headquarters of Turkey’s largest-circulation newspaper, hours after a court placed it under the management of trustees. Police set […]
Your apartheid and ours: the Palestine-South Africa connection runs deep
DR RAMZY BAROUD says that the present struggle against apartheid in Palestine is not merely similar to that of South Africa. Both struggles are extensions of the same movement, the same fight for freedom, and, in fact, against the same enemy. After concluding a talk in Durban, South Africa a […]
Meet Saudi Arabia’s stars of social media
Source: BBC For a nation whose king calls himself “Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques”, it’s probably not surprising that Saudi Arabia’s “superstars” of social media are clerics. Naturally, that […]
Iran elections: Reformists make gains in Assembly of Experts
Source: BBC Moderates and reformists have dealt another blow to Iran’s hardliners, winning all but one of the seats for Tehran in the Assembly of Experts. President Hassan Rouhani and […]
Early Iran Election Results Point to Gains by Moderates
Source: Time Reformists and moderates favor expanding freedoms and engaging with the West (TEHRAN, Iran) — Partial election results in Iran on Saturday point to major gains by reformists and moderates who favor expanding freedoms and engaging with the West, and who defended the recently implemented nuclear deal with world […]
Iran election: Reformists win all 30 Tehran seats
Source: BBC Allies of Iran’s reformist president, Hassan Rouhani, have won a landslide victory in Tehran, in the first elections since Iran signed a nuclear deal with world powers. With […]
Saudi man gets 10 years, 2,000 lashes over atheist tweets
Source: Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison and 2,000 lashes for expressing his atheism in hundreds of Twitter posts. Al-Watan online daily said Saturday that religious police in charge of monitoring social networks found […]
Syria: US, Russia-brokered ceasefire goes into effect; ISIS, Nusra Front excluded
Source: Indian Express A cease-fire brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect across Syria on Saturday, marking the biggest international push to reduce violence in the country’s […]
Iran executed all adult men in one village for drug offences, official reveals
Source: The Guardian The entire adult male population of a village in southern Iran has been executed for drug offences, according to Iran’s vice-president for women and family affairs. The […]
The Sentencing of a Toddler Shows How Out of Control Egypt’s Security State Has Become
Source: Time The three-year-old boy erroneously sentenced to jail is only the worst in a series of atrocities by Egypt’s security officials A military court mistakenly sentences a toddler to […]
Coming Weeks Will Be ‘Critical’ to Syria’s Future, Obama Says
Source: Time “The world will be watching” The next few weeks, including a two-week cease-fire set to begin on Friday, will be “critical” to Syria’s future, according to President Obama. […]
Syria civil war: State-of-the-art technology gives President Assad’s army the edge
The regime has lost over 60,000 men since the war began, but new Russian equipment is helping turn the tide Robert Fisk You can see the Syrian army’s spanking new Russian T-90 tanks lined up in their new desert livery scarcely 100 miles from Isis’s Syrian “capital” of Raqqa. There are […]
Egypt sentences 4 Coptic teenagers for contempt of Islam
Source: Associated Press By Maggie Michael CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam on Thursday, after they appeared in a video mocking […]
Saudi Arabia puts Shi’ites on trial for spying for Iran
Source: Reuters Saudi Arabia has put 32 people on trial, including 30 members of its own Shi’ite Muslim minority, accused of spying for Iran, several local newspapers and television reported on Monday. The 32, including an Iranian and an Afghan, were detained in 2013 sparking expressions of concern among Saudi […]
Arab Israeli professor breaks barriers at home and abroad
Source: Associated Press HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Hossam Haick, whose breakthrough work in nanotechnology has garnered global accolades, says his success as an Arab citizen of Israel proves that education […]