Bangladesh has set up anthrax checkpoints at cattle markets as a major outbreak of the disease spreads through the country’s dairy belt, infecting more than 400 people, officials said Wednesday. Eight districts have confirmed human and cattle anthrax infections and meat consumption ahead of the Islamic festival of Eid, set to start Friday, has fallen [...]
Mullah Omar says NATO-led forces are losing the war in Afghanistan and his fighters are close to victory. The Afghan Taliban leader has said his fighters were close to victory in driving foreign forces out of the country. In a message on Wednesday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month Ramadan, Mullah Omar called on [...]
Sitting in on the Rachel Corrie trial alarmingly reveals an open Israeli policy of indiscrimination towards civilians. “During war there are no civilians,” that’s what “Yossi,” an Israeli military (IDF) training unit leader simply stated during a round of questioning on day two of the Rachel Corrie trials, held in Haifa’s District Court earlier this [...]
Since the 1930s, leprosy patients in Egypt have been rounded up and placed in the town of Abu Zaabal. The Egyptian government has now offered the inhabitants the right to return to their villages and cities. But many have refused, preferring to live and work away from the social stigma that often comes with their [...]
At least two of the five US soldiers charged in the deaths of three Afghan civilians had kept body parts taken from Afghan corpses and threatened subordinates, according to new documents released by the US army. Five soldiers – Calvin Gibbs, Adam Winfield, Jeremy Morlock and Michael Wagon, Andrew Holmes – have been charged with [...]
Afghanistan has frozen the assets of leading shareholders and borrowers at Kabul Bank, the country’s leading private bank, in the wake of the crisis sparked by the resignation of two high-level directors. Aimal Hashoor, the central bank’s spokesman, said on Tuesday the Central Bank had ordered the assets of Sher Khan Farnood, Kabul Bank’s former chairman, and [...]
It’s a huge risk meeting Taliban fighters. There’s not just the threat that they might turn on you after promising you an interview. Our producer, Qais Azimy, was returning from one of his previous visits when he was arrested by Afghan intelligence. They held him for questioning for three days. The phrase “don’t shoot the [...]
The lives of US troops could be put at risk by a Florida church’s threat to burn copies of the Koran to mark the September 11 attacks, the top US commander in Afghanistan has warned. Gen David Petraeus said that the plans by the evangelical Dove World Outreach Centre to destroy the Muslim holy book [...]
Israel’s hard-line foreign minister said Monday that his party will try to block any extension of Israel’s settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the recently launched Mideast peace negotiations. Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli government must keep its promise to voters that the 10-month slowdown, declared last November under U.S. pressure in order to [...]
Lebanon’s prime minister has said he was wrong to accuse Syria of killing Rafik al-Hariri, his father, in 2005 and said the charge against Damascus had been politically motivated. Saad al-Hariri’s comments to Asharq al-Awsat, a London-based newspaper, published on Monday, repudiate his earlier accusation that Syria was behind the Beirut bombing which killed his [...]
The rearrest and trial of Iranian human rights activist and journalist Shiva Nazar-Ahari adds another name and face to a long list of those targeted by the government there, charged with a list of extraordinary offences and subjected to an opaque justice system. Hers is not an exceptional case, as the government continues to expand [...]
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has called for the speedy creation of an independent Palestinian state with the capital in East Jerusalem and pledged to do his best to unite the Palestinians. “We cannot allow the peace process to make no headway, progress to give way to failures, and tensions to follow relaxation,” Mubarak said in [...]
The Russian and Israeli defense ministers, Anatoly Serdyukov and Ehud Barak, are planning to sign on Monday an agreement on military cooperation between the countries during talks in Moscow, the Russian defense minister’s spokeswoman has said. Barak will arrive in the Russian capital on a two-day visit later on Monday. “This agreement will regulate cooperation [...]
A suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in northwest Pakistan on Monday killing at least 17 people, police said, in the third in a string of attacks by al Qaeda- and Taliban-linked militants over the last week. An official said the death toll could rise as the police station had collapsed after [...]
Mini-bus packed with explosives targets former defense ministry building in Baghdad, where security has been high. At least 12 people, including four soldiers, have been killed and 29 others wounded after five suicide bombers armed with rifles attempted to storm an army base in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Sunday’s attack came less than a week [...]
Iran is paying Taliban fighters a hefty sum for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan — $1,000 per soldier, according to an investigation by The Sunday Times. The British newspaper interviewed a “Taliban treasurer” who said a Kabul-based Iranian company has paid him more than $77,000 in the last six months for attacks to sabotage U.S. [...]
Iranian woman facing death for adultery to receive 99 lashes despite Times apologizing for using picture of another person in error. Iran has reportedly sentenced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani – the 43-year-old Iranian woman who faces execution after being convicted of adultery – to 99 lashes in prison for “spreading corruption and indecency” after allowing an [...]
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear watchdog chief, has accused the Egyptian government of publishing pictures of his daughter in a swimsuit in response to his call for democratic reforms in the country, a newspaper has reported. ElBaradei returned to Egypt earlier this year to begin a campaign calling for electoral reform and constitutional amendments [...]
Bahrain has accused 23 Shia Muslim activists of forming a “terror network” aimed at toppling the Arabian Gulf state’s government, the official BNA news agency says. The agency, citing the charge sheet on Saturday, said the suspects allegedly held secret meetings in Bahrain and abroad in order “to change the political regime through illegal means”. [...]
The United Nations says that three million people affected by floods in Pakistan have yet to receive the food aid they desperately need. Martin Mogwanja, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in Pakistan, said flooding was still reaching into new areas in the southern Sindh province. “Hundreds of thousands of people are moving out of the areas of [...]
Two Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip, medics and security sources say. Another person has been critically injured. The Israeli army launched three raids in the south of Gaza on Saturday after Palestinian fighters fired a rocket over the border. The flare-up of violence on the Israel-Gaza border came [...]
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, is once again in the position of pledging a commitment to peace with Palestinians while resuming the construction of settlements in disputed territories. The talks, which are dismissed by many as posturing and lauded by few as a sustained challenge of Israel’s policies by the US, are the second round [...]
Lebanon submitted a protest to the United Nations over a list of 141 suspected Israel spies that have operated within its frontiers. Beirut wants the role of the suspected agents to be debated at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York later this month. “Lebanon has complained over Israel having set up an espionage [...]
Exquisite artworks hidden under 2,000 years of soot and grime in a Jordanian cave have been restored by experts from the Courtauld Institute in London. Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been [...]
Some 600,000 Muslims crowded into the Grand Mosque in Islam’s holiest city of Mecca for prayers on the last Friday of Ramadan. In all more than a million worshippers were in the mosque and surrounding areas, Said al-Mansoori, a spokesman for the commission governing Mecca and Medina said. The two cities have swollen with worshippers [...]
A United Parcel Service cargo plane crashed in an unpopulated area near the Dubai airport, killing the two crew members on board, UPS officials said Friday. The 747-400, a UPS-operated cargo plane, crashed with two pilots about 8 p.m. as it took off for Cologne, Germany, UPS officials reported Friday. “Safety is a key priority [...]
Sixty people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a bomb attack targeting a Shia Muslim rally in Quetta on Friday. The bomb appeared to target a rally being held for Al-Quds day, an international annual event held by the Shia community opposing Israel’s control of Jerusalem and showing solidarity with Palestinian Muslims. [...]
Japan has imposed new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. The measures – which go beyond than those imposed by the UN Security Council – ban transactions with some Iranian banks, and also target energy-related investments. Japan approved sanctions against Iran last month, but US officials have been urging Tokyo to adopt tougher measures. [...]
The US president has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders not to let the chance for peace slip away as he opened a US-sponsored summit to re-launch direct talks. Barack Obama promised to put the “full weight” of the United States behind the effort to forge peace in direct talks between the two sides that [...]
Wealthy landowners in Pakistan have allegedly diverted waters from the country’s devastating floods away from their own properties and into villages, the country’s UN ambassador said Thursday. Abdullah Hussain Haroon called for an inquiry into claims that embankments had been allowed to burst to protect commercial crops. “Over the years, one has seen with the [...]
US prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, for the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday. Mehsud was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. On Dec. [...]
Nacho-fueled Super Bowl bashes and multi-course wedding banquets may hark back to a time when preagricultural people devoured wild animal meat at their comrades’ gravesides. That’s what happened 12,000 years ago at Hilazon Tachtit cave in Israel, say zooarchaeologist Natalie Munro of the University of Connecticut in Storrs and archaeologist Leore Grosman of Hebrew University [...]
The World Food Programme has warned that flood-ravaged Pakistan faces a “triple threat” after the worst disaster in the country’s history left eight million people dependent on aid to survive. Torrential rains triggered massive floods that have moved steadily from north to south over the past month, engulfing a fifth of the country and affecting [...]
Afghanistan’s central bank has taken control over the country’s most powerful and politically connected private bank, Afghan bankers and officials say, as fears of insolvency and financial mayhem grow. Kabul Bank, which has taken $1 Billion in deposits from ordinary Afghans and handles salary payments for Afghan soldiers, police and teachers, has engaged in a [...]
A Pakistani military delegation became the latest victim of the paranoia permeating US airports on Monday night, when US security officials detained a brigadier at Washington’s Dulles airport on a complaint by a passenger who said he did not feel safe sharing the flight with the delegation. The brigadier was removed from the United Airlines [...]
President Obama declared that “the American combat mission in Iraq has ended” in his prime-time address Tuesday. “Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country,” he said. The mission officially drew to a close at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Obama said the winding down of [...]
A Pakistani air strike targetting fighters believed to have been preparing for imminent suicide attacks has killed between 40 to 45 people in a northwestern the country. “Security forces today carried out a successful operation against militants in the Tirah valley of Khyber Agency,” a senior Pakistani security official told AFP news agency on Tuesday. “Militant hideouts, a training [...]
Palestinian gunmen opened fire Tuesday on an Israeli car in the West Bank and killed four passengers on the eve of a new round of Mideast peace talks in Washington. The Islamic militant group Hamas claimed responsibility. Assailants firing from a passing car riddled the vehicle with bullets as it traveled near Hebron – a [...]
Her son Sajad says she was told she would be hanged at dawn on Sunday and visits by her family and lawyer have been denied. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning, was told on Saturday that she was to be hanged at dawn on Sunday, but the sentence was not [...]
Two civil liberties groups sued the federal government on Monday to try to block its targeted killing overseas of a U.S.-born cleric believed to have inspired recent attacks in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [...]
A Saudi employer and his wife, who are accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid by hammering nails into her body, have been arrested in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry said Monday. Saudi Arabian authorities could not be reached immediately for verification. No further details were available. The two [...]
Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands have been charged by Dutch police with “preparation of a terrorist attack,” U.S. law enforcement officials tell ABC News. U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed “mock bombs” in their luggage. “This was almost certainly a dry [...]
“We have not presented any proposal to the Americans on an extension of the freeze … the government has not taken any decision on the issue,” an official quoted Netanyahu as saying at a Likud party meeting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied promising the Obama administration that a colony freeze would be renewed [...]
Dubai-based fashion designer Rabia Z. unveils this season’s top hijab looks. Follow the easy steps and before you know it, yours will be the most stylish shayla around. Eliminate the stress of a shayla/scarf that refuses to stay put by working on your base band first. Opt for a wide band or A’mta – a [...]
Muslim countries and organisations have pledged nearly $1 Billion in cash and supplies to relief efforts for flood victims in Pakistan, the head of a group of Islamic states has said. The announcement came as rising waters inundated the city of Thatta in the southern Sindh province and threatened the nearby town of Sujawal, home [...]
The spiritual leader of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party in Israel’s governing coalition, has called on God to “strike down” Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Only days before Mr Abbas is due sit down in Washington in face-to-face talks with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef termed the Palestinian president an evil hater of Israel. [...]
One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that President Hamid Karzai fired him last week after he repeatedly refused to block corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government. Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, the former deputy attorney general, said investigations of more than two dozen senior Afghan officials — including cabinet ministers, [...]
Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning was told by guards she had been abandoned by her children, says son. The Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has been denied visits by her lawyer and family, her son told the Guardian today, as it emerged that her lawyer has been subjected to fresh harassment. [...]
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis were fleeing the Thatta district Friday after the bloated Indus River crushed a levee and flooded new areas, officials said. The UN said as many as one million people have been displaced in the south since midweek. More than eight million people are need in of emergency assistance across the [...]
A Norwegian journalist has been granted unprecedented access to the Taliban army for the first time. The journalist, Norwegian Paul Refsdal, says Taliban leader Commander Dawran granted him the access and allowed him to film the enemy soldiers while they attacked a US convoy. The Taliban leader also allowed Refsdal to film him with his [...]
Iranian authorities have banned all advertisements for pets, pet food and other pet products. The decision by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance comes after the fatwa was issued by powerful cleric Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi. While keeping dogs as pets has become increasingly fashionable in Iran in recent years, the fatwa cited [...]
The UN is reviewing security measures for its aid workers in Pakistan, after a warning of new threats from the Pakistani Taliban. A US official said militants planned to attack foreigners delivering aid to the millions of people affected by the devastating floods in the country. One Taliban spokesman told Associated Press that the presence [...]
A Sri Lankan maid returned from her job in Saudi Arabia with 24 nails inside her body — the result of torture by the family who employed her, according to a doctor and a government official. L.G. Ariyawathi’s body is riddled with needles and nails, which are scheduled to be removed Friday, a doctor confirmed. [...]
An Iranian journalist imprisoned since 2009 is suing telecommunications giant Nokia Siemens in the US. Isa Saharkhiz says the company sold surveillance equipment to the Iranian government , and that is what led to his capture. By Tom Ackerman in Washington, Al Jazeera, August 26, 2010.
The aide to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan at the center of a politically sensitive corruption investigation is being paid by the Central Intelligence Agency, according to Afghan and American officials. Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been on the payroll for many years, according to [...]
A series of deadly attacks have rocked Iraq, leaving more than 30 people dead and scores more wounded as US forces go ahead with plans to end formal combat operations in the country. Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Baghdad, said: “It does appear the primary targets [of Wednesday's attacks] are police stations, check points [and other] symbols [...]
An Afghan trainee has shot and killed two Spanish police trainers and their interpreter before being killed by NATO forces. The incident in Afghanistan’s western Badghis province on Wednesday sparked a large protest, with hundreds of people chanting slogans, throwing stones and attempting to storm the site of the shooting – a Spanish-run base in [...]
It began with an Aug. 12 press release from the US-led military in Afghanistan. KABUL, Afghanistan (Aug. 12) – An Afghan and coalition security force killed several suspected insurgents and detained many more, including a Taliban commander, in Wardak province Wednesday. The commander conducted improvised explosive device, direct fire and indirect fire attacks against Afghan [...]
Much discussion about Indo-jazz fusion rightly focuses on American jazz musicians of Indian heritage. Musicians like Vijay Iyer, Rez Abbasi and Rudresh Mahanthappa have incorporated study of their ancestral music into their own ideas for improvisation. But they represent just the latest development in a more than half-century-long narrative of collaboration between jazz players and [...]
The Spanish government paid al-Qaeda terrorists $8 Million to free two Spanish aid workers in North Africa after a nine-month kidnapping ordeal, according to reports. Albert Vilalta, 35 and Roque Pascual, 50 were reunited with their families in Barcelona, early on Tuesday after being freed from the desert camp in Mali, where they had been [...]
Amiza Mai rushes through the hospital doors, tears streaming from her eyes and her two-month-old boy cradled in her arms. He is screaming. Her baby boy Kalsoon has severe diarrhea and has been vomiting. He is so dehydrated that he needs fluids pumped into him intravenously immediately. He and his entire family are living in [...]
Islamic groups in the US fear an overlap between Eidul Fitr and the anniversary of 9/11 will lead to criticisms that Muslims are celebrating the 2001 terrorist attacks. This year, Eid falls on or around September 11. Some groups worry that the coincidence will increase suspicion and hostility towards Islam at a time when feelings [...]
The young lovers didn’t stand a chance. In a desolate field on the edge of their village in northern Afghanistan, hundreds of men, stones in hand, closed in to carry out the mullah’s death sentence, handed down after the pair eloped against the wishes of their families. “It was an act of great cruelty,” said [...]
None of the alarms and only seven out of 43 surveillance cameras were working at a Cairo museum where a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen, Egypt’s top prosecutor said Sunday. Thieves made off with the canvas, known by the titles of “Poppy Flowers” and “Vase with Flowers,” on Saturday from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum [...]
An Iraqi convicted of the 2004 kidnapping and murder of the British aid worker Margaret Hassan escaped from jail nearly a year ago, it was revealed today. Ali Lutfi Jassar, who was serving a life sentence for his part in the killing of Hassan, was reported missing last month. But Iraq’s deputy justice minister, Busho [...]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country’s first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies. The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report – not far enough [...]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Sunday that he engineered the release of a security official arrested on suspicion of corruption, bolstering the perception by many that he is unwilling to confront a major problem in his country. His comments on the ABC program “This Week” followed a statement by Karzai last week that he would [...]
Posters have sprouted up around Egypt promoting the son of President Hosni Mubarak as the country’s next leader, in the most overt campaign yet for a controversial father-son succession in this key U.S. Arab ally. For the last decade, it has been believed that Gamal Mubarak is being groomed to succeed his 82-year-old father, who has ruled [...]
A painting by Vincent van Gogh, ‘Vase with Flowers’ valued at $50 Million, was seized at Cairo airport hours after being stolen from a museum for the second time. The work, which also goes by the name “Poppy Flowers”, vanished from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum on the banks of the River Nile in central Cairo. [...]
Donors have come forward with nearly $500 Million dollars to meet an emergency appeal for flood-hit Pakistan, with the United States, Saudi Arabia and Britain leading the way, figures showed Friday. The Financial Tracking Service, a UN database that aims to track all donations, showed late Friday that $490.7 Million dollars in funding has come [...]
Air strikes by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan accidentally killed at least three Afghan police in the country’s north and a woman and two children in the west, officials said on Saturday. Sensitivities about civilian casualties and “friendly fire” incidents have been running high as violence spreads across Afghanistan, reaching its worst levels since the [...]
Iran has started loading fuel into its first Russian-built nuclear power plant. After decades of delay, engineers finally began loading the Russia-supplied fuel into the Bushehr plant in southern Iran on Saturday. The development is a major milestone in Iran’s atomic programme despite UN sanctions. The transfer took place under the scrutiny of International Atomic [...]
Security guards and officials of the presidency formed a ‘human shield’ at the joint press conference held by President Asif Ali Zardari and US Senator John Kerry at the Chaklala Airbase on Thursday. The step, some officials said, was taken to ward off an embarrassing situation if some one hurled a shoe as the two [...]
The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division crossed into Kuwait in a convoy of armoured vehicles on Thursday morning, NBC News said. Some of the brigade remained behind to complete logistical tasks and will leave the country by air later in the day. The US combat mission in Iraq is scheduled to end on Aug [...]
Erik Prince, whose company, Blackwater Worldwide, is for sale and whose former top managers are facing criminal charges, has left the United States and moved to Abu Dhabi, according to court documents. Mr. Prince, a former member of the Navy Seals and an heir to a Michigan auto parts fortune, left the country after a [...]
A role reversal comedy shown on Saudi television in which a woman marries four husbands has hit the very nerve it satirised – male pride and double standards. The comedy was an episode in Saudi Arabia’s most celebrated satirical series, Tash Ma Tash or No Big Deal, a take-off of social prejudices shown annually during [...]
How can we process the idea of 20 million people left homeless and six million facing immanent starvation, with little or no locally produced food available for at least the next two years? How do you quantify feeding and housing 20,000,000 people – the seven zeros make the sheer scope of the disaster far more [...]
Turkish authorities have detained American activist and freelance journalist Jake Hess in the southeastern, predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. At a court appearance Sunday, a prosecutor charged Hess with “taking orders from a terrorist organization” and called for his immediate deportation from Turkey, witnesses said. Turkish officialdom regularly refers to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or [...]
A federal judge has ordered the release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee imprisoned at the island facility for more than 8 1/2 years. In a previously secret ruling written in July and released Monday, U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy said the Obama administration failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the Yemeni [...]
The World Bank has agreed to provide a $900 million loan to flood-hit Pakistan, saying the economic impact of the disaster on the country’s economy is expected to be “huge.” The funding will come from the International Development Association, the World Bank’s arm for low-income countries, a bank statement said on Monday. “The government of [...]
WASHINGTON – The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists. The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining [...]
A homicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday among dozens of Iraqi army recruits who had gathered near a military headquarters in downtown Baghdad in a devastating strike that officials said killed 51 people and wounded 119. The massive morning blast took place just outside the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building that now houses the [...]
A former Israeli soldier posted photos on Facebook of herself in uniform smiling beside bound and blindfolded Palestinian prisoners, drawing sharp criticism from the Israeli military and Palestinian officials. In one photo, she is sitting with her legs crossed beside a blindfolded Palestinian man who is slumped against a concrete barrier. His face is turned [...]
The wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pleaded that 400 children of migrant workers be allowed to stay in the country, wading into a debate which has sparked intense interest in the country. Sara Netanyahu’s appeal was snubbed by Israel’s interior minister, an ultra-Orthodox Jew who advocates whittling down the number of foreign [...]
A man and woman have been stoned to death in northern Afghanistan after being accused by the Taliban of having an affair, a witness and an official said Monday. The 23-year-old woman and 28-year-old man were killed because “they had an affair,” said Mohammad Ayob, the governor of Imam Sahib district in Kunduz province. “Two [...]
The Israeli military on Sunday began dismantling a concrete barrier that protected residents of a once-troubled district on the edge of Jerusalem from Palestinian sniper fire. At the height of the second intifada, the violent Palestinian uprising that broke out in 2000, the barrier’s tall concrete blocks had shielded the residents of Gilo, most of [...]
Men were digging through an earthen embankment on Sunday on the outskirts of the Pakistani town of Jacobabad hoping to drain away steadily rising flood waters. Three quarters of Jacobabad’s 300,000 people have already fled for dry ground, fearing the town would soon be swamped. More than two weeks after devastating floods first hit the [...]
The humanitarian and economic disaster caused by the worst floods in Pakistan’s history could spark political unrest that could destabilize the government, dealing a major blow to the Obama administration’s efforts to fight violent Islamic extremism. The government’s shambling response to floods that have affected a third of the country has some analysts saying that [...]
Lebanese security officials say a leader of the militant Sunni Islamist movement Fatah al-Islam was killed in a shootout with security forces, BBC News reported on Sunday. Abd-al-Rahman Awad and his two associates were ambushed by security forces near the town of Chtaura in east Lebanon, while travelling in a car. In a shootout that [...]
Turkey did not sign a pact with Iran ensuring the continued transferal of weapons to Hezbollah, the Turkish daily Hürriyet quoted an official in the country’s foreign ministry late Friday. The denial comes in the wake of a report by Italian daily Corriere della Sera earlier this week, which claimed that senior Iranian and Turkey [...]
A Cartier ring for just eight dollars? In Egypt, “Chinese gold”— an affordable imitation of the precious metal — has swamped the jewellery market, granting the poor a little taste of luxury. As in many other countries, the Egyptian market has been flooded with Chinese goods – everything from electronics to plastic cigarette lighters have [...]
Iran is to launch its first nuclear power reactor next week, the Islamic republic and Russia which helped build the plant said on Friday after years of delays to the highly sensitive project. “We are preparing to transfer the fuel inside the plant next week… Then we will need seven to eight days to transfer [...]
A German court has released on bail an alleged Israeli spy suspected of links to the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January. Prosecutors in the western city of Cologne told Uri Brodsky on Friday that he would not have to stand trial in Germany and was free to travel wherever he wanted [...]
More than $450 Million in foreign aid for victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake has been diverted by President Asif Zardari’s government to other causes, officials have told The Daily Telegraph in London. They now fear that the alleged diversion of funds will deter donors from giving further aid after the country’s devastating floods. According [...]
Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari calls for US army to stay beyond Obama’s 2011 deadline for complete withdrawal. The Iraqi army is not ready to take over responsibility from the Americans, its most senior general has warned, as the White House insists the US army is on course to end its combat role in the country [...]
A 43-year-old mother of two who recently was sentenced to death by stoning has admitted she was an accomplice to her husband’s murderer, confessed to adultery, and posed stark criticism to her lawyer in an interview aired on Iranian state TV. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani from the Tabriz area said that she had been involved in a [...]
A rare gold coin dating back 2,200 years was discovered by a combined university research team in Israel, a top Israeli antiquities official said Thursday. Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said the coin ranked in the top five of the rarest finds in that country’s [...]
Osama Bin Laden’s former cook was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday in the first prison term handed down by a Guantanamo Bay court since President Barack Obama took office. But Ibrahim al-Qosi has already agreed a plea deal with prosecutors, the details of which remain secret, raising the possibility that he could serve [...]
Over a billion Muslims around the world began observing the holy month of Ramadan on Wednesday, with the dawn-to-dusk fast posing a particular challenge for the devout in the sweltering Middle East summer. A heat wave has covered much of the region, putting even the most ardent believers to the test. In some places — [...]
The United States on Tuesday announced an additional $20 million for flood victims in Pakistan, bringing its contribution to date to $55 million. “This disaster is so vast … and as we get better insight into the scope, our contribution may well grow as well,” said US Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Daniel [...]
The imam behind controversial plans for a mosque near the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks is being sent by the State Department on a religious outreach trip to the Middle East, officials said Tuesday, in a move that drew criticism from conservative lawmakers. The department is sponsoring Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf’s visit [...]
The Taliban publicly flogged and then executed a pregnant Afghan widow by emptying three shots into her head for alleged adultery, police said on Monday. Bibi Sanubar, 35, was kept in captivity for three days before she was shot dead in a public trial on Sunday by a local Taliban commander in the Qadis district [...]
The United States said on Monday that the world’s response to the worst ever flood in Pakistan was not adequate and urged the international community to do more. “I am concerned that people do not see it as yet another catastrophe” that often beset Pakistan, US special representative Richard Holbrooke told a briefing in Washington. [...]
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has tried to implicate Israel in the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister. In a video address to journalists from an undisclosed location on Monday, Nasrallah said he had evidence to prove Israel’s complicity in al-Hariri’s assassination in Beirut, the Lebanese capital. “He has not provided undisputed, solid proof that [...]
The confessions of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen charged with terrorism, can be used as evidence in his trial, even though they may have been obtained through torture, a US military judge has ruled. Lawyers for Khadr claimed statements to military interrogators were illegally obtained through torture and asked a US war crimes court to throw them out. That [...]
US lawmakers said they were blocking US funding for Lebanon’s military after a deadly border clash last week between Lebanon and Israel. Two key Democrats, Nita Lowey and Howard Berman, announced they were holding up $100 Million that has been approved for Lebanon’s army but not yet spent. A senior House Republican, Eric Cantor, said [...]
The director of an international aid organization that lost members in a violent attack in Afghanistan said Monday his group is unlikely to pull out of the country, although the incident will affect its charitable work. Ten multinational medical aid workers — six Americans, two Afghans, a Briton and a German — were shot and [...]
Binyamin Netanyahu is testifying before an inquiry into Israel’s deadly attack on an aid convoy in which nine activists were killed. Here are extracts from his evidence: “I am convinced that at the end of your investigation, it will become clear that the State of Israel and the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) acted in accordance [...]
Israel’s border police force insisted in a statement on Thursday that video of a 5-year-old Palestinian boy reacting with dismay to the arrest of his father this week in the West Bank, which has been broadcast internationally, was staged. The video, embedded below, was shot near Hebron on Monday as the boy, Khaled Jaber, watched [...]
The lawyer defending a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran said he has applied for asylum in Norway, but hopes Iranian authorities will allow him eventually to return to his practice. Mohammad Mostafaei told reporters Sunday he chose to flee to Norway after obtaining a one-year Norwegian travel visa. He also cited the [...]
Whistleblower says repeatedly harrassing and arresting him over unauthorized meetings is ‘Israel’s problem’. Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower who spent 18 years in jail for exposing Israel’s nuclear capabilities was released today after completing a further three-month sentence. Vanunu, 56, a former technician at a secret nuclear plant near the desert town of Dimona, was [...]
Prof. Donna Shalala, Clinton’s secretary of health, arrives in Israel in order to fight academic boycott against Israel, claims she was held at Ben-Gurion Airport just because she has Arab last name. This is not how she imagined her visit to Israel. Prof. Donna Shalala, who served as the US Secretary of Health and Human [...]
More rain soaked flood-ravaged Pakistan on Saturday and even heavier downpours were forecast in the coming days, deepening a crisis in which hard-line Islamist groups have rushed to fill gaps in the government’s patchy response. Pakistani officials estimate as many as 13 million people throughout the South Asian nation have been affected by the rising [...]
President Hamid Karzai called Saturday for the international community to stop supporting private security companies in Afghanistan, which he said have created parallel security forces in competition with police and army. He also said foreign donors should help curb corruption by telling his government details about the reconstruction contracts they award. Karzai spoke during a [...]
President Asif Ali Zardari rounded off a trip to Britain by addressing a political rally Saturday, facing criticism and protesters for touring overseas as floods killed more than 1,500 people in his country. One heckler threw a shoe at Zardari during the event, missing the president, while outside the convention center police cordoned off more [...]
The FBI has warned that al-Qaeda’s new head of “global operational planning” is using his unprecedented familiarity with American society to plot attacks against the United States and other Western countries. Investigators believe that Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, is “extremely dangerous” in part because of the experience he can draw on having lived in the US [...]
Ten people — six Germans, two Americans and two Afghans — were killed by gunmen in Afghanistan about 15 days ago, police said Saturday. The gunmen stopped the victims on a road, took their belongings and shot them one by one, said Aqa Nwor Kentoz, police chief of Badakhshan province. One Afghan, Saifullah, was released [...]
A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer was under European diplomatic protection Friday after Turkish authorities released him from a detention center for illegal immigrants. Mohammad Mostafaei had barely made it to his hotel in Istanbul before diplomatic officials rushed to the scene and announced he was not safe. They swept him away in a car [...]
An alleged Israeli agent will be extradited to Germany to be tried for spying, the Polish court of appeals press officer told CNN Thursday. The alleged agent “is accused of helping to get false documents for the man who is thought to have killed the Hamas leader in Dubai,” the officer said. The man was [...]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai stepped up tensions with the U.S. on Wednesday by asserting control over two American-backed anticorruption task forces, ordering a handpicked committee to review all their investigations. U.S. officials see Mr. Karzai’s decision as a way for the Afghan president to limit the inquiries that may touch his inner circle. A senior [...]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad survived an assassination attempt on Wednesday when a hand grenade was thrown at his convoy, regional media reports said. The attempt on Ahmadinejad’s life took place as he was on his way to the city of Hamedan to make an address to the nation, the Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV channel said. [...]
Saudi Arabia’s telecom regulator has ordered mobile operators to halt BlackBerry services from August 6. The Saudi state news agency SPA in a report on Tuesday said that the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) asked “Saudi Telecom Co, Mobily and Zain Saudi Arabia to immediately stop the BlackBerry service in the country starting Friday. [...]
Deep divisions emerged here on Monday over the fate of about 400 children of foreign workers who have no legal status in the country and are slated for deportation. The issue has touched on sensitive nerves in Israel, which sees itself as a nation of Jewish refugees and defines itself as a Jewish and democratic [...]
A UN spokesman said on Monday that the UN Office of Humanitarian Assistance already had some $8 million in Pakistan relief funds and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had released some $10 million in Central Emergency Relief Funds. The UN chief expressed grief over the significant loss of lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure as a result of [...]
Clashes that killed at least 40 people overnight in Karachi scared residents off its streets on Tuesday as Pakistan’s largest city was on alert for more violence after the shooting of a leader in a dominant political party. Police said more than 90 people were wounded and dozens of vehicles and shops torched as mobs [...]
At least three Lebanese soldiers have been killed by Israeli forces during an exchange of rocket and gunfire along the border between the two countries. A journalist was also killed, and five more Lebanese soldiers wounded in the Israeli shelling on Tuesday. “The Israelis fired four rockets that fell near a Lebanese army position in [...]
Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said today that music is “not compatible” with the values of the Islamic republic, and should not be practised or taught in the country. In some of the most extreme comments by a senior regime figure since the 1979 revolution, Khamenei said: “Although music is halal, promoting and teaching [...]
Suspected al-Qaida militants on Monday blew up the house of a policeman in a former stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad, killing him, his wife and 4-year-old daughter, hospital and police officials said. Separate attacks in Baghdad, including one targeting police, killed five people and wounded 15. Al-Qaida militants have been targeting policemen [...]
The death toll from Pakistan’s worst floods in living memory stood at over 1,100 on Monday, with water-borne disease emerging as a threat to survivors. More than 1.5 million people have been affected by flash floods and landslides brought on by monsoon rain in the northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, officials said. [...]
The Dutch troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has officially begun, making the Netherlands the first country in NATO’s mission there to leave. The four-year deployment has cost the lives of 24 Dutch soldiers and $1.8 Billion but has garnered praise from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general, who said the Dutch mission was “the benchmark for [...]
An explosion at the house of a senior Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip has wounded at least 31 people, Hamas and medical workers in the Palestinian territory have said. The explosion early on Monday wrecked the house of Alaa al-Danaf, a field commander of the Hamas military wing, in the Deir el-Balah refugee camp in [...]
The shadow of Pakistan hangs over British-led efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, reports Nick Meo in Nad-e-Ali. The district governor of Nad-e-Ali pointed across parched fields towards a line of trees where the Taliban attacks come from. “That’s where our enemy is,” said Habibullah Shamalany, 58, standing outside a police fortress, [...]
Israel’s president has accused the English of being anti-semitic and claimed that MPs pander to Muslim voters. Shimon Peres said England was “deeply pro-Arab … and anti-Israeli”, adding: “They always worked against us.” He added: “There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary.” His [...]
Israeli warplanes fired missiles at several targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing one person and wounding eight people, witnesses and medics said after a rocket fired from the strip hit a southern Israeli city. A 22-year-old Hamas militant was killed in an airstrike on a caravan near the Magazhi refugee camp in the [...]
Rescue workers in Pakistan are attempting to reach thousands of people stranded by the worst floods in the country’s history, as the death toll rose to more than 1,000. More than a million people had been affected by the floods by Saturday, which have bloated rivers, washed away villages and triggered devastating landslides throughout the [...]
Two of the world’s fastest cars – belonging to the new Qatari owners of Harrods – were clamped right outside the Knightsbridge store. The $1.8 Million (£1.2 million) Koenigsegg CCXR and $475,000 (£350,000) Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SuperVeloce were parked outside the London department store last week. Crowds of tourists watched in disbelief as a traffic [...]
The death toll in three days of flooding in Pakistan reached at least 313 on Friday, rescue and government officials said, as rains bloated rivers, submerged villages, and triggered landslides. The rising toll from the monsoon rains underscore the poor infrastructure in Pakistan, where under-equipped rescue workers were struggling to reach people stranded in far-flung [...]
Continuing the construction freeze in West Bank settlements after it expires on September 26 would be impossible politically and would bring down the coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos in Jerusalem on Wednesday. Moratinos told Netanyahu that the European Union’s position was that Israel should continue the freeze. Palestinian Authority [...]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Thursday that Western allies had the ability to strike at Taliban bases in Pakistan, but questioned their willingness to do so. “The war against terrorism is not in the villages or houses of Afghanistan …but in the sanctuaries, sources of funding and training of terrorism and they lie outside [...]
Egypt has denied visas to four Iranian lawmakers who planned to travel to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, Iran’s Press TV reported on Wednesday. “The Egyptian government has stonewalled the visa process… no visa has been issued for the MPs as of yet,” Mahmoud Ahmadi Bighash, one of the four lawmakers, was quoted as saying by [...]
Gulf investors may have seen their investments shrink, but hundreds of foreign laborers in the United Arab Emirates are suffering a far worse fate as a result of the Dubai-centered economic bust. Abandoned by companies that pulled up stakes in the downturn, hundreds have been left with no pay, confiscated passports and barely enough food [...]
A Lebanese national has been arrested for allegedly insulting the republic’s president, Michel Sleiman, on Facebook. Ahmad Shuman was detained shortly after he arrived in Beirut’s international airport on a flight from Kiev. According to prosecutors, Mr Shuman committed “libel, slander and defamation” when he and three friends set up a page on the social [...]
The Israeli parliament is considering several new laws that could seriously impact the ability of citizens to criticise the government, according to rights groups. Human Rights Watch is reporting a crackdown on political activists who criticise Israeli’s treatment of the Palestinians. In what rights groups consider part of an alarming pattern, Shin Bet, Israel’s internal [...]
Israeli authorities have demolished the homes of about 300 Bedouins in a village in the southern Negev desert. The entire village of al-Arakib was bulldozed on Tuesday, with many of the former residents’ cattle, trees and belongings lost. Al-Arakib, which had about 40 homes, is one of 45 Bedouin villages not recognised by Israeli authorities. [...]
The US Congress on Tuesday gave President Barack Obama long-delayed funding for his troop increase in Afghanistan despite opposition from many fellow Democrats, while Obama played down the gravity of leaked war documents. In Kabul, the Afghan government accused the United States of ignoring Pakistan’s role in the Taliban insurgency as the fallout continued from [...]
A passenger jet carrying 152 people crashed into the hills surrounding Pakistan’s capital amid rain Wednesday, officials said. At least five people were killed and five wounded, but many more were feared dead. The cause of the Airblue crash was not immediately clear, said Pervez George, a civil aviation official. He said the plane had [...]
Israel has identified six military personnel who are missing after an Israeli helicopter crashed in Romania Monday during a joint military exercise. According to Israel Defense Forces, the Israelis included: Lt. Col. Avner Goldman, Lt. Col. Daniel Shipenbauer, Maj. Yahel Keshet, Maj. Lior Shai, Lt. Nir Lakrif and Sgt. 1st Class Oren Cohen. IDF said [...]
The United Arab Emirates has declared BlackBerry smartphones a potential threat to national security, saying the devices operate beyond the jurisdiction of national laws and are open to misuse. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority voiced fears that the BlackBerry manages data in a way that could allow it to be misused. BlackBerry devices were singled out [...]
The lawyer defending Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani himself faces re-arrest as his wife and brother-in-law are held by Iran authorities. Authorities in Iran have issued an arrest warrant for an acclaimed Iranian lawyer and arrested his wife and brother-in-law over his involvement in the case of a woman sentenced to death by stoning. Lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei’s [...]
Shum Khan was a deaf and dumb man who lived in the remote border hamlet of Malekshay, 7,000ft up in the mountains. When a heavily armed squad from the CIA barrelled into his village in March 2007, the war logs record that he “ran at the sight of the approaching coalition forces … out of [...]
Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday. [...]
A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency. The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records [...]
The Taliban said on Sunday they were holding prisoner one of two U.S. soldiers who strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents, and that the other had been killed. The Taliban leadership would decide later on the fate of the captive, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location. Visit msnbc.com [...]
Two U.S. Navy service members disappeared in a dangerous area of eastern Afghanistan, prompting a massive air and ground search and appeals on local radio stations for their safe return, NATO and Afghan officials said Saturday. The two left their compound in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in a vehicle Friday afternoon, but never returned, NATO [...]
A semi-comatose Saudi man has been chained in a basement apartment for more than six years because his father believes he is possessed by an evil female genie. ‘When he has fits he has convulsions and his entire body twists and his eyes become completely white,’ said the father of the 29-year-old man who has [...]
Iran has put fresh pressure on the woman it last month sentenced to death by stoning, demanding the names of those involved in the campaign for her release. The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has drawn international attention after her children launched a campaign for her release. After a global outcry last month, Iran’s judiciary [...]
He wants to have phone sex, she wants to leave her house without a headscarf: a Cairo play seeks to confront Egypt’s social taboos by laying bare the sexual frustrations and harassments that beset daily life. In a makeshift theatre set up in the cafeteria of the Cairo Opera House, a group of amateur actors [...]
A government-linked film studio in Iran plans to make a movie about the Iranian nuclear scientist who Iranian officials say was kidnapped by U.S. agents, state media reported Tuesday. According to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, Sima Film production company has hired a group of film school graduates to write a script about Shahram Amiri. [...]
Widad the Loving, Bari the Healer, Mumita the Destroyer and friends, all working together to fight evil — the virtues of Islam are embodied in the characters of the thrilling new comic The 99. Naif Al-Mutawa, a clinical psychologist by training, created the characters with a team of artists and writers to showcase traditional, tolerant [...]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday reaffirmed his commitment for Afghan police and soldiers to take charge of security throughout the nation by 2014 and urged his international partners to spend their money on Afghan priorities not ”quick-impact” projects. Karzai spoke at an international conference on the future of Afghanistan where representatives of 70 nations [...]
Two Christian brothers accused of distributing blasphemous Christian material were gunned down on the premises of the sessions court here on Monday. A police inspector was injured in the attack which sparked violence in the slain men’s native area of Daoodnagar where protesters pelted vehicles and shops with stones. At least 10 people were injured. [...]
The White House is revising its Afghanistan strategy to embrace the idea of negotiating with senior members of the Taliban through third parties – a policy to which it had previously been lukewarm. Negotiating with the Taliban has long been advocated by Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and the British and Pakistani governments, but resisted [...]
Syria has banned the country’s students and teachers from wearing the niqab – the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman’s eyes. The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria’s secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat. “We have given directives to [...]
A suicide bomber attacked government-backed Sunni militia on Sunday as they lined up to be paid on Baghdad’s southwestern outskirts, killing at least 39 and wounding 41, Iraqi security sources said. In a second attack, a suicide bomber killed four and wounded six at a meeting of local Sunni militia leaders in western Iraq, near [...]
Thirty-five truckloads of humanitarian aid from Libya began arriving in Gaza on Sunday, more than a week after a Libyan-backed ship set sail from Greece transporting the supplies, according to a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces. The ship from the Gadhafi foundation, a charity headed by the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, docked [...]
Iran blamed the West and Israel on Saturday for twin suicide bombings which killed at least 27 people, despite condemnation of the attack by the European Union, United Nations and United States. Iranian police, meanwhile, arrested 40 people for “creating disturbances”in the southeastern city of Zahedan where the bombers struck on Thursday, the Mehr news [...]
Israeli security forces on Friday carried out a search at the home of alleged Jewish terrorist Chaim Pearlman’s parents in the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, less than a week after he was arrested for a string of stabbing attacks against Palestinians over the last decade. A friend of Pearlman’s said the move showed that [...]
A newly released video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could add some additional strain to the sometimes tense relationship between him and President Obama. In the video, which is from 2001, Netanyahu — who reportedly did not know his speech was being recorded — speaks frankly in Hebrew about relations with the Clinton White House [...]
The scientist claiming to have been kidnapped and tortured by the United States was a CIA mole who spied on Iran’s nuclear program for several years, CIA officials claim in an effort to discredit him. Shahram Amiri was a vital source whose “significant, original” intelligence allowed his US minders to build up a comprehensive assessment [...]
Iran was Friday probing twin suicide bombings in a crowded Shia mosque which slaughtered 27 people in an attack a shadowy Sunni militant group said was to avenge the execution of its militant leader. Thursday night’s bombings, which reportedly targeted members of Iran’s elite defence force, the Revolutionary Guards, struck the Jamia mosque in Zahedan, [...]
Returning home to a hero’s welcome, this is the Iranian scientist who claims he was abducted by the CIA and pressured to lie about Tehran’s nuclear program. Shahram Amiri had an emotional reunion with his family in Tehran yesterday, his seven-year-old son barely leaving his father’s side. Amiri appeared to be wiping away tears in [...]
An Egyptian official said a Libyan ship carrying aid for Gaza has established contact and asked permission to dock at the Egyptian port of el-Arish. Port authority director Gamal Abdel Maqsoud said the Moldovan-flagged Almathea radioed port officials Wednesday evening requesting to dock in el-Arish. Maqsoud said the ship is about 24 kilometres off the [...]
An Iranian nuclear scientist claimed Thursday that he suffered extreme mental and physical torture at the hands of U.S. interrogators after disappearing last year, adding to Tehran’s allegations he was abducted by American agents. The U.S. says he was a willing defector who changed his mind and decided to board a plane home from Washington. [...]
Shahram Amiri, the Iranian nuclear scientist, has described the moment he claims to have been abducted at gunpoint by the CIA while on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Mr Amiri, 32, said he was seized and spirited from the country after being offered a lift while walking towards a mosque. He gave his account before [...]
Secretary of State Clinton considered Iran’s charges that one of their nuclear scientists had been abducted by the U.S. and basically had this to say: Whatever. “He’s free to go, he was free to come, these decisions are his alone to make,” Clinton said Tuesday of the curious case of Shahram Amiri. Amiri was holed [...]
Shahram Amiri, who disappeared last year during a trip to Saudi Arabia but since has been seen in a series of online videos, appears at Irans consular office and asks to return home. Shahram Amiri sounds like a contented man in one video, nestled in a leather chair, assuring his audience that he is free [...]
Israel courted international anger on Tuesday when it abruptly resumed its controversial policy of sending bulldozers into East Jerusalem to demolish Palestinian homes. After nine-months of restraint at the prompting of the United States, Israeli wrecking teams unexpectedly advanced into the city’s Arab suburbs and razed six Palestinian-owned buildings. The return of the bulldozers, seen [...]
An Israeli military investigation into the raid on a flotilla of Gaza-bound aid ships, has concluded that “the use of live fire” that killed nine activists “was justified”. The investigation, conducted by an army committee, also found that mistakes were made “at quite a senior level” but did not recommend punishments for any of the [...]
A group of U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether BP may have played a role in lobbying for the release of Abdelbaset al Megrahi to secure an oil contract with the Libyan government. Megrahi, now 58, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight [...]
Israel’s military operation against a Gaza-bound aid flotilla was undermined by mistakes at a senior level, a military report has concluded. The Israeli probe into the operation criticises intelligence gathering and forward planning, reports say. Commanders also relied too heavily on one single plan, Israel says. The aid flotilla was trying to break Israel’s blockade [...]
A new confrontation was looming off the coast of Gaza on Sunday night as a Libyan-backed ship pledged to break through the Israeli blockade on the territory. The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation said its ship, which left port in Greece on Saturday, was aiming to reach Palestinian land with its cargo of 2,000 [...]
A hotel cleaner who earns just $300 a year has been hailed a national hero in Pakistan after he returned $50,000 in cash left behind by an absent-minded guest. Essa Khan found the bag of notes stuffed in a safe deposit box while carrying out a routine inspection of a room vacated by a Japanese [...]
The death toll from twin suicide bombings in Pakistan jumped to 102 with 115 people wounded on Saturday, making it the deadliest attack this year in the country. Authorities continued to remove debris from the site of the attack in the village of Yakaghund in a northwest tribal region, after two bombers struck seconds apart [...]
At least 65 people were killed and over 100 others injured when two explosions ripped through a crowded bazaar in Mohmand Agency on Friday. The blasts took place at about 9.30am when the Ekkaghund Bazaar was bustling with life. Within minutes, the market area was completely devastated. Bodies of men, women and children were lying [...]
Afghans paid nearly $1 Bilion in bribes last year, according to a new survey that reveals that corruption in the country has doubled since 2007. The study by the monitoring group Integrity Watch Afghanistan showed that the average value of bribes paid in 2009 was $156. The average per capita income is $502 per year. [...]
The United States has charged five men with plotting to bomb New York City’s subway system, with prosecutors calling it part of a larger al-Qaeda conspiracy that included plans to attack an unidentified target in Britain. The indictment unsealed in a New York federal court on Wednesday broadened the case in which Colorado resident Najibullah [...]
Several pistols belonging to bodyguards of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an unexplained cross-country U.S. detour this week before four of them went missing altogether, officials said on Wednesday. A spokesman for Israel’s Shin Bet security service confirmed that the four handguns “were part of the equipment sent ahead (of Netanyahu) to Washington, and [...]
An Israeli soldier who fought in the country’s war on Gaza last year is to be prosecuted for the manslaughter of two Palestinian women, the military has said. The move, which is the first prosecution of an Israeli soldier over the deaths of civilians during the 22-day war, was one of several disciplinary steps announced [...]
President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today sought to paper over the deep political rift between the US and Israel and publicly avoided any mention of the main areas of friction, including the continued expansion of Jewish settlements. In stark contrast to their last meeting, in March, when President Obama humiliated Netanyahu [...]
Footage posted online of Israeli soldiers breaking into a choreographed dance while on duty is being circulated on the internet. In the video, the soldiers stop a patrol in the West Bank and start dancing to American electropop singer Kesha’s hit “Tick Tock”. The video has since been removed from YouTube but Israeli television stations [...]
Israel on Monday announced details of the easing of its blockade of Gaza, and the Israeli defense minister held a rare face-to-face meeting here with the Palestinian prime minister in a flurry of activity apparently intended to show diplomatic momentum ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with President Obama, scheduled for Tuesday in Washington. [...]
The United States is sending a high-level delegation to Islamabad this week to convince Pakistani authorities that now is the time to uproot Al Qaeda when it is weakened. Daniel Benjamin, coordinator for counter-terrorism at the White House, will lead the delegation, which will include senior officials of the Department of Homeland Security. The United [...]
Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a mother of two, is waiting to die in Iran by a method of execution described by her lawyer as “barbaric” — stoning. She will be buried up to her chest, deeper than a man would be, and the stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause [...]
Two heads are better than one? An Egyptian famer is declaring a “divine miracle” as the explanation for his cow giving birth to a two-headed calf. The farmer, Sobhy el-Ganzoury, said that the two-hour ordeal was difficult but he finally was able to extract the two-headed calf whose legs have been weakened by the birth. [...]
Abu Daoud, the man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the massacre that marked the 1972 Munich Olympics, has died, according to the official news agency of the Palestinian Authority. On September 5 of that year, Palestinian terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes who were taken hostage. Daoud, also known as Mohammed Oudeh, died Friday [...]
Every time Dr. Hossam Haick – only 35 and one of the most brilliant scientists to come out of Israel – is invited to attend a scientific conference abroad, he is taken aside at Ben-Gurion International Airport and subjected to a rigmarole of questions and interrogations. “I told the security people that I am a [...]
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Saturday there was no progress in proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians, London-based Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday. Aboul Gheit criticized United States special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell and said that his negotiation tactics could take at least a decade before the realization [...]
A British civilian has been killed in Afghanistan after Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen stormed his office, triggering a fierce five-hour gun battle with police. The man, who has not yet been named, is among the first British civilians to have been killed during the war. A German and two Afghans also died and 24 [...]
Binyamin Netanyahu draws the line at paying ‘any price’ for freedom of soldier, who was abducted in 2006. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, tonight confirmed he was prepared to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but drew the line at paying “any price” for the soldier’s freedom. In [...]
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