Children are more than twice as likely to live in extreme poverty than adults, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said today, reported by Anadolu Agency. “On this International #EndPoverty Day, let us recommit to a fair globalization that Works for all children, their families and communities,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres...

An almost three-hour meeting between Turkish and US delegations on Thursday, co-chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US Vice President Mike Pence, in the Turkish capital Ankara has ended, Anadolu Agency reports. The delegations met at the presidential complex and the meeting lasted for two hours and 40 minutes....

Italy has recovered the bodies of a child and six other people from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, more than a week after a crowded migrant boat capsized off the coast of the island of Lampedusa, Reuters reports. Men from the Italian coastguard, dressed in white suits and wearing masks...

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A former top Barclays executive, on trial in London on fraud charges, would have risked a 50 million pound ($64 million) “good leaver” package if he had sought a criminal deal with Qatar during the credit crisis, a court heard on Thursday, Reuters reports. It would have been “lunacy” for Roger...

Syrian Kurds’ aspirations for a semi-autonomous region has suffered a blow with Russian insistence that a solution to the conflict must involve the transfer of control over the Turkish-Syrian border to Damascus. “We are convinced that achieving sustainable long-term stabilisation and security in this region of Syria, in the...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday his country had received support from neighbouring countries – without naming them – in the fight against US sanctions. This came in a speech at a ceremony organised to mark the start of the new academic year at the University of Tehran. As...

Donald Trump confirmed yesterday that some of America’s nuclear weapons from the Cold War era are currently being stored at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base. The US President is the first to acknowledge publicly what many have regarded as an open secret for decades. It is believed widely that the...

Local sources have said Saudi and Sudanese troops have arrived in Yemen’s southern province of Aden in spite of a Reuters report indicating that an agreement between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and southern separatists was due to be signed today. The Yemeni government hopes to retake the city as its...

A Palestinian fan was detained for raising the Yemeni flag during Tuesday’s dual World Cup-Asian Cup qualifier between Saudi Arabia and Palestine. Ahmad Al-Yumni, a 24-year-old construction worker from Hebron, was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (PA) for protesting against the war in Yemen. The UN says at least...

Iraqi President Barham Saleh has denied that his country has agreed to accept the transfer of Daesh fighters who are being held in Syria. Iraq, he added, will not be used as a “dumping ground” for the remaining members of  the terrorist organisation. “Barham received a phone call from...

Would-be Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has stated publicly that the US government has supported Al-Qaeda terrorists, not least in their bid to overthrow the Syrian government. Gabbard is the most high-profile US politician to confirm what has been speculated about widely over the years and has vowed to...

Israeli occupation forces yesterday arrested Sheikh Ismail Nawahda, a preacher at Al-Aqsa Mosque, at the Qalandia checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported. Another 22 Palestinians were also detained yesterday from across the occupied West Bank, the news agency added. Sheikh Nawahda was taken in for...

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel announced she would half channel crossings made by refugees by the end of October and virtually eliminate them by next spring, hours after the bodies of two Iraqis washed up on a beach in Le Touquet in northern France. The Channel, which connects France...

At least 60 Israelis have been arrested in Europe on charges of smuggling large amounts of khat, local media revealed yesterday. The Jerusalem Post reported that seven Israelis were arrested in France, three in Sweden, two in Spain and two in Ireland. They were caught with tens of kilograms...

Israel has called on the United States to maintain a military base in south-eastern Syria for strategic and geopolitical reasons, Israeli TV channel Kan reported yesterday. Al-Tanf base, set up and controlled by the US military in 2016 during the ongoing Syrian conflict, lies in a strategically important area...

After a lawyer, his wife and his brother were arrested from a café in Damanhour, a city in Lower Egypt, his mother and two sisters were also arrested after enquiring about his whereabouts. According to a Facebook post written by Major General Helmi Hamdoun, which has now been removed,...

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz renewed on Wednesday his country’s support for the Palestinian people, Al-Watan Voice has reported. The Saudi monarch affirmed the Kingdom’s backing for the people of Palestine to establish a state on the 1967 borders during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas....

Yemen’s Nobel Peace Laureate activist Tawakkol Karman has said her country has almost succeeded in forcing out what she called the “Emirati occupation”, and it remains determined to do the same with Saudi Arabia. The solution to the country’s crisis, she explained, lies in “getting rid of the Saudi tutelage” and...

Member of Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission Abolfazl Hassan Beigi accused the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia of targeting his country’s oil tanker in the Red Sea, local news agencies reported. Hassan Beigi was quoted by the Iranian news agency Mehr saying that the footage from the cameras placed...

Mohammed Dahlan insisted on Wednesday that age and ill health must necessarily prevent Mahmoud Abbas from continuing as the President of the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian MP, who lives in Dubai, made his comments in the context of a discussion about the importance of holding elections for all Palestinian...

Kais Saied is the new President of Tunisia after a landslide election victory with 72.71 per cent of the votes cast. Saied received 2.7 million votes while his rival, businessman and media mogul Nabil Karoui, polled just over a million. The Election Commission confirmed the results on 14 October,...

Jerusalem District Electricity Company (JDECO) has received the first warning ahead of the second phase of electricity cuts to Palestinians in the West Bank, Chairman Hisham Omari said yesterday. As reported by Wafa news agency, Al-Omari warned that the cuts will adversely affect institutions, hospitals, education, water, telecommunications, drug stores and...

Jordan yesterday denied what Israeli media reported about the Jordanian kingdom’s approval to renew or extend Israel’s lease of Baqoura and Al-Ghamr in the Araba border area. Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Affairs, Sufyan Qudah, said that the kingdom’s decision, taken in October 2018, to terminate the...

A number of Hamas cadres in the West Bank have been arrested by the Israeli army in recent weeks. This has raised questions about security coordination with the occupation authorities, as it has become common for Israel to arrest prisoners a day after they are released by the Palestinian...

Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian estimates suggest that Hamas will win legislative elections if they are held, a report by the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom stated yesterday. An Israeli security official, as well as other Palestinian and Jordanian officials, told the paper that despite the lack of political cooperation and...

A survey by Morocco’s High Commission for Planning (HCP) revealed that 43.9 per cent of households say they have been suffering from deteriorating living conditions in the past 12 months, while 32.5 per cent indicated that the situation is stable and 23.6 per cent see an “improvement”. The HCP...

US President Donald Trump warned Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a letter about Turkey’s incursion into Syria, “Don’t be a tough guy” and “Don’t be a fool!”, Reuters reports. The October 9 letter was released by the White House on Wednesday as Trump battled to control the political damage...

Libya’s internationally recognised government said on Wednesday it was sharply increasing the price of kerosene for industrial and commercial use as a first step to reform costly fuel subsidies and tackle smuggling, Reuters reports. The price will rise to 0.85 Libyan dinars ($0.6) per litre, which is also the...

Iran-backed militias deployed snipers on Baghdad rooftops during Iraq’s deadliest anti-government protests in years, two Iraqi security officials told Reuters. The deployment of militia fighters, which has not been previously reported, underscores the chaotic nature of Iraqi politics amid mass protests that led to more than 100 deaths and...

Israeli forces have detained ten Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli army, Anadolu reports. The Israeli military said in a Thursday statement that the individuals had been arrested for “suspected involvement in popular violent activities”, without elaborating about the nature...

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democratic leaders’ White House meeting was cut short after Republican President Donald Trump had a “meltdown” over a House of Representatives vote condemning his Syria withdrawal, Reuters reports. Trump was insulting to Pelosi and the meeting deteriorated into a diatribe by Trump, Senate...

Two Daesh militants from Belgium have escaped custody in northern Syria in the course of Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish forces there, the head of Belgium’s security assessment agency said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Paul Van Tigchelt, head of OCAD, told a parliamentary committee that two men and three women,...

The Iraqi cabinet has sacked 61 officials over recent protests that killed more than 100 people and injured thousands earlier this month, Anadolu reports. Leaked documents obtained by Anadolu Agency showed that the decision was taken during a cabinet meeting on Oct. 14. Protests rocked the capital Baghdad and...

Israeli settlers on Wednesday attacked Palestinian villagers harvesting olives in the northern occupied West Bank, Anadolu reports. The attack took place in Burin village, near Nablus city, where settlers beat Palestinian villagers, according to Ghasan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank....

The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Donald Trump’s decision to pull back troops in northern Syria, Anadolu reports. The measure passed 354-60 with every Democrats and more than two-thirds of Republicans in favor. Sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Republican Michael...

Peace talks between key rebel groups and the Sudanese government hit an obstacle on Wednesday when one major group said it will not sit down for direct talks with Khartoum until its demands are met. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group in the states of Blue Nile...

It was only a matter of time before the Palestinian Authority would renege on its word and accept the deducted tax revenues from the Israeli government. After all, the PA is primarily concerned with prolonging its existence, even as it keeps losing any semblance of political influence. Financial constraints...

Morocco’s king has pardoned Hajar Raissouni, a journalist sentenced to a year in prison last month for extramarital sex and an abortion, along with her fiance, a doctor and two of his colleagues, the justice ministry said on Wednesday, Reuters reports. The case of Raissouni, who had denied the...

The reaction of Western countries to Turkey’s fight against terrorists groups in north-eastern Syria requires the international community to have a serious rethink about Article 5 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty which founded NATO and set out its responsibilities. Turkey’s NATO journey started 67 years ago when it...

The Libyan Navy said on Wednesday it had rescued 90 irregular migrants including seven women off the Khoms town, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of the capital Tripoli, Anadolu reports. “Following an extensive search operation in the sea, the navy boats managed to trace the location of the...

Israel yesterday released the governor of Jerusalem Adnan Ghaith and the Fatah part’s Secretary-General Shadi Mutwar after arresting and detaining them for several hours. Mohammed Mahmud, the lawyer for the senior Palestinian figures, stated that they were arrested during dawn raids in their homes in occupied East Jerusalem for...

It’s becoming a scene all too familiar, the public anger at the ruling elites, the repeated calls for mass protests, the flashpoints of demonstrations erupting in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, almost as if the 2013 revolution is incomplete. At present, Cairo is under a heavy lockdown with authorities and plainclothes...

The Italian journalist who was detained and deported from Cairo airport last Thursday has told Hiwar TV channel that the Egyptian regime should be concerned because two officers apologised to her and told her this is not the true face of Egypt. Her comments come amid reports that the...

A high-profile US delegation is expected to arrive in Turkey tomorrow in an attempt to persuade Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to end his military incursion in north-east Syria. The Turkish President has so far remained defiant in his attempt to clear out Kurdish fighters from north-eastern Syria and create a...

Canada has joined fellow NATO members in pausing arms sale to Ankara, as the Turkish government comes under pressure to halt its military operation into north-eastern Syria. Global Affairs Canada, the country’s foreign ministry, announced the decision yesterday saying that Ottawa has “temporarily suspended new export permits to Turkey.”...

When the Arab youth revolted in 2011 to demand freedom and democracy in their countries, Facebook was the social media platform of choice for crowd mobilisation, a proven experience in other contexts around the world. When Palestinian youth tried to take a chance and speak out against the Israeli...

A group of former high-ranking national security officials who served in the Obama administration are calling on Congress to defund the war effort in Yemen. It was the same administration that pushed policies that led to the US supporting the Saudi-led coalition that began in March 2015. In an...

Saudi Arabia and Palestine’s national football teams faced each other yesterday in a much-anticipated game in the occupied West Bank, which saw Riyadh criticised for allowing its nationals to travel across Israel’s borders. The move to play and hold the match in the occupied West Bank is a break...

Egyptian lawyer Amr Iman has been arrested from his house shortly after declaring he would start a hunger strike in solidarity with detained Egyptian activists. Amr had announced that he would strike in protest against the treatment of activists Israa Abdel Fattah and Alaa Abdel Fattah and his lawyer...