An Egyptian appeals court yesterday upheld a 25-year life sentence for Mohammed Badie, the leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. The court in the capital Cairo rejected appeals by Badie and other leaders of the group in the case known as “the incidents of Guidance office,” reported...

The United Nations has revealed that 700 people have recently died in two camps in north-east Syria, in which around 70,000 family members of Daesh fighters are currently being detained. The UN’s counter-terrorism chief  Vladimir Vorontsov informed a news conference yesterday that the residents of the Al-Hawl and Roj...

An adviser to the Prime Minister of Tunisia has said that the government is committed to providing job opportunities in the southern province of Tataouine, Anadolu has reported. The province has seen a lot of social tension recently following accusations that the government has not fulfilled its pledges made...

Four US senators signed a letter to urge President Donald Trump to help free the detained children of a former top Saudi intelligence official who is living in exile in Canada, Bloomberg reports. According to the family of Saad Al-Jabri, his children Omar and Sarah, aged 22 and 20, were detained in Saudi...

Egypt’s cabinet has approved a bill which will keep the identities of women filing complaints of sexual assault a secret. However, identities could be revealed to courts and defendants on request. The bill follows the the widely shared news of serial rapist Ahmed Bassam Zaki, who was accused by some...

The head of the Shura Council of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party has advised Prime Minister Elyas Al-Fakhfakh to resign. Abdul Karim Al-Harouni gave his advice on local radio station Express FM on Thursday. Al-Harouni pointed out that Ennahda had tried to persuade Al-Fakhfakh to develop the government but the Prime...

Details of human trafficking in Kuwait which saw the arrest of an MP from Bangladesh suggests that the scandal is not simply a case of one single rogue lawmaker. It now seems that Dhaka’s very own ambassador to the Gulf state is embroiled in criminal activity normally associated with...

A former Egyptian diplomat said that Turkey wants to move its battles from the border of Syria to Libya so as to “encircle Egypt”, Libya’s neighbour to the east. Mostafa El Feki added, in statements that were quoted in the state-run newspaper Akhbar Al-Youm, that the region’s issues are getting...

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Libya’s renegade General Khalifa Haftar was ready to sign a ceasefire agreement, however the internationally- recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) is hesitant to do so, Interfax news agency reported. Lavrov added that he hopes that Turkey will be able to...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has told the Security Council of his alarm at the military build-up around Sirte in Libya. The conflict in the North African country has entered “a new phase with the foreign intervention reaching unprecedented levels, including the delivery of advanced equipment and mercenaries involved in...

An unknown woman in the northern Syrian city of Afrin, near Aleppo, has been found to be throwing children from the rooftops of buildings in the city, local sources said. The sources said the last victim was a small boy named Imad Mahmoud Okasha whose family was displaced from...

Israel has threatened to cut the electricity supply to several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank to “blackmail” the Palestinian leadership after the latter’s decision to severe coordination with the Israeli authorities over Tel Aviv’s plan to annex large parts of the occupied territories, Palestinian Minister of Local...

Seven men have been arrested in Lebanon over the rape and abuse of a 13-year-old Syrian boy that took place over a two-year period, IranWire reports. The eighth suspect in the case is still being sought by security officials. The case came to light at the end of June after a video,...

German authorities have charged a federal press office employee with espionage after he was caught spying for the Egyptian intelligence service. According to a report presented by Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, police took “executive measures” against the man in December 2019 after he “worked for years for an...

Another explosion has occurred in Iran’s capital Tehran according to the official IRIB news agency, in what is the latest in a string of similar incidents over the past few weeks. The report, based on witness accounts, said some parts of the city experienced power-outages as a result of the blast,...

An adviser to Yemen’s Minister of Information said on Thursday that the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) is taking advantage of negotiations in Riyadh to gain time for it to take control of the rest of the southern governorates. Mukhtar Al-Rahbi added that this is being done with the...

Libya’s delegate to the UN, Taher Al-Sunni, has said that his country no longer accepts the UAE’s presence in its political dialogues. Al-Sunni made his comment during his speech at the UN Security Council session on Libya in New York on Wednesday. “The UAE is involved with absolute certainty...

Secretary-General of the Palestinian Fatah movement’s Central Committee, Jibril Al-Rajoub, described Israel’s annexation plan as “a declaration of war” that would change all rules of engagement. Speaking to Al-Mayadeen news channel, Al-Rajoub said Fatah and Hamas have abandoned the division and are heading towards confronting the ‘deal of the century’ and...

Former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia has said that he does not regret the decisions that he made when in office, and that he would do the same again if necessary. At all times, he insisted, he respected the law when making his decisions. Ouyahia made his comment during...

Turkey’s top administrative court, the Council of State is likely to announce today the restoration of the Hagia Sophia from a museum to a mosque reversing an 86-year-old decree by the Council of Ministers under the presidency of the republic’s secularist founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Once the largest and...

The Chilean Senate last week approved a resolution calling on President Sebastian Pinera Echenique to adopt a law boycotting settlement goods and banning commercial activity with companies that operate in the occupied Palestinian territories. The motion passed on 30 June with 29 votes in favour and six abstentions, no votes were...

Dozens of elements within the pro-regime National Defence Forces (NDF) have withdrawn from the Syrian army and joined Iranian militias “seeking higher salaries”, official sources reported yesterday. “More than 70 members of the NDF have joined the Sheikh Akram militia, affiliated to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, in Syria’s Al-Bukamal...

UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen’s province of Hadhramaut yesterday warned the Yemeni government against “marginalising us in any consultations over a solution to the situation in Yemen.” In an official statement, the STC stressed on its “support for Yemen’s legitimate government led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur...

Foreign countries are now openly fighting their proxy war on Libyan soil and deciding on war, peace, and even when the country can resume its oil exports. In an unusual statement, Mustafa Sanalla, chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) revealed that negotiations were underway to lift the oil...

Yet another Palestinian political prisoner has died in an Israeli prison due to the medical negligence of the Israeli prison administration. 75-year-old Saadi Al-Gharably was the latest victim in a series of similar cases, bringing the total number of victims to 233 since 1967. The Waed Society for Palestinian...

Kuwaiti prosecutors on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the son of a former prime minister and his partner amid a corruption probe of the so-called “Malaysian Sovereign Fund” case, Anadolu Agency reports. Informed sources told Anadolu Agency that the investigation began on Thursday morning following the arrest of Sheikh Sabah Jaber al-Mubarak...

The executive branch of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday condemned the use of banned sarin and chlorine bombs by Syria’s air force, but stopped short of taking direct action to penalise Damascus, Reuters reports. It followed a report in April by Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigators,...

A proposed 25-year cooperation deal between Iran and China has raised controversy within and outside Iran, even before the potential pact is finalized, Anadolu Agency reports. While critics of the Hassan Rouhani-led government describing the move as a “secretive” agreement, Rouhani and his cabinet colleagues have strongly come out in its defense....

Recent meetings between representatives of Fatah and Hamas have had major coverage in the Israeli media. They are a source of great concern in case they provide Hamas with political and security cover in the occupied West Bank enabling it to resume resistance operations against Israel if the Palestinian...

Iran’s total number of coronavirus cases has reached 250,458 and a record 221 people died of the disease over the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 12,305, the Health Ministry said on Thursday, Reuters reports. Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, has suffered a new spike in...

Jordan’s Princess Raiyah Bint Al-Hussein married to Ned Donovan, the grandson of British author Roald Dahl in an intimate, socially-distanced ceremony in England this week. The bride, 34, posted pictures from the ceremony on her Twitter account on Tuesday, and thanked well-wishers for their thoughtful messages. She also noted...

Israel is “in a dangerous place”, warned the country’s top public health official in a resignation letter protesting the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Professor Siegal Sadetzki accused the current heads of the Ministry of Health of losing direction and ignoring professional advice, in a lengthy Facebook post...

Iran and Syria have signed a new military cooperation agreement aimed at boosting existing ties between the two allies. Part of the deal signed yesterday by the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, and Syrian Defence Minister, Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, will improve Syria’s air...

Saudi Arabia has stoked controversy after it was revealed that it gave permission for Vogue Arabia to conduct a raunchy photoshoot of international supermodels within the historical site of Al-Ula in the province of Madina. Vogue Arabia, the Arab edition of the renowned US-based fashion magazine, released its 24-hour campaign photoshoot...

Israel’s outgoing Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, is not leaving the arena without his usual, unfounded claim that the international community is subservient to the Palestinian narrative. In a recent item in the Jerusalem Post, Danon cautioned against calling Israel’s plan to formalise its land theft “annexation”. To...

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was accused of turning a blind eye to Israeli human rights abuse during a House of Commons discussion over the new Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime announced earlier this week. Since leaving the European Union, Britain has been free to develop its own sanctions regime,...

Qatar’s Embassy in Ankara announced the establishment of a travel corridor from Turkey to Doha. According to the announcement, four coronavirus testing centres have been approved in Turkey to allow Qatari nationals to avoid the two-week quarantine upon arrival in qatar. سفارة قطر في تركيا @QatarEmb_Ankara تعلن استثناء المواطنين...

Israel yesterday arrested Khalil Tafakji, head of the maps department at the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem, Anadolu reported. A source in the Tafakji family told the news agency that large numbers of occupation police and intelligence services stormed the department and tampered with its possessions. The source said after extensive...

Reports have revealed that many Kuwaitis refuse to accept jobs which have previously been completed by expatriate workers because the salaries are too low. Kuwait’s Al-Anbaa newspaper said it had obtained data indicating that nine government agencies affiliated with the Ministry of Finance currently have 563 job vacancies while they employed...

The World Bank will finance a project worth $26.9 million to confront the repercussions of COVID-19 in Yemen, the country’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Dr. Najib Al-Ouj, revealed yesterday. The programme will be implemented by the Yemeni Ministry of Health in cooperation with the World Health Organisation, Asharq...

The Yemeni Abductees Mothers Association has called on the United Nations Security Council, the UN Secretary-General, and the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths to intervene and help secure the release of persons kidnapped and forcibly disappeared by the Houthis and the UAE- backed Southern Transitional Council (STC). “Our...

Instagram has apologised to supermodel Bella Hadid following her public criticism of the social media platform for deleting a post she shared showing her father’s place of birth as Palestine. After the Palestinian-American supermodel posted an image of real estate mogul Mohammed Hadid’s long-expired passport, with the passport number blurred out, Instagram sent...

“After Srebrenica, you said never again…Shame on you World!” These were the words written on the posters of demonstrators who gathered in Sarajevo in 2016 to condemn the Assad regime’s siege of Syria’s Aleppo. This month marks the anniversary of the UN’s failure to protect its so-called “safe zone” in...

A Lebanese businessman who was serving a five-year prison sentence in the US after being accused of financing Hezbollah returned to Beirut yesterday after an early release. Kassim Tajideen was sentenced last year in a federal court in Washington in connection with a money laundering conspiracy aimed at evading...

Bahrain’s High Criminal Court has convicted five officials in one Bahraini bank and three Iranian banks in a major money laundering case. The court sentenced officials at Bahrain’s Future Bank to five years in prison and fined them a million Bahraini dinars ($2.65 million) each. The same fine was...

Turkey yesterday criticised the US for including Greek Cyprus in its International Military Education and Training Program, Anadolu reported. According to a statement published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey reminded its ally, the US, that equal treatment of both sides on the Cyprus Island is a basic UN principle. “Initiatives...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that Moscow has offered to provide technical assistance to Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia regarding the Grand Renaissance Dam. “The United States also offered its services to them. Several meetings took place in the United States, and we welcomed the progress that has...

Iran Quds Force chief, Qassem Soleimani, Soleimani was “planning for terrorist attacks against American interests and other countries before he was targeted” in US forces in Iraq, the Pentagon said yesterday. The comments came in response to a report issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary...

The UN Security Council yesterday voted down a Russian resolution that sought to halve the amount of humanitarian aid delivered to internally displaced persons in Syria’s north-west province of Idlib. The bid was only supported by China, Vietnam and South Africa. It was intended to extend the cross-border aid...

The Israeli occupation authorities’ plan to annex most of the West Bank is but another form of the oppression that the Palestinians have been suffering for decades. It is reminiscent of the way that international law is used and abused, and ignored by Israel on a daily basis, to...