Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council Maha Azzam has written to the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet Jeria urging her to publicly condemn the regional conference on torture which will be held in Cairo at the beginning of September and will be co-hosted by the international...

A new intifada could erupt in the occupied West Bank as a result of the political and economic crisis in the area, a secret Palestinian Authority intelligence report has warned. Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed details of the document which it says was written for the heads of the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday arrived in Ukraine to mobilise votes of Russian-speaking immigrants who left the former Soviet Union and moved to Israel, Arab48 reported. Netanyahu’s declared agenda included discussions about agriculture, tourism, education and stipends of retired immigrants. However, several Israeli analysts said that the hidden...

Jewish Israeli settlers are on a roll as they rampage across the occupied Palestinian West Bank. While settler violence is part of the daily routine in Palestine, the violence of recent weeks is linked directly to the General Election in Israel, scheduled to be held on 17 September. The...

Palestinian Authority (PA) yesterday warned of Israel attempts to impose spatial divisions at Al-Aqsa Mosque as part of the electoral campaigns of right-wing parties led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Assabeel newspaper reported. In a statement, the PA’s Foreign Ministry said that the ruling Israeli right-wing, headed by...

The Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) announced yesterday that its stockpile of enriched uranium had increased from 300 kilogrammes to 370 kilogrammes, Arabi21 reported. According to the AEOI, Iran is to continue developing its nuclear programme. During a parliament meeting, MP Hussein Naqawi Husseini reported the Chief of the AEOI Ali Akbar...

Yasin Aktay, senior adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Saturday called for the world to bring the perpetrators of Egypt’s Rabaa massacre to justice, Arabi21 reported. Aktay added that the killers of Egypt’s first freely elected civilian President Mohamed Morsi should also be prosecuted and pressure must be placed on the “autocratic”...

Iran’s judiciary will decide whether or not to release the British oil tanker seized in Iranian waters, DPA reported the commander of the Iranian Navy saying. “The British tanker has three violations, which must be dealt with,” Alireza Tangsiri said, stating that the Judiciary and Port Authority are entitled...

The refusal of Yemeni southern separatists to hand back control of Aden port has delayed a summit in Saudi Arabia that is due to discuss reshuffling Yemen’s ousted government to include the separatists and end the stand-off, three Yemeni sources said, Reuters reports. Saudi Arabia called for the meeting...

Libya’s UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) on Monday announced it had downed an armed drone belonging to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in northwestern Misrata city, Anadolu reports. The armed UAE drone was hit by ground defense systems during an operation by GNA-led forces, according to a statement ton...

The Turkish Interior Ministry on Monday suspended three mayors in eastern and southeastern Turkey for supporting terrorism, Anadolu reports. According to an official statement by the ministry, the mayors of Diyarbakir, Mardin and Van provinces — Adnan Selcuk Mizrakli, Ahmet Turk and Bedia Ozgokce Ertan, respectively have been suspended. It...

The Houthis in Yemen announced the appointment of an “ambassador of the Republic of Yemen” in Tehran, a move that the internationally recognised Yemeni government considered as “a flagrant violation” of international laws. Tehran has not made any official comment on the issue of accepting the ambassador representing the...

Algeria’s National Union of Judges has condemned as “illegal” recent actions taken by Justice Minister Belkacem Zeghmati. In particular the arrest of two judges on a provisional basis and dismissing a government prosecutor for various reasons. The Union said that the legal reasoning on which the Minister of Justice...

Kuwait’s elderly ruler, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah has recovered from a health setback and is “in a good condition now”, the state news agency KUNA reported yesterday. Reuters cited the Acting Emiri Diwan Minister Mohammad Dhaifallah Sharar as saying that the 90-year-old Sheikh Al Sabah had gone through...

In the aftermath of the August 2013 chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “Our inaction in Syria shows we have not learnt the lessons of the Holocaust the lessons of not standing by.” The words chosen by Cameron and others...

The Iranian tanker caught in a standoff between Tehran and the West left Gibraltar on Sunday night, shipping data showed, hours after the British territory rejected a US request to detain the vessel further, Reuters reports. British Royal Marines seized the tanker in Gibraltar in July on suspicion it...

Libya’s eastern airforce, led by retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, launched on Saturday a raid on the zoo in the capital Tripoli (west), claiming it had been used for military purposes. The airstrike targeted the headquarters of Ghneiwa militia (affiliated to Abdul-Ghani Al-Kikli, head of the Central Security Authority)...

On Monday, the Moroccan army will begin selecting 15.000 recruits, the first batch since the resumption to compulsory military service. Eleven years after its suspension, the military service law came into force again in Morocco last January. The general command of the armed forces said in a statement on...

The General Department of Control and Inspection at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior referred around 500 police officers and personnel to investigation in 2018 after complaints were filed against them, Alqabas reported. Sources told the Kuwaiti newspaper that these complaints came from concerned parties and citizens, and varied between...

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry summoned on Sunday Israel’s ambassador to the country for a reprimand over last week’s clashes at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa compound when Jewish worshipers were allowed on the site to mark Tisha B’Av, which coincided with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, reports Haaretz. According to spokesman...

The Population and Immigration Authority arrested a Filipino couple and their two Israeli-born daughters at the family’s home on Sunday morning, reports Haaretz. The arrest is part of an operation to deport Filipina caregivers who have overstayed their visas. Sheila and Randy Velasko, who have been living in Israel...

Sudan’s opposition coalition on Sunday named five people as civilian members of the country’s sovereign council to be sworn in on Monday, a source within the coalition told Reuters. A power-sharing agreement signed on Saturday paves the way for a transitional government and eventual elections. It provides for a...

The Home Office has increased its profit on UK visas by millions of pounds a week since outsourcing visa operations to a Dubai-based firm that has been deluged with complaints and accused of exploiting vulnerable applicants for profit, The Independent can reveal. VFS, which has its headquarters in the UAE but is owned through holding companies in...

Members of rival Iraqi biker gangs, clad in studded leather and black berets, burst out of their semi-circles to breakdance, their tattoo-covered arms waving neon glowsticks, reports Reuters. The Mongols Motorcycle Club dance circle was one of several at the Riot Gear Summer Rush event, a car show and...

The head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) on Saturday called on Baghdad to extend help to women who suffered under the Daesh terror group in the northwestern province of Tal Afar, Iraq. “The Daesh terror group practiced torture and shameful atrocities to the Turkmen women it kidnapped in...

READ: Algeria reopens eastern Sahara for tourists...

Turkish authorities have seized a total of 330 migrants attempting to cross to the Greek island of Lesbos, officials said on Sunday, says Reuters. The coastguard in the Kucukkuyu area of the western Canakkale province said it had conducted seven operations to pick up migrants trying to make the...

Before Yemen’s war broke out four years ago Ali Muhammad used to cross the border into Saudi Arabia to work, joining thousands of other Yemenis from his poor, mountainous region, reports Reuters. But fighting in the border areas left him unemployed in his remote village, watching acute malnutrition turn...

An Iranian tanker caught in a stand-off between Tehran and the West has raised an Iranian flag and has had a new name painted on its side, Reuters images of the stationary vessel filmed off Gibraltar showed on Sunday, reports Reuters. British Royal Marines seized the vessel in Gibraltar...

A car bomb killed one member of a security force and wounded two others in the Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Sunday, the security forces said in a statement, reports Reuters. The car bomb targeted a training facility that was being guarded by members of the...

READ: Lebanon sees migrant domestic workers as ‘less than human’ – filmmaker...

Eastern Libyan forces have seriously damaged with airstrikes a civilian airport in western Libya lacking any military use, the United Nations said on Sunday, says Reuters. Last week, the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) force said it had twice bombed the airport of Zuwara, a town west of Tripoli,...

Israeli forces opened fire at a group of Palestinians as they tried to cross the Gaza fence, the military said on Sunday and Palestinian health officials said three of the men were killed, reports Reuters. “A short while ago, IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops spotted a number of armed...

The presence of America and Britain in the Gulf region brings insecurity, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards navy, Alireza Tangsiri, was reported as saying by the ILNA news agency, reports Reuters. Tensions have spiked between Iran and the US and Britain in the Gulf after the Islamic...

Sitting under an olive tree in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Muftia Tlaib scoffs at the attention she has recently received from the president of the United States, reports Reuters. “May God ruin him,” she says. Tlaib is the grandmother of US congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, at the centre of an...

Strong rains in Istanbul on Saturday flooded several neighbourhoods, as well as the Grand Bazaar, while officials said one person was found dead in the city, reports Reuters. The rain started early in the day in parts of Istanbul and picked up pace around noon. Footage from parts of...

Yemen’s Houthi rebel group on Saturday claimed to have carried out drone attacks on oil facilities in southeastern Saudi Arabia, reports Anadolu Agency. Speaking on the Houthi-run Al-Masirah television, rebel spokesman Yehia Sarie said the Shia group had launched ten drone strikes on Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield and refinery, close...

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appointed Lieutenant General Osama Rabie as chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, the presidency said in a statement on Saturday, reports Reuters. Its previous head, Mohab Mamish, was appointed as an advisor to the president on seaports, the statement said. The Suez Canal is...

Sudan’s main opposition coalition and the ruling military council on Saturday signed a final power-sharing agreement, paving the way for a transitional government following the overthrow of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir, reports Reuters. Stability in Sudan, which has been grappling with an economic crisis, is seen as crucial for...

READ: Turkey facing tough battle against drought in region...

Airstrikes have killed more than two dozen civilians including 11 children in rebel-held northwestern Syria in the last two days in an escalation of a Russian-backed offensive, a war monitor and local activists said on Saturday, reports Reuters. An airstrike in the village of Deir killed seven people, mostly...

Iran has denied that it has given guarantees to secure the release of its Grace 1 oil tanker, which was detained by Gibraltar last month on suspicion of sending oil to Syria. “Iran did not give any guarantees to secure the release of the tanker Grace 1,” Abbas Musawi,...

Benny Gantz, the leader of the main Israeli opposition party Blue and White (Kahol Lavan), yesterday slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “weak” in the face of Gaza resistance, Al-Resalah reported. On Twitter, Gantz – the former Chief of Staff of the Israeli army – wrote: “People who...

Scores of Israelis took part in a protest organised in Tel Aviv yesterday calling for the return of Israeli soldiers captured in the besieged Gaza Strip. According to Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv, the family of Israeli soldier Oron Shaul organised the protest in Habima Square in Tel Aviv. The family...

Palestinian refugees yesterday resumed their protests against the Lebanese labour minister’s decision to subject them to the same work restrictions as foreigners, Al Khaleej Online reported. The Palestinian refugees took to the streets in refugee camps across Lebanon, marking the start of their second month of protests. During the...

In a recent survey, the Egyptian National Centre for Criminal and Social Studies has found that 25 per cent of Egyptians suffer from mental illnesses due to the country’s high rate of poverty, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported yesterday. The survey found that the economic situation in the country pushed many...

UK MP Chris Williamson has begun legal action against Labour, the British political party which has suspended his membership. The treatment of Williamson by Labour’s bureaucrats has been totally unjust and completely bizarre. His situation is only the latest in a long line of phoney examples of anti-Semitism, which...

The popular movement in Algeria continues for the 26th Friday in a row, calling for the departure of the remnants of the regime of ousted President Abdelaziz Bouteflika amid tight security reinforcements. According to local newspaper El-Khabar, dozens of National Security vehicles were spotted parked on the sidewalks of...

A US organisation has started publishing official documents dealing with the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October last year. The Open Society Justice Initiative explained via its website that it has obtained the documents under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)....

Huawei has denied reports that the company’s staff is helping the Algerian government spy on its political opponents. “Algerian media published an article on Wednesday, taken from the Wall Street Journal, stating that Huawei employees have used SafeCity solutions [a smart camera surveillance system used to protect people and...