BAGHDAD: A senior Iraqi security official says four bombs have exploded in the capital, Baghdad, wounding a total of 14 people.The official said the bombs targeted commercial districts in east, south, central and west Baghdad.The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attacks.Iraq declared…
ISTANBUL: A prominent Turkish opposition official was sentenced by a court on Friday to nine years and eight months in prison for insulting the president and spreading terrorist propaganda, a lawmaker from the main opposition party said.The Republican People’s Party (CHP) said Canan Kaftancioglu, head of its Istanbul branch and one of the strongest opposition…
BAGHDAD: Iraqi journalists, activists and researchers are facing a wave of accusations and threats by shadowy online groups they suspect are linked to powerful pro-Iran factions.Parties, armed groups and even officials in Iraq benefit from legions of supporters dubbed “electronic armies,” which take to social media to anonymously sing their praises or mock their detractors.These…
GAZA CITY: Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians and wounded dozens during protests along the Gaza-Israel border on Friday, Palestinian health officials said.They named one of the dead as Ali Al-Ashqar, 17, but the second man remained unidentified. Seventy others were wounded, 38 of them by live fire, medical officials said.An Israeli military spokesman…
BEIRUT: Waving Palestinian and Canadian flags, hundreds of Palestinian refugees gathered outside the Canadian Embassy in Beirut on Thursday requesting asylum in the North American country.Many among the group lamented the deteriorating economic and living conditions in Lebanon, which is going through a severe economic crisis, and said they wanted a more dignified life.There are…
KHARTOUM: Sudan's new prime minister announced on Thursday the formation of the first government since the overthrow of Omar Hassan Al-Bashir in April. The government was formed as part of a three-year power-sharing deal signed last month between the military and civilian parties and protest groups. Abdalla Hamdok announced the names of 18 ministers in…
WASHINGTON: Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, plans to resign once the long-delayed US peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians that he has been working on is released, officials said on Thursday.Greenblatt, who had intended to stay only two years when he began working at the White House in…
British MPs unruly? Come to Lebanon, Mr. Speaker BEIRUT: House of Commons Speaker John Bercow provoked widespread mirth in Lebanon on Wednesday when he told unruly British MPs they were setting a bad example to a visiting delegation of Lebanese politicians. “I’m not sure at the moment how impressed they’ll be,” said Bercow, pointing to the…
BEIRUT: House of Commons Speaker John Bercow provoked widespread mirth in Lebanon on Wednesday when he told unruly British MPs they were setting a bad example to a visiting delegation of Lebanese politicians. “I’m not sure at the moment how impressed they’ll be,” said Bercow, pointing to the visitors’ gallery as MPs in the Commons chamber…
ABU DHABI: The world is familiar with the toll that the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis has taken on Yemeni civilians. Less well known is the precarious situation of an estimated 1,000 followers of the Baha’i faith who live in Yemen, mostly in the Houthi-held capital Sana’a.With the Houthis’ military advances in Yemen in 2014-2015,…
CAIRO: Germany’s top diplomat said Tuesday his country has been working to readmit Sudan into the international economy after the military’s overthrow of autocratic President Omar Al-Bashir in April amid mass protests against his three-decade rule.Foreign Minister Heiko Maas landed in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, in the first such visit to the African country by a…
WASHINGTON: The United States imposed sanctions on the three Iranian space agencies on Tuesday, the Treasury Department said, as Washington ramps up pressure over Tehran's nuclear program.The Treasury targeted the Iran Space Agency, Iran Space Research Center and the Astronautics Research Institute, according to a statement on its website. US President Donald Trump withdrew from…
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s interior minister on Tuesday threatened “to devastate” the mayor of Istanbul over his support for three Kurdish mayors who were replaced by state officials over alleged terror links less than five months after the trio were elected. Last month, Turkey replaced pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) mayors in Diyarbakir, Van and Mardin with…
ALGIERS: Algeria’s powerful army chief says that the date of the nation’s long-delayed presidential election should be announced on Sept. 15 to quickly pull the nation out of political limbo.By law, elections come 90 days after an announcement, which would mean a December vote.The official APS news agency quoted Ahmed Gaid Salah as saying on…
BAGHDAD: The United Nations on Monday criticized Iraqi authorities for transferring around 1,600 people from camps to their areas of origin, saying the returns could put them in danger.The returnees, who fled violence during and after the Daesh group’s 2014 seizure of swathes of Iraq, had sought refuge at displacement camps in the northern province…
ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday sharply criticized Turkish lawyers who boycotted a judicial ceremony on the grounds of his presidential palace, saying their method of electing bar association members should be changed. Last month, at least 19 bar associations representing a vast majority of lawyers across Turkey, including in the three largest cities, said…
Iranian judo star seeking asylum after being ordered to lose fight to avoid Israeli competitor TOKYO: Iranian judo star Saeid Mollaei, who claimed he was ordered to deliberately lose a world championship fight, could compete under a refugee flag at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, officials said Sunday.International Judo Federation (IJF) president Marius Vizer has thrown…
AIN DARA, LEBANON: Braving death threats, Abdallah Haddad fought for years to shut down quarries near his village in Lebanon. The 61-year-old said he and fellow activists received “good news” at the end of July about the gutted mountain in Ain Dara they had worked to protect — a Lebanese court ordered 16 quarries out of…
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri urged the US and France to intervene on Sunday as Hezbollah militias and Israeli security forces exchanged fire along the Lebanese border. Hezbollah hit an Israeli battalion headquarters and a military ambulance with anti-tank missiles, after several days of threats to retaliate for Israeli drone strikes last Sunday in…
JEDDAH: “Three million people — two-thirds of them women and children — are counting on your support to make this violence stop,” said Mark Lowcock, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, to the Security Council on Thursday on the situation in northwest Syria. Lowcock’s plea is the latest in a long line of impassioned appeals by…
