There are 17997 articles

  • UN says South Sudan government blocking aid

    The South Sudanese government is preventing aid reaching hundreds of thousands of people threatened by famine, the UN said Tuesday. Herve Ladsous, UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations, told a news conference in the capital Juba that the government was preventing UN troops from protecting the local population and distributing aid. “We.. More

  • US electronics ban for Middle East flights draws doubts

    Aviation experts are divided on the effectiveness of a US ban on large electronic items in hand luggage on flights inbound from a number of Middle Eastern states. The US Department of Homeland Security announced the measure on Tuesday, citing the downing of an airliner in Egypt in 2015 and an attempt on a Somali passenger jet in 2016 using explosives.. More

  • UN report decries Israeli settlements' 'alarming pace'

    The UN's special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories has decried how Israel's "illegal settlement enterprise has moved at an alarming pace" this year. Michael Lynk pointed on Monday to announcements by Israel to build 6,000 new housing units in Palestinian areas, accompanied by "high rates of demolition of Palestinian.. More

  • Mosul refugee numbers mount amid humanitarian crisis

    An Iraqi relief official has warned of the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation at refugee camps amid a surge in the number of civilians fleeing western Mosul. “The humanitarian situation for refugees from western Mosul is worsening,” Iyad Rafed of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society told Anadolu Agency on Monday. “The number.. More

  • Clashes in Syria's Damascus after surprise opposition attack

    Heavy clashes rocked eastern districts of the Syrian capital on Sunday after opposition fighters launched a surprise assault on regime forces, a monitor and state television said. Steady shelling and sniper fire could be heard across Damascus on Sunday as opposition factions launched an attack on regime positions in the city's east. The clashes centered.. More

  • Syria: Hundreds leave Waer district in Homs

    The first group of opposition fighters and civilians left the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday under a Russian-backed deal between the opposition and Syrian regime, according to local sources. Some 1,500 fighters and civilians aboard 40 buses left Waer, the last opposition-held district in Homs, to Jarabulus in northern Syria, the sources said on condition.. More

  • Protests in UK against post-Brexit racism

    Protesters have voiced their anger at rising anti-immigration sentiment in the UK in a series of demonstrations across the country. Thousands of anti-racism activists at Saturday’s rally in central London took aim at the increasing number of attacks on foreigners in the aftermath of the vote to leave the EU last year. Similar demonstrations,.. More

  • Thousands flee Iraq's Mosul as battle edges into Old City

    Thousands of Iraqis surged out of western Mosul on Saturday during a lull in heavy fighting in districts around the densely populated Old City. Five months into the battle, government forces have taken control of the east and half of western Mosul, and are now focused on controlling the Old City as well as the strategic al-Nuri Mosque. As fighting.. More

  • Hawaii judge puts Donald Trump's travel ban on hold

    A federal judge in Hawaii has put President Donald Trump's revised travel ban on hold, issuing an emergency halt to the order just hours before it was set to go into effect. The ruling by US District Judge Derrick Watson on Wednesday prevents the executive order from going into effect on Thursday. Hawaii argued that the new order will harm its Muslim.. More

  • Employers allowed to ban the hijab: EU court

    Employers are entitled to ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union's top law court ruled on Tuesday, a decision Muslims said was a direct attack on women wearing hijabs at work. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said it does not constitute "direct discrimination" if a firm has an internal rule banning the wearing.. More

  • Turkey bars Dutch ambassador amid tensions

    Turkey has suspended high-level diplomatic ties with the Netherlands and the Dutch ambassador to Ankara will not be allowed to return from leave, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Monday. The move comes amid tensions after Amsterdam deported a Turkish minister and banned another. Kurtulmus told reporters about the measures on the.. More

  • UN: Myanmar 'may be trying to expel' all Rohingya

    UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar calls for international probe into abuses against Rohingya Muslims. Myanmar "may be trying to expel" all ethnic Rohingya from its territory, a UN rights expert says, pushing for a high-level inquiry into abuses against the Muslim minority community. Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on.. More

  • Palestinian killed by Israeli police in East Jerusalem

    A Palestinian was killed by Israeli police on Monday morning in Occupied East Jerusalem after wounding two border guards with a knife, police said. The attacker, who was a resident of Occupied East Jerusalem, entered a border guard post and wounded the two before being shot dead, according to the police. One of the guards was seriously injured, the.. More

  • China's Communist Party hardens rhetoric on Islam

    China's ruling Communist Party has hardened its rhetoric on Islam, with top officials making repeated warnings about the specter of global religious "extremism" seeping into the country, and the need to protect traditional Chinese identity. Shaerheti Ahan, a top party official in Xinjiang, on Sunday became the latest official from a predominantly.. More

  • UNICEF: 2016 was the worst year yet for Syrian children

    On a winter morning in January, Majed, 13, and his friend Omar, 11, were heading to a public park near their homes in eastern Aleppo to play and ride their bikes. It was only two weeks since the December ceasefire began, and the lull in fighting allowed the two friends and many children in the neighborhood to venture outside. On their way to the park,.. More