The outgoing United Nations envoy for war-torn Yemen on Tuesday urged the warring parties to stop fighting and bloodshed to give peace a chance in the country, plunged because of a “destructive pattern of zero-sum politics into ever deeper poverty and desolation”. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who was briefing the Security Council on the eve […]
Human Rights Watch has denounced the new repressive campaign launched by Algerian authorities targeting sub-Saharan Africans, including women and children, expelling many of them to Niger. The Algerian authorities have deprived those arrested of their right to challenge their detention and possible deportation, said HRW. As in earlier waves in October 2017 and December 2016, […]
Russia has imposed its veto against a UK-drafted and US-backed Security Council resolution to condemn Iran over allegations it was violating international sanctions and fueling an insurgency in Yemen. The blocked resolution was based on a report by UN experts that accused Iran of violating an arms embargo by failing to prevent missiles and drones […]
In a broad shake-up seen as part of the Crown Prince’s power grab, Saudi Arabia has sacked its top military commanders, including the chief of staff. Heads of ground forces and air defenses were also replaced following a series of late-night royal decrees. The military changes were seen as a sign of frustration with the […]
Riyadh has invited Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri to visit Saudi Arabia, months after Lebanese and western diplomats accused Saudi authorities of kidnapping Hariri during a visit in November last year. Hariri and Saudi Arabia had dismissed the kidnapping allegations. According to Hariri’s office, the Prime Minister will soon be visiting the Saudi kingdom after […]
Saudi women have been allowed to submit applications until March 1 to join the army as the kingdom eases tight restrictions on women’s activities in the ultra-conservative Arab country. The job announcement by the Directorate of Public Security relayed by national news agency SPA notes that women can apply for the rank of ‘soldier’ in […]
The Tunisian Islamist Ennahda party, which last year dropped its strict Islamic line, has been challenged to pick a homosexual as party’s candidate for local elections after it nominated Simon Slama, a Jew party member, as its candidate for the mayor election in the city of Monastir. Several public figures have lambasted the choice of […]
Saudi Arabia has called on the World football governing body to revoke the hosting rights awarded to Qatar for 2022 World cup should the tiny Gulf country be found guilty of any vote buying. The call came following revelations by former Australian official familiar with FIFA internal affairs. Bonita Mersiades, former head of corporate and […]
The former leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), Salih Muslim, has been arrested in the Czech capital after an extradition request from Turkey. Turkish authorities and Syrian Kurdish militias (YPG) confirmed the arrest of Muslim, said the foreign affairs spokesman for the political coalition, the Movement for a Democratic Society, that governs the […]
The UN Security Council delayed a vote on a ceasefire to allow aid to civilians in Eastern Ghouta as the Syrian government continues its bombing of the besieged area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that a week since the launch of the bloody campaign on Eastern Ghouta over 500 people were killed and […]