As I predicted, the initiative proposed by the U.N. Special Envoy, Ismail Ould Sheikh, for ending the conflict in Yemen, which was approved by all parties, had its first test of 48-hours ceasefire. Despite criticism from major parties in the legitimate government, I still believe it is a good initia
Chinese President Xi Xinping pledged on Saturday to further open the world’s second-largest economy, as leaders of Asia-Pacific countries gathered in Lima to find new free-trade options while the United States is expected to take a more protectionist stance. The annual APEC summit got under wa
The United States on Saturday condemned airstrikes on hospitals in eastern Aleppo, Syria, and it called on Russia to takes steps to contain the violence. “The United States condemns in the strongest terms these horrific attacks against medical infrastructure and humanitarian aid workers,”
Protestors rallied in droves across Seoul’s streets on Saturday, demonstrating for the fourth weekend in a series of mass take to streets urging President Park Geun-Hye to resign over a corruption scandal. The demonstrations put Park’s administration against a sizable challenge, but the president ha
London- After winning a landmark court case shortly before her death, a 14-year old Briton who died of cancer has been cryogenically frozen in the hope she could be brought back to life in the future. The girl’s divorced parents had disagreed over whether her wish to be frozen should be carried thro
Hospitals facing complete deadlock in Syria’s rebel-held eastern Aleppo are officially out of service after days of heavy air strikes. The shutdown was pronounced by the Aleppo health directorate and the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. Elizabeth Hoff, the WHO representative in
Paris- French Examining Magistrate in charge of counter-terrorism affairs Jean-Louis Bruguiere has called for preparedness to deal with “ISIS 2,” which he expected to be formed after the terrorist organization’s loss of its strongholds in Mosul and Raqqah and the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Bagh
Cairo- Armed forces led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced a “great victory” against extremist fighters in Libya’s Benghazi earlier on Thursday, which indefinitely entailed adjustments to political stances of diplomats who had long considered Haftar short to a hostile threat. More
Cairo- Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Dr. Ahmed el-Tayeb reaffirmed the institutionalized rebuttal of the concluding statement made at the Sunni Conference in Grozny, Chechnya in August 2016. The statement viewed controversial exclusion of Muslim sects and clerics. Dr. El-Tayeb reiterated that his speech lai
New York, Washington-The recent appointments announced by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday were greeted with widespread applause by his core supporters and other Republicans. However, these appointments raised the concerns of Democrats as they opposed the assignment of head of alt-right B
Mosul- A vehicle shielded with metal plates and driven by a suicide attacker turned onto a main road filled with soldiers in eastern Mosul and burst into a ball of fire, causing several casualties. As it careered down the road it was riddled with gunfire as Iraqi forces responded to the latest ISIS
After Republican nominee Donald J. Trump winning the 2016 U.S. elections, common ground shared by each of U.S. President Barack Obama, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Syrian regime head Bashar Al-Assad, is cautious optimism– otherwise less diplomatically worded is “confusion and shock.”
Lima-The killing of a Peruvian citizen during a workers protest in La Pampa district raised disputes inside the country’s parliament and a number of questions regarding the nature of the operations of militias in Latin America. It all started a few weeks ago when local citizens from La Pampa staged
A Saudi policeman was shot dead Saturday northwest of the city of Dammam, the interior ministry said. The officer was hit by gunfire from “an unknown source” as he got out of his car in al-Nour neighborhood, said a ministry spokesman quoted by the official SPA news agency. The officer, i
Geneva- U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said on Friday that if investigators identify who was to blame for the deadly Sept. 19 attack on a U.N. aid convoy near the Syrian city of Aleppo, the issue could be brought to the Security Council. The United States has said it believes two Russian
Taiz- Doctors Without Borders, known by the French acronym MSF, announced that one of its members was killed in the shelling of a busy civilian market located east of the Yemeni city of Taiz. “Sadly, one of our colleagues who works as a watchman at the MSF trauma center in Taiz was killed whil
Riyadh-Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, held a telephone conversation on Friday with German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier and congratulated him on his nomination by the ruling coalition in Germany for th
Doha-Russia’s energy minister said Friday he was “quite optimistic” the OPEC oil cartel will reach an agreement later this month on a planned output cut to shore up prices. Alexander Novak was speaking after informal talks in Doha with some but not all of his OPEC counterparts ahea
Beirut- Lebanon has been lately witnessing the rise of new political alignments amid ongoing consultations on the formation of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s government. Now that the March 8 and 14 alliances have become from the past, the new stage following the election of President Michel
Washington- American officials accuse him of being part of the “inner leadership circle” of Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, most widely known as the Nusra Front, and of raising as much as $5 million for the terrorist group while signing up thousands of fighters. But Abdallah Muhammad al-Muhaysini insis
