Latest in Region Highlight
Latest in Region
Israel to show long-range rockets from ‘Iran arms ship’
The military says it found 40 long-range M-302 rockets aboard the Panamanian-flagged Klos-C it intercepted in the Red Sea last week, as well as 181 122mm mortar shells and approximately 400,000 7.62-calibre rounds.
Egypt lauds Saudi decision to list Brotherhood as terrorist organisation
Cairo and Riyadh’s cooperation aims to spread teaching of tolerant Islam and tackle extremism, says foreign ministry
Saudi lists ‘terror’ groups, orders Islamist fighters home
The move represents a major escalation against the Brotherhood of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi and indicates rising concern in Riyadh over the potential risks to domestic security of Saudi extremists fighting in Syria.
Saudi, Bahrain, UAE recall envoys to Qatar
The three Gulf Arab states made the decision following what newspapers described as a “stormy” late Tuesday meeting of foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council in Riyadh.
South Sudan government, rebels halt peace talks
AFP – South Sudan’s government and rebels are taking a more than two-week break from key peace talks having seemingly made little to no progress in three weeks, mediators said Tuesday. The IGAD regional bloc, which is brokering the peace talks being held in Ethiopia, said both sides were halting the talks until 20 March …
Syria surrenders a third of chemical arsenal: Watchdog
OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu told the Executive Council meeting that Syria had submitted a revised proposal to complete the removal of all chemicals from Syria before the end of April, after previously saying it could only complete the job by June.
UN deputy envoy to Syria wants to quit post: Spokesman
Brahimi took over from his predecessor, Kofi Annan, as UN-Arab League peace envoy to Syria in September 2012.
Iraq forces battle militants, other violence kills 10
Violence has surged to a level not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings in which tens of thousands died.
Six members of security forces killed in Iraq
Sunday’s violence mostly targeting security forces in Sunni-majority areas killed six people, security and medical officials said.
Saudi women activists demand end to ‘absolute’ male control
Saudi Arabia imposes a strict interpretation of Islamic law, forbidding women to work or travel without the authorisation of their male guardians.
Saudi hits back at Russia criticism on Syria arms
AFP – Saudi Arabia has hit back at Russian criticism of its reported plans to supply shoulder-launched missiles to Syrian rebels, saying it was Moscow’s support for Damascus that was prolonging the conflict. A spokesman told the official SPA news agency late Friday that the foreign ministry had been “astonished by Russian criticism of Saudi …
Ugandan government shrugs off aid cuts over anti-gay law
Leading Ugandan gay rights activist Frank Mugisha met in Washington Thursday with top State Department officials to call for help in protecting gays.
Hezbollah vows response to ‘Israeli air strike’
The Shi’a movement’s statement was the group’s first admission it had been targeted in the raid, although Lebanese sources had previously reported the attack.
Stand alone: Yarmouk Camp humanitarian disaster
It is impossible not to be touched by the apocalyptic scenes emerging from the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Damascus, besieged and cut off for months. The images are at once epic and personal. Row upon row of gaunt faces, serried ranks of grimy, raged figures; the delicate, hunger-ravaged features of children waiting in …
Jobless protesters torch police post in Tunisia
AFP – Jobless Tunisian protesters have torched a police post in the impoverished central region of Gafsa, where social discontent is rife over high unemployment despite the strategic importance of its phosphate mines. The demonstrators set fire to the building in the town of Metlaoui late on Tuesday and confronted policemen, an AFP journalist reported. …
Attacks kill seven Iraq security personnel
AFP – Attacks in Iraq, including a suicide bombing near the Anbar provincial council headquarters, killed seven soldiers and police on Tuesday, officials said. In Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle near the provincial council headquarters, killing three soldiers and wounding at least four. Anti-government fighters have occupied …
Return of jihadist fighters from Syria sparks fear in Tunisia
AFP – Around 400 Tunisian jihadists have returned from fighting in the Syrian war, the interior minister said, sparking fears that the battle-hardened militants could fuel Islamist violence back home. Since the 2011 revolution, Tunisia has been rocked by sporadic violence linked to Muslim extremists who were suppressed under the regime of ousted strongman Zine …
Israel bombs Hezbollah target on Syria-Lebanon border
AFP – Bent on halting any transfer of weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Israel has bombarded a position of the powerful Shi’a group on the Lebanon-Syria border, sources say. On Monday night, “two Israeli raids hit a Hezbollah target on the border of Lebanon and Syria,” a Lebanese security source told AFP. Lebanon’s National News Agency …
S.Sudan civilians reduced to scavengers on swamp islands
Home to over 50,000 people, it was always considered a safe haven, even during decades of civil war with Sudan that ended in 2005 and led to the birth of South Sudan in 2011.
Another 60 Homs evacuees freed in Syria: Governor
The evacuation beginning 7 February was part of a UN-supervised humanitarian operation that also saw the delivery of some food supplies into the neighbourhoods, where people have been surviving on herbs for months.
Saudi ‘seeking Pakistan arms for Syrian rebels’
Pakistan makes its own version of Chinese shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, known as Anza, and anti-tank rockets– both of which Riyadh is trying to get for the rebels
Ceasefire, aid proposed in mooted Sudan-rebel deal
AFP – Sudan and rebels in South Kordofan would adopt an immediate ceasefire and allow aid to reach more than one million people, says a proposed agreement issued as peace talks broke off last week. AFP obtained a copy of the draft on Sunday. African Union mediators presented the proposal for Khartoum and rebels of …
Lebanon army ‘paying price in blood to fight terror’
Three people were killed and 18 wounded, the official National News Agency said.
UN cites evidence of rebel abuses in South Sudan
The unrest in South Sudan has left thousands dead and displaced close to 900,000 people.
Chemical arms watchdog split on Syria delays
The US rejected a Damascus request for a 100-day extension to an end-May deadline for it to ship out the totality of its chemical arms
Libyans vote for constitution body amid bombs, tensions
Polling stations opened across most of Libya, although they stayed closed in Derna after gunmen forced one voting centre to shut
Twin Beirut suicide bombings target Iranian centre
Lebanon’s army confirmed the attack was a double suicide car bombing, and Health Minister Wael Abu Faour said four people were killed and 103 wounded.
South Sudan says contact lost with key town
The United Nations meanwhile said that 10 people had been killed in “inter-communal clashes” within an UNMISS peacekeeping base in Malakal, where more than 20,000 people have been sheltering from the fighting.
More civilians evacuated from Syria’s Homs: governor
The United Nations and Syria’s Red Crescent began operations to evacuate trapped civilians and deliver aid inside besieged parts of Homs on February 7.
Twin bomb blasts rock Beirut suburb, three dead
The explosions sent a large plume of smoke over the area and Lebanese television showed scenes of widespread destruction.