CATEGORY: Middle East News

Almost 280 Dead after Egypt Police Storm Protests
Egypt was under a tense state of emergency Thursday after security forces stormed the Cairo protest camps supporting ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, in a bloody assault that sparked violence across the country which

Gunmen kill five Yemeni soldiers
Suspected Al Qaeda militants killed four Yemeni soldiers in their sleep early yesterday in an attack on forces guarding the country’s only liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal, a local official said. The assault follows

Shia gunmen kill Sunni in Lebanon ‘revenge’ ambush
Shia gunmen killed a Sunni man in an ambush yesterday in eastern Lebanon in apparent revenge for a deadly attack on local Shia clan members in June, a military source said. Four people were also

Tunisia Islamist leader to meet union chief
The head of Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Ennahda is to meet the powerful UGTT trade union chief today on the crisis sparked by the killing of an opposition politician. The UGTT said that its

Syrian rebels pass on abducted Kurds to jihadists: NGO
Syrian rebel fighters kidnapped 13 Kurds in the northern province of Aleppo on Sunday, turning them over to jihadist fighters already holding 250 abducted Kurds, an NGO said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

Israel to expand settlements
Israel moved ahead yesterday with plans to build nearly 1,200 homes for Jewish settlers, holding fast to a settlement policy as cabinet ministers met to approve a release of Palestinian prisoners ahead of

Zimbabwe denies report of secret Iran uranium deal
Zimbabwe’s government yesterday denied a report in the British newspaper The Times that it had reached a secret uranium export deal with Iran. The Times story published on Saturday quoted outgoing deputy minister of mines

Envoys step up efforts to defuse Egypt crisis
A fresh round of intense diplomatic efforts are under way in Egypt to broker a peaceful end to the crisis sparked by the military's overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi. The European Union's Middle East envoy

Illegal Israeli settlements expanding rapidly
The population in illegal West Bank settlements has grown twice as much as in Israel itself, military radio said, quoting official statistics. The figures show an increase of 7,700 illegal settlers in the Occupied West

Hezbollah aims to ignite wars: Ahmad Hariri
Future Movement official Ahmad Hariri accused Hezbollah of seeking to ignite wars in Lebanon and said the Iranian-backed group’s outlook clash with his own. “There are loads of differences between their dream and ours,” Hariri