The Obama administration has quietly returned a dozen detainees from a small US military prison in Afghanistan, defense officials stated Thursday night, in another controversial prisoner release set to tone down the US's war on terror. US President Barack Obama, in a letter to Congress released on Thursday, informed U.S. lawmakers that about 38
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Wednesday a "conspiracy" had led to the massive security failure in the Sunni-dominated Ninevah province that allowed militants aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) to seize the country's second largest city of Mosul. He did not say what party was behind the conspiracy, choosing
World leaders have reacted with alarm to the capture of Iraq's second city by an Al Qaeda offshoot, whose rapidly-expanding control over vasts swathes of Iraq and Syria has seen it morph into a fully-fledged state in all but name. The takeover of Mosul on Tuesday by the Islamic State of Iraq and the
newly sworn-in president on Wednesday apologized in person to a woman who was sexually assaulted by a mob during weekend celebrations marking his inauguration. State television showed a visibly moved Abdel Fattah al-Sisi visiting the woman in a Cairo hospital. “I have come to tell you and every Egyptian woman that I am
An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced to 15 years in jail activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, a symbol of the 2011 revolt against Hosni Mubarak, for violating the country’s Protest Law and attacking a police officer. Abdel Fattah was arrested last November for protesting against an article in the Egyptian constitution that allows the military
Militants seized on Wednesday Turkey’s consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, including the consul-general, Reuters news agency quoted a source in the Turkish prime minister's office as saying, as Islamist gunmen seized further territory in the Arab country. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, meanwhile, blamed a “massive security failure” for the fall of
Residents from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul fled in the thousands on Tuesday toward the Kurdish city of Erbil as the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq (ISIS) gain control over more key points of the city. With the continuing deterioration in security, the mayor of Ninveh province called on the Kurdish Peshmarga
Many do not think of the Vatican as an independent, sovereign city-state with its own diplomatic envoy, Secretariat of State and embassies around the world. Most think of it as the home of the beloved Pope and the headquarters of the Catholic hierarchy. The Catholic Pope, both spiritual leader and head of a tiny kingdom
Outrage? That is not always the case anymore whatever the insult. We have become so passive, even here in New York, once happily famed for its abrasive citizens, that even talk of a mosque being built at the doorstep of Ground Zero hardly gets as much ink as Derek Jeter’s lapses at the plate.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Tuesday offered weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight Islamist militants, hours after the government forces lost the northern city of Mosul to the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). {youtube}53aCUfYuJTk{/youtube} In a statement broadcast on state television, Maliki said the cabinet has
