Blasted by winds whipped up on the Aegean Sea, the Turkish island of Bozcaada sits close to the ancient city of Troy and has been known since the time of Helen and Paris for one thing: wine. But that may be all about to change. In early September in Bozcaada, another grape
Female teachers at a Muslim school in northern England have been ordered to wear headscarves during school hours, even if they are not Muslim, reported UK-based The Telegraph. Teachers have signed contracts agreeing to wear the Islamic hijab and make girls sit at the back of classrooms, separate from male students. The school
In an attempt to convince the West to lift international sanctions on Iran, President Hassan Rohani is reportedly willing to dismantle the nuclear facility in Fordo, a site which is widely considered to pose a grave threat to Israel and the West. The report was made by the German news source, Spiegel Online. Intelligence
An Egyptian Police general has been killed in a fiercely fought gun battle on Friday which saw the military regain control of an Islamist-held town. Kerdassa, situated to the west of the Capital Cairo, had been controlled by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The raid on the town follows the killing of 11 police officers
Turkey warned Damascus on Wednesday it would "face the consequences" if it sought to avenge the downing of a Syrian military chopper this week, AFP reported. At the same time, Turkey said it did not believe a border attack was a retaliatory strike. A car bomb exploded at Syria's rebel-held Bab al-Hawa border
The family of an Arab-Israeli confirmed on Wednesday that their relative has died while fighting in the Syrian civil war, AFP reported. According to the family, 28-year-old Muayyed Zaki Jumaa Ighbariya was fighting on the side of the Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Al-Nusra Front. Ighbariya left his village near the Arab-Israeli city of Umm
Egypt is to shorten a night-time curfew imposed on Cairo and 13 provinces starting Saturday, the cabinet said on Thursday. The curfew will be from midnight to 5:00am (0300 GMT), except on Fridays when it will begin at 07:00 pm (1700 GMT), according to a cabinet statement. The curfew was imposed last
The White House revealed on Wednesday the contents of the letter that President Barack Obama had sent Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani. In it, said White House spokesman Jay Carney, Obama told Rouhani that the United States is ready to resolve its nuclear dispute with Iran in a way that allows Tehran to show
A Russian official has claimed to have received evidence of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels, and dismissed a UN report suggesting the Syrian regime used poison gas as unreliable. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also slammed a UN report on an August 21 chemical weapons attack in the Syrian capital
Clinging to calls for military action in Syria and wedded to his backing for Egypt’s ousted Islamist president, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cuts an increasingly lonely figure in a region whose future he still hopes to help shape. Finding himself in what one adviser calls “worthy solitude,” Erdogan risks alienating some important Gulf
