Syrian warplanes struck rebel positions near a besieged military air base and other rebel-held areas in the country’s north Tuesday as regime forces stepped up attacks against opposition fighters in the key province of Aleppo, activists said. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad have for months been trying to take Kweiras and two
Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohammed Elbaradei said on Tuesday that President Mohammed Mursi had threatened to “burn the country” if he became prime minister. Elbaradei, citing former military leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as the source of his information, added that the Muslim Brotherhood had “vetoed” the possibility of him ever becoming a prime
Iran's ancient citadel of Bam, almost completely destroyed by a major earthquake in 2003, has been removed from the UNESCO list of "World Heritage in Danger", a spokesman said Tuesday. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization committee, which began its annual session in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Sunday,
As the hot weather arrives in Gaza, teenagers head to the town of Rafah for summer camp -- not to play sports but to join war games organised by radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad. Youngsters wearing military fatigues and the movement’s black insignia capture a fellow camper posing as an Israeli soldier and
U.S. President Barack Obama sparred with Russia’s Vladimir Putin over how to end the war in Syria on Monday during an icy encounter at a G8 summit where divisions over the conflict eclipsed the rest of the agenda. Speaking after talks with Obama, Putin said Moscow and Washington had differing views over Syria
An Israeli security source said that Russia is actively engaged in the Syrian conflict helping Syrian troops by providing intelligence-gathering technology, Al Arabiya’s correspondent reported. “Russia is effectively and actively engaged [in the Syria conflict] beside the army of the Syrian regime by [providing] drones that are collecting information and data and relaying
Western leaders rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for supporting Syria’s Bashar al-Assad attempt to crush a two-year-old uprising, setting the stage for a tense G8 summit of the world’s most powerful nations. U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to use his first face-to-face meeting with Putin in a year to try to
A legal requirement that women make up at least a quarter of all provincial elected officials was quietly removed by conservative male parliamentarians, officials said, the latest in a series of decisions undermining advances in women’s rights in Afghanistan. The change, engineered in mid-May, was only discovered by women members of parliament a
Does Egypt face a new revolution? Millions hope so, it seems; they have signed a national petition demanding the president resign and plan to take to the streets on June 30, when Mohamed Mursi marks a year in office. Their slogan is a call for revolt: “Tamarud - Rebel!” But for
June 30 will be the “day of salvation" from the government of Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi, former Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq said on Monday. Shafiq was referring to nationwide protests planned by opposition groups to mark Mursi’s first anniversary in power. This day will be “the certain end” of the “shameful” Muslim Brotherhood
