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United Nations tells Israel to let in nuclear inspectors

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Monday calling on Israel to quickly open its nuclear program for inspection and backing a high-level conference to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East which was just canceled. All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the ... Read More

World will react if Assad uses chemical weapons: France

France on Tuesday joined the United States and NATO in delivering a blunt warning to Damascus not to use chemical weapons on rebels, warning that the international community would react if it did. “Any use of these chemical weapons by (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad would be unacceptable. The leaders in ... Read More

Yellow fever outbreak kills 164 in Sudan’s Darfur: WHO

Yellow fever has killed 164 people over the last three months in Sudan’s Darfur, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, an arid region the size of Spain where fighting and banditry makes access particularly difficult. Healthcare is provided almost entirely by aid agencies in parts of Darfur, where rebels took up ... Read More

Cyprus offers mediation between Lebanon, Israel on maritime border dispute

Cyprus has offered to mediate between Lebanon and Israel over a maritime border dispute that is delaying some oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean, a Cypriot official said Monday. Both Lebanon and Israel claim a small maritime area of 850 square kilometers. The dispute has held up ratification of ... Read More

Christian charity worker shot in Pakistan: police

Gunmen shot a female Christian charity worker from Sweden in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Monday leaving her hospitalized, police said. Bargeeta Almby, 72, was returning from work when she was attacked by unknown assailants in the upmarket locality where she lives. “She was returning ... Read More

U.S. steps up spying on Iran’s nuclear reactor: report

U.S. intelligence agencies have significantly stepped up spying operations on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor prompted by concerns about the security of weapons-grade plutonium there, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said the increased U.S. surveillance of ... Read More

Iran pushes out Afghans as regional power-play heats up

Ghaus worked in Iran for five years but has nothing to show for it. All he has are memories of being jailed, beaten and sent home to Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s oil-rich western neighbor has for years been a destination for Afghans seeking work or fleeing war. Afghanistan and Iran share a language, and cultural and ... Read More

Death sentence against Iranian ‘porn site’ programmer suspended

Iran has suspended the death sentence for a computer programmer convicted on charges of running a pornographic website after he “repented for his actions,” his lawyer was quoted as saying on Sunday. Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian citizen and Canadian resident, was arrested in 2008 while visiting relatives in Iran, according to ... Read More

U.S. Senate approves new sanctions on Iran

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved new economic sanctions Friday aimed at further crippling Iran's energy, shipping and port sectors, a year after Congress passed tough restrictions against Tehran. The amendment, tacked onto a sweeping defense spending bill being debated by the chamber, passed 94-0 and should sail ... Read More

Al Qaeda battle in Afghanistan to stretch for years: U.S.

Al Qaeda fighters are still trying to make inroads into Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Thursday, cautioning that battling the group would be a core U.S. mission there for years to come. Panetta made the comments as the United States weighs how large a military force to keep in Afghanistan when the ... Read More

Iran’s ethnic minorities tell their plight at United Nations

Iranian minority groups slammed the Iranian authorities for persecuting non-Persian ethnicities, particularly Arabs, Kurds, and Baluchis at the United Nations. In a conference organized by the United Nations Human Rights Council and held in Geneva this week, representatives of Iranian minority groups said that the Iranian ... Read More

Afghan girl’s throat slit over refusing to get married

Two men have been arrested for slitting the throat of a 15-year-old Afghan girl after her family refused a marriage proposal, police said Thursday. The girl was carrying water from a river to her village home in northern Kunduz province on Wednesday when she was murdered, police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini ... Read More

Clinton sued over Palestinian aid

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department are being sued for allegedly allowing American aid money meant for the Palestinian Authority to be used by terror groups like Hamas. The lawsuit was filed on Monday in Washington on behalf of 24 U.S. citizens living in Israel by the Israel Law ... Read More

Britain to vote ‘Yes’ to Palestinian bid if Israel peace talks resume

Britain is prepared to back a key vote recognizing Palestinian statehood at the United Nations on Thursday, but only if Palestinians agree to re-enter peace talks with Israel, British newspapers reported. Foreign Secretary William Hague will reportedly tell members of the British parliament that the UK is “willing to vote in ... Read More

British pomp as Kuwait Emir begins state visit

Queen Elizabeth II welcomed the Emir of Kuwait to Britain on Tuesday with a gilded carriage ride at the start of a three-day state visit. The trip, aimed at cementing the strong relations between London and its oil-rich Gulf ally, kicked off with a traditional display of ceremonial pomp in Windsor, west of ... Read More

U.N. committee condemns Syria, Iran for rampant rights abuses

A U.N. General Assembly committee on Tuesday condemned Syria and Iran for widespread human rights abuses, but both Damascus and Tehran dismissed the separate votes as politically motivated. The draft resolution on Syria, which was co-sponsored by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Britain, France and other Arab and ... Read More

French Muslims face job discrimination: Stanford study

Muslim French citizens face job discrimination compared to their Christian peers who receive two-and-a-half times more opportunities with equal qualifications, concluded a new research conducted by Stanford political science professor David Laitin. Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study ... Read More

Nations seek to extend Kyoto protocol, despite dwindling support

Despite mounting alarm about climate change, almost 200 nations meeting in Doha from Monday are likely to pay little more than lip service to the need to rein in rising greenhouse gas emissions. A likely failure to agree a meaningful extension of the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding plan for cutting emissions by ... Read More

DC historians dig up details of America’s earliest Muslims

For most Muslims, what happens to the body of a deceased person is not quite as important as what happens to that person’s soul. Still, historians of all backgrounds are scrambling to locate the body and belongings of a Muslim buried in Washington, DC nearly 200 years ago, for it touches the soul of early American history. ... Read More

Ankara tells Moscow that patriots are ‘strictly for defense’

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday that Moscow has no reason to worry about the Patriot missiles Ankara has asked NATO to deploy on its troubled border with Syria. “Patriots are strictly a measure of defense, as Russia and other countries already know,” Davutoglu told reporters after a ... Read More

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