Egypt’s new constitution approved by almost 64 % of voters: officials
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Egypt's electoral commission confirmed Tuesday that voters had approved overwhelmingly a controversial constitution drafted by President Mohamed Mursi's Islamist allies. The election commission said the constitution was adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote, giving Islamists their third straight victory at the ... Read More
Lebanon lawyer files ‘genocide’ case against Syria minister
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
A Lebanese lawyer said he filed a lawsuit on Monday against Syrian Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar, accusing him of having ordered hundreds of killings in the northern city of Tripoli in 1986. Lawyer Tareq Shandab said he filed the case as Shaar is currently undergoing treatment at the American University ... Read More
Netanyahu aims to deport tens of thousands of Africans
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he aims to repatriate tens of thousands of African illegal migrants and that the inflow into Israel from the Sinai Peninsula has been brought to a halt. “Our aim is to repatriate tens of thousands of infiltrators now in Israel to their countries of origin,” he said, ... Read More
Syria peace envoy Brahimi meets opposition delegation
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
International peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met Tuesday in Damascus with three opposition groups tolerated by the regime, a day after holding talks with President Bashar al-Assad. Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League’s special envoy to Syria, arrived in the country on Sunday to launch a fresh bid to end the country’s spiraling ... Read More
Christmas mass urges Mideast peace as thousands flock to Bethlehem
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
Thousands of Christians from the world over packed Manger Square in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve celebrations, as the Latin Patriarch urged “men of good will” to seek peace in the Middle East. Festivities in Bethlehem led up to the Midnight Mass at St. Catherine’s Church, next to the fourth-century Church of the Nativity, ... Read More
Syrian regime used gas on opposition fighters: activists
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
The Syrian regime forces have used some sort of lethal gas against opposition fighters in the besieged al-Khalidya and other areas in the central city of Homs, Al Arabiya television quoted activists as saying Monday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that at least six rebels were killed after inhaling ... Read More
Syrian defected FM spokesman ‘in U.S., cooperating with Intelligence’
Monday, 24 December 2012
Syria’s defected Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi is reportedly in the United States and is co-operating with the Americans, according to the Guardian on Monday. The report, which notes that the information about his whereabouts has now been “confirmed,” says U.S. intelligence officials helped him flee to ... Read More
Drone kills two Qaeda militants in southern Yemen: officials
Monday, 24 December 2012
At least two militants were killed on Monday in what security and local officials said was a U.S. drone strike on a suspected position of al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in southern Yemen. Washington has escalated its use of drones to kill suspected al-Qaeda militants in Yemen, where the group exploited anti-government protests ... Read More
Jordanians doubtful over proposed changes in new parliament
Monday, 24 December 2012
As Jordan gears up for the January 23 legislative election, streets and roundabouts were filled with banners portraying the smiling or stern faces of parliament hopefuls, but experts expressed reservations about the capability of the next parliament to bring about the sought-after change. Analysts expect the 17th parliament ... Read More
Fabled Timbuktu, ancient desert crossroads in peril
Monday, 24 December 2012
A fabled caravan town on the edge of the Sahara desert, Timbuktu was for centuries a key center of Islamic learning and has become a byword for exotic remoteness in the Western imagination. Today it is a battlefield, overrun by Islamist militants controlling northern Mali who have been razing its ... Read More
Netanyahu tweets in Arabic to spark ‘deeper’ Mideast dialogue
Monday, 24 December 2012
In a move to “strengthen” dialogue with Arabs, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can now be found on Twitter posting in Arabic. His new account, launched earlier this month, has attracted new followers mainly from Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon and his first posts have set out to relay direct messages to them. "The ... Read More
Turkey lifts veto on Israel’s NATO activities despite tensions: report
Monday, 24 December 2012
Turkey has reportedly agreed to Israeli participation in NATO activities in order to get Patriot missiles on its border with Syria, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday. The Israeli newspaper said Israel will join a 2013 NATO military drill in Turkey, despite tense diplomatic ties between the two states. “At the last ... Read More
Saudi Arabia calls for ‘strong and solid’ Gulf union
Monday, 24 December 2012
Saudi Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdul Aziz attending a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Bahrain Monday expressed the kingdom’s hope for the declaration of a Gulf union. “We aspire to a strong union with integrated economies, a joint foreign policy and a common defense system,” Prince Salman Read More
Egypt constitution’s initial ‘yes’ vote congratulated by Iran
Monday, 24 December 2012
Initial results showing the approval of an Islamist-backed constitution in Egypt was welcomed by Iran late on Sunday, an Iranian news agency reported, as the controversial charter drove a wedge between Egyptian groups. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast congratulated the Egyptians on the approval of ... Read More
20 years on, families want truth of ‘Libyan Lockerbie’
Monday, 24 December 2012
The families of the 157 passengers and crew who died aboard a Libyan Airlines flight, which reportedly crashed with a fighter jet over Tripoli airport 20 years ago, never believed it was an accident. “Every single one of us was convinced from the beginning that this was not an accident. If we had been under any ... Read More
Egypt in 2012: Political ecstasy, revolutionary U-turns
Monday, 24 December 2012
With the election of a new president and a transformed post-revolutionary political scene, 2012 has been a defining year for Egypt. January began with Egypt's Islamist parties winning elections to parliament, with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) winning the largest number of seats, while ... Read More
Action on Syria weakened by lack of strong base resolution: Jan Eliasson
Sunday, 23 December 2012
In an interview with Al Arabiya television’s New York bureau chief Talal al-Hajj, U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson said the international response to the crisis in Syria was weakened by the lack of a strong U.N. resolution as a base for action. He also addressed the threat of Syrian chemical weapons, saying ... Read More
Yemen says search on for abducted Finns, Austrian
Sunday, 23 December 2012
Yemen said on Sunday its security forces were still searching for two Finns and an Austrian whose whereabouts remain unknown since they were kidnapped in Sanaa. Security services are “carrying out vast search and investigation operations to locate the kidnapped” foreigners, abducted on Friday in Sanaa, official ... Read More
U.N.-Arab envoy Brahimi enters Syria to meet Assad: official
Sunday, 23 December 2012
U.N.-Arab envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi entered the war-torn country on his way to meet embattled President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, a Lebanese border official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “The international envoy crossed the Lebanese-Syrian border at about 2:00 pm (12:00 GMT),” the official said, ... Read More
Protest against Iraq PM blocks highway to Syria, Jordan
Sunday, 23 December 2012
About 2,000 Iraqi protesters, demanding the ouster of premier Nuri al-Maliki, blocked on Sunday a highway in western Iraq leading to Syria and Jordan, an AFP correspondent reported. The protesters, including local officials, religious and tribal leaders, turned out in Ramadi, the capital of Sunni province of ... Read More