Foreign NGOs operate with caution in Syria
Monday, 04 February 2013
Finally they’ve arrived -- nearly 2,000 kerosene heaters for thousands of displaced Syrians facing a bitingly cold winter in camps in rebel-controlled areas in the northwest of the country. Trucks loaded with precious gas stoves came from Iraq via Turkey, to be distributed in four camps along the Turkish border ... Read More
Syrians living in Jordan provide relatives in refugee camp with basic necessities
Sunday, 03 February 2013
The huge influx of refugees arriving in Jordan after fleeing the violence in Syria has left the local authorities struggling to cope. The influx has overwhelmed camp officials, who are already dealing with a shortage of supplies and difficult weather conditions. Now, those lucky enough to have family already living in ... Read More
Syrian rebels set up prisons to curb crime, maintain order
Sunday, 03 February 2013
Rebel groups in Syria have established their own security systems in areas liberated from the regime’s hold. A rebel controlled police force, prisons and courts have sprung up in an attempt to keep order in Aleppo and Idlib’s countryside. Inmates in a prion visited by an Al Arabiya correspondent in Aleppo include ... Read More
Afghan female artist beats the odds to invigorate Kandahar’s art scene
Saturday, 02 February 2013
Charred bodies lie scattered against blood-stained walls and debris covers the ground. The unusual thing in this gruesome scene is that the “blood” is red paint, and part of an art installation. It’s a work by 23-year-old Afghan artist Malina Suliman. She risks her life, Suliman says, sometimes working by flashlight after ... Read More
Back to school, a sign the ‘war is over’ in Timbuktu
Saturday, 02 February 2013
Schoolteacher Ahmed Mohamed Coulibaly wipes the blackboard with a flourish, erasing the last date children came to school in the fabled Malian city of Timbuktu: March 22, 2012. That was the day a group of soldiers ousted Mali’s government, paving the way for armed Tuareg and Islamists to capture Timbuktu 10 ... Read More
Syrians affected as price of basic commodities rise
Friday, 01 February 2013
Many Syrians have resorted to chopping down trees for heating and cooking purposes, due to the nation-wide scarcity of fuel. Residents in the village of Andan told an Al Arabiya correspondent that they had no option but to cut down olive trees that are dozens of years old as winter takes hold in a climate of soaring fuel ... Read More
Hariri supports legalizing civil marriage, criticizes Lebanon’s Grand Mufti
Friday, 01 February 2013
Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri said on Thursday that he supported legalizing civil marriage in Lebanon and slammed Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Mohammad Rashid Qabbani’s fatwa that those who accept civil marriage were “apostates.” “I hope there will be a law on civil marriage [in Lebanon],” Hariri said during a live ... Read More
Egypt’s police regain Mubarak-era notoriety
Friday, 01 February 2013
With near impunity and the backing of the Islamist president, Egyptian police have been accused of firing wildly at protesters, beating them and lashing out with deadly force in clashes across much of the country the past week, regaining their Husni Mubarak-era notoriety as a tool of repression. In the ... Read More
Islamists gone, Gao minorities now face fear of reprisals
Friday, 01 February 2013
A thin dust of flour on the floor is all that remains in the Arab-owned store in Gao, looted in a wave of reprisals against those accused of helping the northern Malian city’s former Islamist occupiers. Gao’s light-skinned Arab and Tuareg residents face the violent anger of their black neighbors since French ... Read More
Relatives of those killed in Gaza house fire blame authorities
Thursday, 31 January 2013
The charred walls and burnt furniture is all that remains of a family home in Gaza City. The fire which started in the early hours of Thursday morning claimed six lives, four of them were children, the youngest was two months old. Mahmoud Dhair lost his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in the blaze. He said his son, ... Read More
Yemen’s craft workers suffer as unrest scares tourists
Thursday, 31 January 2013
Yemeni craftsmen and women complain of a downturn in business in light of the country’s political crisis. Craft workers say the country’s unrest has brought their business to a halt. “The handicrafts business has been slow before and after the political conflict. After the unrest, we had some hope that it could get ... Read More
Iran Zoroastrians celebrate ancient feast of fire
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Followers of Iran’s minority Zoroastrian religion gathered after sunset to mark Sadeh - an ancient mid-winter feast dating to Iran’s pre-Islamic past that is also drawing new interest from Muslims. Zoroastrian priests, dressed in white to symbolize purity, recited verses from Avesta, the holy Zoroastrian ... Read More
Sarajevo siege photo stirs distant, dark memories
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
It’s autumn 1992, and an icy chill has settled over Sarajevo. Bosnian residents are struggling to keep warm in their besieged city, scavenging whatever firewood they can after gas and electric supplies have been cut off. From their hiding spots in the hills surrounding the town, snipers shoot at anything that moves. ... Read More
Grandmother mourns son’s death in Aleppo clashes
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
As the Syrian conflict claims the lives of over 60,000 people, the family of Umm Omar shares their story of loss. Dressed in black and surrounded by her grandchildren she tells of the passing of her eldest son. Omar was the oldest of 11 children raised in Aleppo’s surrounding countryside. His death has left three ... Read More
Masked ‘Black Bloc’ a mystery in Egypt unrest
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
An unpredictable new element has entered Egypt’s wave of political unrest: a mysterious group of masked young men called the Black Bloc who present themselves as the defenders of protesters opposed to the Islamist president’s rule. They boast that they’re willing to use force to fight back against Islamists ... Read More
Father of terror suspect says FBI brainwashed son
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
The father of a United States terrorism suspect testified Monday that his then-teenage son was suffering from an identity crisis and enduring a troubled home life when the FBI brainwashed him. Osman Barre, the father of Somali-American terrorism suspect Mohamed Mohamud, said he was concerned for his ... Read More
Lebanon president, PM in twitter feud over civil marriage
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Lebanon’s president and premier exchanged opposing views on Twitter over the issue of civil marriages in the multi-faith country, where such unions are illegal. President Michel Sleiman tweeted on Sunday that he would remain steadfast in supporting such unions, while Prime Minister Najib Mikati wrote on his ... Read More
Sunday Times set to apolgize for 'grotesque' cartoon of Netanyahu
Monday, 28 January 2013
Israel's parliamentary speaker on Monday lashed out at a cartoon published in Britain's Sunday Times showing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall with Palestinian blood and bodies. "For the people of Israel, this is a cartoon which recalls the dark journalism from one of ... Read More
Preserve CIA prisons as evidence, lawyers for 9/11 suspects ask
Monday, 28 January 2013
Lawyers for five alleged 9/11 conspirators who claim they were tortured in secret CIA prisons have asked a U.S. military judge to order that the prisons be preserved as evidence. The issue is one of more than two dozen on the docket for a week of pretrial hearings set to begin on Monday in the war crimes tribunal at the ... Read More
Syrians come up with new ways to live with war
Monday, 28 January 2013
Syria’s 22-month war, despite its dehumanizing effects, is teaching ordinary people to pull together and come up with innovative ways to survive without electricity or their daily bread. “Buying bread or stepping out to collect water can be deadly,” said Abu Hisham, a young resident of Aleppo, the strife-torn ... Read More