The United Nations (UN) has called on Canada to do more to help Syrian refugees struggling with the Syrian war crisis. The call comes only a few days after the UN urged wealthier nations to help re-settle over 100,000 displaced Syrians. Canada, which has pledged to let in 1,300 refugees, needs to show its humanitarianism, Furio De Angelis, the representative …

Irish parliamentarians on Wednesday urged their government to recognize the state of Palestine after a symbolic motion for the same passed in the parliament unopposed. This makes the Irish parliament the fourth European assembly to demand Palestinian statehood since October – Spanish, British and French lawmakers have all passed similar motions, indicating growing frustration with the peace process. Sweden has …

US Secretary of State John Kerry is all set to travel to Rome this Sunday to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They will discuss a number of issues, including recent developments in Israel, the West Bank, and Jerusalem and the region”, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Kerry had been dogged in his nine-month pursuit for peace …

By Ramzy Baroud Raed Mu’anis was my best friend. The small scar on top of his left eyebrow was my doing at the age of five. I urged him to quit hanging on a rope where my mother was drying our laundry. He wouldn’t listen, so I threw a rock at him. I didn’t mean for the rock hit him, …

Senior Palestinian official Ziad Abu Ein died on Wednesday after he was beaten up by Israeli security forces during a demonstration in West Bank; Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the “barbaric act”. Abu Ein, who was in charge of Israeli settlements for the Palestinian Authority (PA), “was martyred after being beaten in the chest”, Ahmed Bitawi, the director of …

International rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes during the Gaza offensive this past summer, and urged an investigation into the issue. The destruction of multi-story building during the final four days of the offensive violated international humanitarian law, Amnesty International said in a report. “All the evidence we have shows this large-scale …

A long-delayed US Senate report published on Tuesday revealed that the CIA’s interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects did not produce any useful intelligence and was a lot more brutal than initially acknowledged. The CIA also misled Congress and the White House with inaccurate claims about the usefulness of the program in thwarting attacks, the Senate Intelligence Committee said. When the 500-page …

Canadian Muslim leaders on Monday sharply criticized a Muslim convert’s call for attacks in Canada; only a few weeks earlier, Canadian soldiers were killed in an extremist attack on home soil. The National Council of Canadian Muslims condemned the video broadcasted by the Canadian militant belonging to extremist group Islamic State (IS) as “abhorrent and un-Islamic”. “The attempt to justify …

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura met with Syrian opposition members on Monday to discuss his plan on locally “freezing” fighting in second city Aleppo. “The talks started today with representatives of armed and non-armed groups in Gaziantep” in southern Turkey, Juliette Touma, de Mistura’s spokeswoman, said. “The U.N. delegation is made up of four people, including De Mistura”, …

Iranian and Syrian Foreign Ministers on Monday condemned Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, labeling them as acts of aggression which proves that Israel is allied with extremist groups battling the Syrian regime. On Sunday, Israeli warplanes had bombed two areas, launching strikes near Damascus international airport and a town near the Syrian-Lebanese border. The Syrian government has said that the strikes …