Arab League nations on Sunday agreed to take the “necessary measures” to confront militants from the Islamic State, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said after they meet in Cairo. “The Arab foreign ministers have agreed to take the necessary measures to confront terrorist groups including (the Islamic State)”, Arabi said at a press conference, without explicitly supporting calls from the …

The CIA has tortured terror suspects close “to the point of death” by almost drowning them during its interrogation sessions post 9/11, the Telegraph reported on Monday. The report published comes only a few days before the US Senate publishes a declassified variant of its Torture Report, a 3,600 page document based on reviews of millions of CIA documents. The …

On Monday, Leila Zerrougui, top UN envoy on children and armed conflict, said that the Islamic State (IS) have killed hundreds of children in summary executions, and have even used some in suicide bomb attacks. “Up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, including in summary executions”, Zerrougui told the UN …

On Monday, the UAE tried 15 extremists charged with joining and financing the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda and a rebel group, the official WAM news agency reported. Eleven of the fifteen defendants, whose nationalities have not been disclosed, appeared at the preliminary hearing in the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, WAM reported. It is not clear why the other …

The Iraqi parliament met under pressure to approve of an inclusive government that has broad support against extremists on Monday. The outgoing government has come under fire from the Sunni Arab community, having helped create conditions which have revitalized Sunni militants, including the Islamic State (IS). Lawmakers approved Abadi’s cabinet after the vote, making him the new Prime Minister, with …

>On Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the flashpoint city of Mariupol, where sporadic conflict has rattled the three-day-old ceasefire between rebel forces and the government. The highly-symbolic visit to the port city came just before EU officials called for a new meeting to decide on sanctions against Russia if the truce fails. Poroshenko wore military attire for the visit …

Land Seizure, Settlement Construction, Forcible Displacement of Palestinians (Jerusalem) – Israel should immediately reverse its illegal appropriation of a large swath of land in the occupied West Bank south of Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The appropriation, announced on September 1, 2014, paves the way for substantial settlement construction near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Transferring civilian settlers …

This year an Index released showing the most “miserable countries in the world in 2013  ” . The “Misery Index” is adding together a country’s unemployment and inflation rates, The higher the number, the more “miserable” the country is. Its method was created by Arthur Okun, the American economist who was a chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers …

By Abdulrahman Murad Gaza, Nearly three weeks of being housed in overcrowded shelter schools in dire living conditions has not dulled Gazans’ desire to see Israel’s blockade on the strip lifted. Palestinians displaced from east Gaza City following Israeli shelling and bombing of the Shejaiyeh and Tufah neighborhoods have demanded that negotiators in Cairo do not waive their demands during …

Cleric Imam Mohamad Jebara will cycle for more than 500 km from Ottawa to Quebec City to raise awareness on heart health and raise funds for The Heart and Stroke Foundation. Jebara, also known as the “Cycling Cleric”, is the Chief Imam and Resident Scholar at the Cordova Spiritual Education Centre. He will start on his journey after offering a …