The Syrian Feminist Lobby strongly condemns the UN Special Envoy Steffan De Mistura’s statement saying that Bashar Assad is part of “the solution” in Syria. The Syrian Feminist Lobby stresses the importance and urgency to maintain the due course of the internationally agreed upon Geneva Communiqué, which requires the establishment of a transitional governing body on the basis of mutual …

Reporters Without Borders released the annual World Press Freedom Index, which ranks 180 countries performance according to criteria including media independence, legislative framework and the level of censorship prevailing in the country, and the infrastructure environment in which the media operate. The index highlights the worldwide deterioration in freedom of information in 2014 because of wars, the growing non-state actors …

Dima’s hopes to stay in Canada with her husband and kids has hit bureaucratic Wall. Her husband Mohammed Al Rayyan is a Canadian citizen since 2002. Regardless of his job as a system engineer his wife a mother of three still faces deportation because of Bureaucratic dead-end. Dima Siam joined her husband in 2011 after the civil war began but …

Finding Fateh By Joobin Bekhrad- Reorient ‘Hello, can you hear me?’ I say, raising my voice a pitch, surmising our connection has been lost after a lengthy pause. I take another sip of tepid, bitter coffee from a stained white mug. ‘… Yes, I can hear you …’ comes the shaky, distorted voice on the other end of the line. …

Three young Arab-American Muslims were shot dead in their home in Chapel Hill neighbourhood in North Carolina on Tuesday. The victims were identified as 23 year old Deah Shaddy Barakat, 21 year old Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha his wife and 19 years old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha his sister in law. According to the police the gunshots were heard at 5.11 pm …

By Tallha Abdulrazaq- MEMO Following on from the tragic and brutal murder of the Jordanian fighter pilot Mu’ath Al-Kaseasbeh at the hands of his ISIS captors, many people have been thinking about other savage acts of immolation and burning that they have seen. Anyone monitoring Iraq over the past 13 years and paying attention to events beyond what the mainstream …

– Alray RT – The first-ever Palestinian embassy in Western Europe has opened in Sweden on Tuesday evening, the Swedish prime minister’s press service said. President Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in Stockholm for the event. “Your recognition…should push forward negotiations in the peace process,” Abbas said. Prime Minister Lofven has vowed aid to Palestine, but has also called on reforms. …

By  Ahmed A. Yousef Not that long ago a celebrity was a person who was celebrated for an extraordinary feat. Today, we are bombarded from every direction by what seems like everyone trying to be a celebrity. Granted, the proliferation of digital cameras and the significant decrease in their size and increase in resolution and storage capacity, but the social ramifications …

By Jonathan Cook If there is one story that encapsulates the corruption of public life at every level, it is the latest revelations about HSBC’s Swiss bank helping thousands of clients evade tax. Some £78 billion was stashed away, out of sight of the tax authorities of various countries. HSBC was praised in the UK after the banking crash for being …

By Nehad Ismail The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has lost 20 percent of its military capabilities since the start of U.S.-led coalition air strikes in September, General Mansour Al-Jbour, head of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, said in a press conference on Sunday 8th February. Jordan has carried out nearly 20 percent of the total sorties …