By Michel Kilo The Assad regime described the reelection of its president for a third term as “national celebrations.” Traditionally, people take part in festivities for holidays and weddings, delighting in sharing this delight. However, “the national celebrations of Bashar al-Assad” are not a moment of joy, because participation in these celebrations is mandatory and whoever refuses to take part …

The announcement on 13 May by the International Criminal Court prosecutor that she is reopening a ‘preliminary examination’ into alleged British war crimes in Iraq seems to have taken many in the UK by surprise. But it’s less surprising to anyone who has followed the obstructive way UK authorities have handled numerous allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq. The UK …

In 2009, Nigerian police forces fighting Boko Haram in the northern city of Maiduguri lost about 30 officers in a violent firefight. The next day, they executed many of the men they had rounded up and detained as suspected Boko Haram fighters. The retaliatory killings often happened right outside police headquarters in full view of the public. Bodies piled up …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday named Rami Hamdallah as Prime Minister, as the two Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah appear to be on the verge of a historic unity government after seven bitter years as rivals. The official announcement brings the two parties substantially closer to a final reconciliation, after they established separate governments in 2007. Hamas took control …

Canadian taxpayers are partly financing the uprooting of Palestinians from their villages to make way for forests, a movie now being screened in Canada states. “The Village under the Forest” is produced by two South African Jews – Emmy award-winning filmmaker Mark Kaplan and author Heidi Grunebaum who did the narration. Grunebaum visited the South Africa Forest in Israel and …

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, in co-operation with the UN Palestinian refugee agency and the UN Development Program, produced the report “Squandering Humanity”, which says that the Syrian civil war has had a disastrous effect on its economy, and has plunged half of its population into poverty. According to the report, the conflict is creating “economies of violence that …

The Holy See on Thursday said that the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres will be praying for peace on June 8 at the Vatican. During his three-day trip to the Middle East, Pope Francis had invited both of them to his home for a “heartfelt prayer” for peace, the Vatican said.  It added that the …

The Israeli Prison Service has hospitalized 40 Palestinian prisoners, spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said on Wednesday. She described their condition as “reasonable” and said that they were, at different stages, taken to a hospital. The prisoners were on a hunger strike for over a month, protesting the terms of their imprisonment. Weizman said that all the prisoners on strike were administrative …

Ex-army chief and election front runner in the Presidential election in Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is set for a landslide victory on Tuesday, the last day of voting. Sisi last July ousted the first democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood is boycotting the vote. The move has unleashed the most lethal wave of violence in recent …

In what has been called by some as a complex game of “papal propaganda poker”, commentators have said that Pope Francis’ prayer at the West Bank separation barrier has handed the Palestinians a decisive victory over Israel. According to the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot, “One image from the pope’s visit has already become history”. The newspaper admitted that the picture …