Pope Francis on Saturday will meet with Syrian refugees in Jordan and will first-hand hear horrific accounts from the Syrian civilian war. The Pope is set to make a stop at Jordan before his trip of the Holy Land. Jordan, which has a population of 7 million, has only 250,000 people who identify themselves as Christian. Pope Francis will meet …

On Wednesday, the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin defended the right of Palestinians to a “sovereign and independent” homeland, saying that he hoped that the Pope’s upcoming visit will lead to a “courageous decision” for peace. Cardinal Parolin’s role in the Vatican is equivalent to that of a country’s Prime Minister. “We know that the pope is going …

Advertisements on buses linking Adolf Hitler with “Islamic Jew-hatred” are now running in Washington DC, with the First Amendment protecting the advertisements, and almost guaranteeing that they will run for quite some time. The 15-foot-long ads are on the broadsides of twenty buses in the DC metro area. They feature a photo of Adolf Hitler seated with his “staunch ally” …

On Wednesday, Pakistani jets crushed Taliban targets in North Waziristan district near the Afghani border, leaving at least 60 people dead in the attacks. According to officials, the targets in the district, a stronghold of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, were taken down in the early hours of Wednesday. A few insurgent commanders were also killed in the strikes. The military’s …

Defense for Children Palestine (DCI-Palestine) this past week released a shocking video which clearly showed that two young Palestinian men were killed by IDF soldiers last Thursday while they were walking near the Nakba Day protest site outside Ofer Prison in West Bank. Previously, IDF officials maintained that the Palestinian teens had thrown firebombs and stones at the IDF soldiers, …

On Wednesday, a group of human rights monitors urged Iran to stay the execution of two Arab activists from the country, explaining that the trial was fundamentally flawed. Sayed Khaled Mousavi and Ali Chebeishat, Arab cultural rights campaigners and farmers, will be executed on Thursday if Iran goes ahead with its plans. The two were arrested in November 2012, and …

The joint mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemicals had announced on Tuesday that Syria had destroyed its entire stockpile of isopropanol, a component used in the preparation of Sarin nerve gas. In a statement, the UN-OPCW mission said, “Now 7.2 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons material remains in country and awaits swift removal …

31-year-old Mashudur Choudhury on Tuesday became the first British person to be convicted on charges of terrorism connected to the conflict in Syria. Choudhury, a father of two and a former youth worker who hails from Portsmouth, was convicted of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts. He will be sentenced on June 13, and has been warned that …

Russia has said that it would veto any UN resolution which would refer the Syrian conflict to the International Criminal Court if it would come to a vote in the UN Security Council, after 58 countries announced their support for such a measure. The resolution would authorize the International Criminal Court to investigate allegations made against the Syrian opposition and …

Palestinian activists on Tuesday were critical of Pope Francis’ plans to visit the tomb of Zionist founder Theodor Herzl. Omar Barghouti, a member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement called the planned visit “nauseating”. “Laying a wreath on the grave of the founder of Zionism, a patently racist ideology that has served to enable and justify the ethnic cleansing …