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Stephen Hawking had in May 2013 boycotted conference hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres, protesting the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. He had made it clear that he would have criticized Israeli policies towards Palestinians if he had gone. The full letter read, “I accepted the invitation to the Presidential Conference with the intention that this would not only allow …

International rights group Human Rights Watch said that Iraq’s security forces and militia aligned with the government seem to have illegally executed at least 255 Sunni prisoners in six Iraqi villages and cities since June 9th, 2014. Most of Iraqi militia and security forces are Shiites. According to the rights group, in all cases but one, the executions took place …

Germany and Arsenal footballer Mesut Ozil has reportedly donated his winnings from the 2014 World Cup finals to children in Gaza. The German FA had awarded every player in the 23-man squad a €300,000 bonus for winning the world cup, in addition to the €150,000 for winning their semi-final and other rewards for each game. Ozil, who is of Turkish …

The ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki could be an “important part” of the solution to the political crisis in Iraq, a spokesman for top Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Bashir al-Najafi said. This is the first time any of the revered Shi’ite clerics in the nation have explicitly called for Maliki’s removal, and is one of several recent announcements …

On Wednesday, A Hamas official was in Cairo to hold talks with Egypt to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian movement that has left Gaza crippled. Hamas was not a part of the discussion during Tuesday’s truce deal, which it promptly later rejected as the deal had none of the concessions it had earlier asked for. “A meeting …

Israel’s air assault on Gaza entered its ninth day on Wednesday, with a total of 220 people killed and 1,550 injured by the attacks so far. The latest Israeli strikes caused the deaths of four children in Gaza City, medics said. The four of them were on the beach when the shelling struck, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. Several …

The Libyan government on Tuesday said that it was considering asking for international help to restore security in the country, as fighting between rival militia near Tripoli airport has pushed the country towards a civil war. Liberal and hard-line militiamen have been locked in a lethal power struggle, and the country’s main airport, which was closed for security reasons on …

On Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency described the damage caused by the Israeli air campaign on Gaza as “immense” and said that over 500 homes were razed in the past week. “The level of human losses and destruction in Gaza is really immense. According to our latest figure, we are talking about 174 killed and well over …

Hundreds of Kurds have entered northern Syria from Turkey to battle militants besieging the city of Ain al-Arab, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. “At least 800 Kurdish fighters crossed the Turkish-Syrian border to help their comrades in Ain al-Arab (Kobane in Kurdish), which is under total siege by Islamic State jihadists”, the Observatory’s director Rami Abdel Rahman …

On Tuesday, the sharply-divided Iraqi parliament elected its speaker and moved that much closer to forming a new government, which has already been delayed for a while. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s top Shi’ite cleric, and several world powers, had pressured Iraqi MPs to set their differences aside and work together as they face a militant offensive which has overrun …