News

On Thursday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave thought to the idea of holding a donors conference and use it to rebuild devastated Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said. Abbas and Sisi, who have discussed ways to end Israel’s aerial campaign on the enclave, also agreed to open Israeli crossing to the besieged strip and facilitate …

Iraqi security forces, supported by aircraft, repelled militant attack on the northern Shi’ite Turkmen town of Amirli, killing 15 extremists, local officials said on Thursday. The attack of Islamic State (IS) militants and allied Sunni extremists on Amirli took place on Wedesday,Talib al-Bayati, an official from Suleiman Bek, said. “Iraqi forces, with the help of military aircraft, repelled an attack …

On Thursday, a Malaysian passenger aircraft carrying 295 people reportedly shot down over an eastern Ukrainian town, Anton Gerashenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, said. Gerashenko said that the plane was at an altitude of 10,000 meters when it was struck by a missile that had been launched from a Buk launcher; Buk launchers can fire missiles to an …

On Tuesday, two Palestinians were killed by air strikes after an Egyptian truce bid failed to stop the week-long Israeli campaign in Gaza, raising the death toll to 194. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Emergency services, said that a 77-year-man was killed in the city of Khan Yunis and a 24-year-old man was killed in the district of Zeitoun in …

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 …