WORLD

On Friday, around 2,000 mosques in Germany were called on by top Muslim clerics in the country to use the Friday’s rituals to rally support against extremist group Islamic State (IS) and speak out against the beheadings in Iraq and Syria. Aiman Mazyek, the chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, urged the nation’s Muslim population to speak …

On Monday, top diplomats from 30 countries, including China, Russia and the United States, gathered in Paris to pledge support to Iraq in its fight against the Islamic State (IS) by “any means necessary”, including “appropriate military assistance”. The meeting comes on the heels of the beheading of a third western hostage by IS over the weekend. The diplomats issued …

On Friday, Russia criticized the EU for adopting new sanctions against it despite the week-old ceasefire agreement between separatist forces and Ukraine. “We believe that adopting such decisions at the very moment when the peace process in Ukraine is gaining strength — we are hoping — … this means choosing a path towards undermining the peace process”, Russian Foreign Minister …

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama said that the US will intensify its sanctions in energy, finance and defense sectors to punish Russia for its “illegal actions” in Ukraine, as the EU said that it could lift the new sanctions if the ceasefire in Ukraine continues. In his statement, Obama said that the move will worsen the Kremlin’s deepening economic …

The Philippines is going to deport a Muslim Canadian national this week, after he was reportedly “inciting and recruiting locals to conduct terrorist activities”, a top official from the immigration bureau said on Wednesday. The Southeast Asian nation has been checking up on intelligence reports that around 100 Muslims in the Muslim-dominated south had left the nation in response to …

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russia had withdrawn almost all of its soldiers who had allegedly snuck across international borders to boost separatist forces in Ukraine, and promised greater autonomy for the separatists so that the fragile truce between the two could endure. Poroshenko’s comments come as EU envoys gathered in Brussels to discuss the new set of …

Canadian ambassador for religious freedom Andrew Bennett said that the current outburst of ethno-religious hatred, expulsions and murders by militants from the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq has risen to the level of genocide. “ISIS is a barbaric terrorist group that has taken Sunni Islam and warped it, distorted it, twisted it and usurped it for its own …

>On Monday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the flashpoint city of Mariupol, where sporadic conflict has rattled the three-day-old ceasefire between rebel forces and the government. The highly-symbolic visit to the port city came just before EU officials called for a new meeting to decide on sanctions against Russia if the truce fails. Poroshenko wore military attire for the visit …

Hopes of a ceasefire between Ukraine and pro-Russia separatists increased on Thursday after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko discussed the issue with key western leaders at a NATO summit in Newport, UK. Poroshenko said that he expected a ceasefire deal to be signed on Friday “for the gradual introduction of the Ukrainian peace plan”. Pro-Moscow rebels have also agreed to issue …

On Friday, Afghanistan’s dueling Presidential candidates reached an agreement to form an Afghani unity government, kicking off a way forward after a fraud-tainted election that threatened to revive ethnic clashes. Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani promised to work together regardless of who becomes President after an audit of all 8 million votes will declare the winner of the election. US …