WORLD

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim advocacy group in the United States has picked Roula Allouch, a female Muslim lawyer from Ohio, as its acting national board chair, replacing Omar Zaki, who had stepped down from his post after a two-year term. “I would like to thank Omar Zaki for his service to the Council on American-Islamic …

Russia on Monday commended the “successful” completion of the international mission to ship out chemical agents in Syria, under a Russia-US brokered deal that helped avert any potential Western air strikes on the middle-eastern country. In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, “Russia greets the successful end of a large-scale and unprecedented international operation to ship all components of chemical …

Two McMaster graduate students were wrapping up a community presentation on mental health when members of the audience began approaching them, in tears. The audience had just experienced an eye-opening discussion in which some had learned that symptoms they had battled privately were in fact the hallmarks of recognized conditions such as depression and anxiety, and that treatment was readily …

More than 6,000 people in the past week have fled the northeast Nigerian state of Borno due to Boko Haram violence, the nation’s main relief agency said. On Wednesday, The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said that it had registered exactly 6,227 internally displaced people (IDP) in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, the past week. “Most of them came in …

Hundreds of villagers from four villages in northeast Nigeria are feared dead in suspected Boko Haram attacks, in the latest increase in violence that is claiming the lives of an increasing number of civilians. According to local sources, Tuesday’s death toll due to attacks in Gwozo district in the state of Borno could be as high as 500; however, the …

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Ukrainian president-elect Petro Poroshenko on Friday during the D-Day anniversary held in Normandy, and called for an end to the violence and bloodshed on both sides, his spokesman said. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, was quoted as saying, “Putin and Poroshenko called for the soonest possible end to bloodshed in southeastern Ukraine, and to military …

Leaders of the G7, the group of the seven industrialized nations Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom, on Thursday decided to tighten defenses against potential terror attacks by European Jihadists retiring from Syria. At the close of a G7 summit, British Prime MinisterDavid Cameron said, “We have agreed to intensify efforts to address the …

British Prime Minister David Cameron has told Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring Russia’s military activity in Ukraine to an end. The British Prime Minister is the first Western leader to meet Putin after Russia annexed Crimea. Putin has been cold-shouldered by the US and its allies since the annexation. Vladimir Putin met with David Cameron on Thursday in Paris; …

Thailand’s army in a military coup on Thursday seized power of the country, and ordered rival protestors off the streets of Thailand. The Thailand army deposed the government, hoping to end several months’ worth of political bloodshed in the country. On Tuesday, the army had declared martial law, sparking rumors of an imminent coup. General Prayut Chan-O-Chaa announced the coup …

On Friday, a Muslim leader in Nigeria announced that he would host a nation-wide day of prayer in Nigeria’s capital city Abuja as a part of the effort to overcome Boko Haram’s lethal insurgency. Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, The Sultan of Sokoto, invited all prominent Nigerian Muslim leaders to pray with him in the National Mosque in Abuja on Sunday. …