WORLD

The Saudi Arabian grand mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh condemned Nigerian terror outfit Boko Haram as a group “set up to smear the image of Islam”, and criticized the group’s kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls. Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the top religious authority in the country, said that the radical group, which claims it wants to set up a “pure” Islamic …

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday visited the Russian naval base in Crimea for the first time after the peninsula was annexed by Moscow. President Vladimir Putin was in Sevastopol to review the Russian ships in the port. Russian television aired live footage of Vladimir Putin standing on the deck of a white ship going past at least ten other …

On Thursday, spiritual lead of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev appealed to the West to not forget the Crimean Peninsula as it turned its attention to the increasing violence in Eastern Ukraine. “We are concerned that because of Russia’s recent actions, the issue of Russia’s occupation of Crimea has become secondary in light of the potential threat of Russian forces …

International support has poured in for the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, increasing pressure on Nigerian authorities to resolve the crisis soon. The Nigerian extremist organization, led by Abubakar Muhammad Shekau, had threatened to sell the girls as slaves recently. The terrorist organization has been behind several violent incidents in Nigeria since 2009, with most of its Islamic allies …

On Tuesday, residents of Warabe in Nigeria’s northeast say suspected Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped eight more girls from the region. The leader of the extremist group last month had said that the group had abducted more than 200 schoolgirls. According to the residents, the assailants were looking for girls in every household in an attack in Warabe late on Sunday, …

On Monday, Refat Chubarov, a leader of the minority Muslim group the Crimean Tatars, said that the new Russian leadership had threatened to prosecute them “for extremism”. Chubarov, who leads the ethnic minority’s assembly, said that the Chief Regional Prosecutor on Sunday gave him an official warning to stop “extremist activities”. During the weekend, hundreds of pro-Ukraine Tatars clashed with …

Germany and the United States on Friday delivered a stern warning to Russia, saying that it would face direct, painful economic sanctions if election to be held later this month in Ukraine are disrupted. After their talks in the White House, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama delivered the statement, with the prospect of “sectoral” economic sanctions …

Acting President of Ukraine Olexander Turchynov on Thursday reinstated military conscription to help deal with the deteriorating security situation in Eastern Ukraine. The move was announced in a decree, and comes after pro-Russian forces seized a regional prosecutor’s office in Donetsk. Ukraine has blamed Russia for organizing the capture of government offices in Eastern Ukraine, a claim the Russian government …

On Wednesday, pro-Russian forces lifted an armed siege on a regional police headquarters in Lugansk in Eastern Ukraine after the chief officer of the station agreed to resign. Meanwhile, The Ukrainian government said that its army is “on full combat alert” against a potential Russian invasion. Rebels already control the regional administration building and the SBU security services building. A …

On Monday, heavily armed pro-Russian forces took over another town in Eastern Ukraine by storming into its town hall, setting up barricades and attacking an anti-Moscow billionaire’s bank in the town. Kostyantynivka has a population of 80,000 and is located between Donestsk and the town Slavyansk, both currently under insurgent control. Later in the day, around 300 masked pro-Russian troops, …