LONDON — A court in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday sentenced a British academic to life in prison on spying charges, prompting a pledge from Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain that the issue would be raised “at the highest level” with the Emirati authorities. The severity of the verdict stunned British officials, who had been reluctant to discuss… Read more »
JERUSALEM — A Tel Aviv court on Thursday sentenced a 19-year-old American-Israeli man to 10 years in prison for sowing havoc and terror with fake bomb threats against hundreds of institutions, including schools, hospitals, malls, police stations and Jewish centers in the United States and other countries. For months, prosecutors said, the teenager, who has not been publicly identified, threatened… Read more »
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A delegation of doctors from the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group (GSMSG) arrived in the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region on Saturday to discuss their delivery of voluntary medical services to displaced people in the Kurdistan Region. On Sunday, they met with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani, in Erbil. The… Read more »
AFRIN (Kurdistan 24) – At least 25 militants have been killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday in heavy clashes between Turkish-backed insurgent factions in the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin, a war monitor said. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said fighting in several districts of Afrin erupted between the Olive Branch groups, backed by the Turkish… Read more »
CAIRO — An Egyptian man accused of supporting the Islamic State was sentenced to death on Saturday in the fatal stabbing of an 82-year-old Christian doctor in Cairo. Prosecutors said the killing in September 2017 happened when the 40-year-old defendant requested to see the doctor, pretending to be a patient. The man, who was not identified, started stabbing the doctor… Read more »
Cairo is going through a lot of neglect and decay, thanks to the ‘Flight of the Rich’ as a lot of the rich have moved to gated communities in the suburbs while the new capital is being built. Cairo has a lot of crappily built houses, dirt roads which are flooded with sewage water, and almost every neighborhood is over… Read more »
Egyptian security forces have killed 19 people linked to a deadly attack on Coptic Christians, according to the interior ministry. The suspects were killed in a gunfight in the desert of Minya province in central Egypt after security forces pursued them, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. “The terrorist elements opened fire on the [security] forces who responded,” the… Read more »
Egypt is looking to use its vast, newly tapped undersea gas reserves to establish itself as a key energy exporter and revive its flagging economy. Encouraged by the discovery of huge natural gas fields in the Mediterranean, Cairo has in recent months signed gas deals with neighbouring Israel as well as Cyprus and Greece. Former oil minister Osama Kamal said… Read more »
Billboards across Cairo advertise luxury homes with “breathtaking” views in compounds with names like “La Verde” or “Vinci” in Egypt’s new capital that is under construction in the desert, miles from the Nile-side city which has been the seat of power for more than 1,000 years. Often, what lies behind the billboards are Cairo’s most overcrowded neighborhoods, with shoddily built… Read more »
Egyptian authorities have arrested at least 40 human rights advocates, lawyers and political activists within the last 30 days and held them in “undisclosed locations”, Human Rights Watch has said. “Many of those arrested were people who provided humanitarian and legal support to families of political detainees,” HRW said, calling on the government to reveal their whereabouts. “The Egyptian security… Read more »