WASHINGTON — The Army has failed to adequately train and equip the military bomb technicians and infantry troops who are increasingly accompanying American commandos on high-risk missions in war zones, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times. As the Pentagon draws down the number of troops in combat, including in Afghanistan […]

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has said that security forces recently came to the aid of a foreign oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after reports that Iran might have seized a tanker from the United Arab Emirates in the area. Abbas Mousavi, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that Iranian forces had rushed to […]

LONDON — A British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran since 2016 has been moved to a hospital psychiatric unit, her family said, prompting fears for her well-being. The moving of the woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, was initially seen as a positive development, because she had been requesting treatment for months. But her family said on Wednesday that […]

DUBAI ((WASHINGTON POST) – Iran says it came to the assistance of a foreign oil tanker that broke down in the Strait of Hormuz as international concern is mounting over the fate of an Emirati-linked ship that went missing in Iranian waters three days ago. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Abbas Mousavi, said that the […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iranian navy vessels came to the assistance of a disabled foreign oil tanker in the Gulf that needed repairs, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying on Tuesday (July 16) by the semi-official news agency ISNA. “(Spokesman) Abbas Mousavi said… that an international oil tanker was in trouble due to a […]

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Bethany Vierra didn’t think she was asking for much. First, she wanted a divorce from a husband she described as abusive. Then she wanted to secure custody of her 4-year-old daughter, Zeina. Then she wanted a court order to receive child support from her ex-husband, a businessman. But as an American woman […]

BAADRE, IRAQ (AFP) – Freed after years in captivity, Ms Jihan Qassem faced an agonising ultimatum: abandon her three small children fathered by an ISIS fighter or risk being shunned by her community. “Of course I couldn’t bring them home. They’re Daesh (ISIS) children,” said Ms Qassem, 18, matter-of-factly, sitting in a sparse concrete structure […]

Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz has said he believes so-called “gay conversion therapy” can work, triggering widespread condemnation. “I think it’s possible,” Mr Peretz, an Orthodox rabbi, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel. He added that he had “a very deep familiarity with the issue”. PM Benjamin Netanyahu said such remarks were “unacceptable”. Other politicians […]

The incoming US army chief says the US is trying to put together a coalition to provide escort to commercial shipping. The Pentagon said on Thursday it was discussing military escorts for vessels in the Gulf a day after Iranian vessels allegedly tried to block a United Kingdom oil tanker near the strategic Strait of […]

Gibraltar had seized an Iranian oil tanker suspected by the UK of carrying two million barrels of crude oil to Syria. Police in Gibraltar said officers have arrested the captain and chief officer of the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, which was seized off the British-controlled territory last week for suspected breach of EU sanctions […]