An Iraqi court has issued a warrant for the arrest on corruption charges of the former governor of Nineveh province after a deadly ferry sinking in Mosul. Parliament voted on Sunday to sack Nawfal al-Akoub as a consequence of last week’s accident in the River Tigris that killed almost 100 people. On Wednesday, Nineveh’s investigations […]

Despite its ancient roots as the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, the modern Republic of Yemen is a relatively new state. It was created after communist South Yemen merged with North Yemen in 1990, following years of strife, but tensions have never been far below the surface. A fresh wave of protests […]

Yemen, one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, has been devastated by a civil war. Here we explain what is fuelling the fighting, and who is involved. How did the war start? The conflict has its roots in the failure of a political transition supposed to bring stability to Yemen following an Arab Spring uprising […]

DUBAI (AFP) – A maths and physics teacher from a secondary school in a remote village in Kenya’s Rift Valley has won the US$1 million (S$1.35 million) Global Teacher Prize for 2019, organisers have said. Mr Peter Tabichi, who organisers say gives away 80 per cent of his monthly income to the poor, received the […]

US President Donald Trump has officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967, in a move hailed as “historic” by the country’s prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, who is up for re-election next month, was by Mr Trump’s side as he signed the proclamation. Syria said Mr Trump’s decision was […]

MISHMERET, ISRAEL (REUTERS) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday (March 25) he will cut short his trip to the United States after a rocket attack near Tel Aviv wounded seven people. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the projectile was fired from Gaza, an enclave controlled by the militant Hamas group, and […]

A rocket launched from Gaza struck a house in central Israel early on Monday, injuring six people, setting off air raid sirens in the country and forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short his visit to the United States. The rocket hit an Israeli home at 5:20 a.m. on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces […]

US-backed Syrian fighters cleared explosives in the last area taken from Isil and arrested several militants, a day after declaring the end of the extremists’ caliphate. The US-led coalition said the clearing operations will continue until the area is secure. A spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Baghouz village where the militants made […]

BAGHDAD (AFP) – The world’s most wanted man who has so far eluded capture, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has seen his “caliphate” crumble and its last shred of territory in Syria evaporate on Saturday (March 23). After declaring himself caliph in 2014, Baghdadi held sway over seven […]

I was sitting on the Israeli prime minister’s terrace when President Trump’s tweet dropped. A current of surprise and expectation sizzled through the state department press corps. We had been following US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo around Jerusalem’s holy sites and were waiting for a final word from him and Benjamin Netanyahu to wrap […]