MOUNT MERON, ISRAEL (NYTIMES) – The man underneath Mr Avraham Nivin was already limp and lifeless. The men above him were thrashing and flailing. The men to his sides were screaming for help and struggling to breathe. And crushed in the middle of these limbs and torsos – his legs trapped, his shoes and glasses […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Dozens of people were killed in a crush at a religious bonfire festival in Israel on Friday (April 30), medics said, in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described as a “heavy disaster”.  Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews had gathered at the Mount Meron tomb of the 2nd century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar […]

JERUSALEM — When the Palestinian Authority called in January for parliamentary elections, many Palestinians hoped the vote — the first in the occupied territories since 2006 — would revive Palestinian discourse, re-energize the independence movement and end a 14-year division between Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. But those hopes were dashed […]

BEIRUT (REUTERS) – Army helicopters are spraying agricultural land in northeast Lebanon to help farmers battle swarms of locusts that flew to the country in what a United Nations agency said was a “very rare” event caused by a change in the wind direction. The agriculture ministry, which is on full alert, said on Monday […]

NAIROBI, Kenya — Gunfire erupted across the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Sunday as security forces loyal to the president clashed with units that appeared to have sided with his rivals, stoking fears that Somalia’s simmering political crisis is spilling over into violence. The fighting, some of the worst in the Somali capital for years, followed […]

BAGHDAD (AFP) – At least 23 people died when a fire broke out Sunday (April 25) in a coronavirus intensive care unit in the capital of Iraq, a country with long-dilapidated health infrastructure now facing mounting Covid-19 cases. The explosion was caused by “a fault in the storage of oxygen cylinders”, medical sources told AFP. […]

ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkey on Saturday (April 24) accused the United States of trying to rewrite history, resoundingly rejecting US President Joe Biden’s decision to formally recognise the Armenian genocide. From the streets of Istanbul to the halls of power, Turks were united in anger at Biden’s decision to side with Armenia, France, Germany, Russia […]

So many people have fled to Syria’s crowded northwest that families have settled in important archaeological sites. “We, too, have become ruins.” AL-KFEIR, Syria — As the sun set, children in dirty clothes and battered shoes herded sheep past the towering stone walls of a Byzantine settlement abandoned more than 1,000 years ago, leading them […]

A passenger train derailed Sunday north of Cairo, killing at least 11 people and injuring scores more, the Egyptian authorities said. It was the latest of several deadly rail accidents to hit the country in recent years. At least 60 ambulances rushed to find survivors and help those who were hurt when four train cars […]

IRAN (REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, AFP) – Iran’s state television on Saturday (April 17) identified a man it said was behind a recent explosion at its main Natanz nuclear plant. “Reza Karimi, the perpetrator of this sabotage…, has been identified,” said by Iran’s intelligence ministry, state TV said. It said the suspect had fled Iran before last Sunday’s […]