Activists, volunteers, medics, parents and teenagers – these are the individuals shaping Iraq’s mass protest movement. Baghdad, Iraq – The anti-government protests sweeping Baghdad and a number of Iraqi cities have often been referred to as the “uprising” of the country’s embittered youth – men and women in their early 20s fed up with a ruling elite […]

IRAN has acknowledged for the first time that it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court over the 2007 disappearance of a former FBI agent during an unauthorised CIA mission, renewing questions over what happened to him. In a filing to the United Nations, Iran said the case over Robert Levinson is “ongoing”. It […]

Syria government and opposition representatives met to discuss a future constitution in Geneva but did not shake hands. The United Nation’s envoy for Syria says first talks in Geneva on the country’s constitution involving Syrian opposition, government and civil society representatives have “gone much better” than many would have expected. Geir Pedersen said on Friday […]

Iran confirms its forces shot down the drone, adding that it belonged to a foreign country, state news agency reported. Iran has confirmed that its forces have shot down a drone and said it belonged to a foreign country, state news agency IRNA reported. Iran’s air defense force hit the “unknown” drone early Friday morning […]

Naval coalition aims to ward off perceived Iran threat to the world’s oil supply following string of attacks on tankers. A US-led naval coalition officially launched operations in Bahrain on Thursday to protect shipping in the troubled waters of the Gulf, following a string of attacks that Washington and its allies blamed on Iran. The coalition, […]

Turkish president says number of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s family members caught is ‘close to reaching double digits’. Members of slain ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s inner circle are trying to enter Turkey from Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. The number of people with family ties to al-Baghdadi who have been caught by Turkey “is close […]

TEHERAN (AFP) – Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant south of Teheran on Thursday (Nov 7) in a new step back from its commitments under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas into the plant’s mothballed enrichment centrifuges in “the first minutes of Thursday”, the Iranian Atomic Energy […]

ISTANBUL (AFP) – The wife of slain Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi revealed “a lot of information” about the militant group’s “inner workings” after she was captured last year, a Turkish official said. The official said that Baghdadi’s spouse identified herself as Rania Mahmoud but was in fact Asma […]

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Two former Twitter employees and a third man were charged in San Francisco Federal Court Wednesday (Nov 6) with spying on Twitter users critical of the Saudi royal family, the US Justice Department announced. The two Saudi citizens and one US citizen allegedly worked together to unmask the ownership details behind […]

ISTANBUL — Turkey has captured one of the wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain leader of the Islamic State movement, in addition to several other family members, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Wednesday. He also confirmed the capture of Mr. al-Baghdadi’s elder sister and brother-in-law in the town of Azaz, in […]