Islamists Storm Tunisian School after it Bars Veiled Student
Radical Muslims burst into a Tunisian school on Wednesday and assaulted its chief after he barred entry to a teenage girl wearing a face veil, or niqab, teachers said, an incident that underlined rising Islamist-secularist tensions. Since secular dictator Zine...
Bahrain Arrests Four “Terrorists” in Government Attack
Bahrain announced that it has arrested four suspects after “terrorists” attacked the headquarters of the Council of Ministers with Molotov cocktails. A security source, speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on the condition of anonymity, claimed that at least 20 people were involved in...
HRW: Syrian Forces Unlawfully Attacking Civilians
Human Rights Watch says Syria is carrying out “unlawful” deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians, and is urging the international community to pressure the government to stop. The group released a report Thursday describing 59 air strikes in opposition areas...
Gaza Police Shaving Heads of Long-Haired Youths
It is the latest sign that the Islamic militants are imposing their strict practices on the population. Hamas has been slowly forcing its fundamentalist interpretation of the religion on already conservative Gaza since it overran the territory in 2007, but...
Syria’s Homs Besieged for 300 Days: Opposition
A siege of Syria’s central city of Homs entered its 300th day on Sunday, as troops loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad wage a campaign to oust rebel groups holed up there, the opposition said. “Three hundred days have gone by...
Clashes Follow Coptic Funeral
Clashes broke out yesterday outside the Egyptian capital’s Coptic cathedral after funeral prayers were held for four Christians killed in sectarian clashes, witnesses said. They said the mourners who were chanting against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood were pelted with stones...
Executions in Iraq Peak to Highest Point in 10 Years: Amnesty
Executions in Iraq have peaked to their highest level in almost a decade, an Amnesty International report to be published this week has said. The country now has the third highest number of executions in the world, Amnesty’s UK director...
Al-Qaeda Chief Calls on Muslims to Unite in Struggle
Al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman Zawahiri has urged Muslims in Arab Spring countries to unite and establish an Islamic state. He further urged rebels in Syria to establish a system of Islamist rule, and warned France over its military intervention in Mali....
Syria Has a Massive Rape Crisis
One day in the fall of 2012, Syrian government troops brought a young Free Syrian Army soldier’s fiancée, sisters, mother, and female neighbors to the Syrian prison in which he was being held. One by one, he said, they were raped...
British Activists ‘Raped’ in Libya
Pro-government militiamen are suspected of having raped three British female activists of Pakistani origin in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libya’s deputy prime minister says. Awsad al-Barassi says the women were part of an overland aid convoy bound for Gaza....
