Worldcrunch
ISIS TAKES FULL CONTROL OF SYRIA-IRAQ BORDER CROSSINGS Terrorist group ISIS continues to gain territory, and its latest victory against the Syrian army on the Syria-Iraq border puts its militants in complete control of the border crossings between the two countries, and more than half of Syrian territory, The Independent reports, citing The Syrian Observatory […]
ANCIENT SYRIAN CITY FALLS TO ISIS After days of fighting, “Palmyra’s fate is now in the hands of IS,” the Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Le Jour writes on Thursday’s front page. Coalition forces thought a few days ago that they had managed to beat back the ISIS terror group from the ancient Syrian city, but the […]
After days of fighting, “Palmyra’s fate is now in the hands of IS,” L’Orient Le Jour writes on Thursday’s front page. Coalition forces thought a few days ago that they had managed to beat back the ISIS terror group from the ancient Syrian city, but the jihadists came back stronger than before. Government and rebel […]
When Islamic terror groups arrived in their Syrian hometown of Al-Hasakah, Assyrian Christians were systematically victimized. The lucky managed to flee.
MIGRANT CRISIS WORSENS IN SE ASIA “Out at sea with nowhere to go,” reads today’s front-page headline in Malaysian daily The Star, alongside a photo of Rohingya migrants, a persecuted minority, waiting on a boat adrift off the coast of Thailand. According to the UN, about 6,000 refugees fleeing Myanmar (also known as Burma) and […]
UK GIVES CAMERON FIVE MORE YEARS What all British pollsters foresaw as the tightest election in decades turned out to be a night of triumph for incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Party and a stinging defeat for the Labour opposition. The BBC projections of 329 Conservative seats in the new House of […]
By satellite phone and email, people living in ISIS-controlled Raqqa, Syria, say fighters have stolen their houses, killed family members and even forced them to pay rent on properties they already own.
ISIS CLAIMS ITS FIRST U.S. ATTACK ISIS claimed responsibility today for the weekend attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest at a conference center near Dallas, Texas. Gunmen Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were killed by a police officer after they opened fire and injured a security guard there, The Washington Post reports. This is […]
MIGRANT BOAT CAPTAIN ARRESTED Italian authorities in the port of Catania said Tuesday they arrested the Tunisian captain of the boat that capsized off the Libyan coast Sunday, killing around 800 people, Rome daily La Repubblica reports. He has been charged with multiple homicide. The captain was arrested along with a Syrian man believed to […]
EMERGENCY EU SUMMIT AFTER MIGRANT TRAGEDY European Union leaders are holding an emergency summit in Luxembourg to discuss a common response to the ongoing migrant crisis. But the EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini warned ahead of the meeting that there was “no easy solution, no magic solution,” the BBC reports. This comes just one […]
SUNKEN S. KOREAN FERRY TO BE RAISED South Korean President Park Geun-hye has promised to raise the sunken ferry Sewol to recover the nine bodies still missing, as the country commemorates the disaster’s one-year anniversary, Yonhap news agency reports. A total of 304 people, most of them high school students, died when the ship sank […]
U.S. TO REMOVE CUBA FROM TERROR LIST After this weekend’s historic meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro in Panama, Barack Obama announced plans to take off Cuba from the list of countries the U.S. accuses of sponsoring terrorism. The Washington Post reports on what this latest step in the rapprochement between the two neighbors means. […]
Photo: Hani Ali/Xinhua/ZUMA MEDICAL SUPPLIES REACH YEMEN The first medical supplies have arrived in the south Yemen city of Aden, and members of Doctors Without Borders have made their way to some of the city’s hospitals, Al Jazeera reports. Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel yesterday to waters near Yemen, AP reports. And […]
KENYA IN SHOCK AFTER MASSACRE“Terrorists make the earth shake again,” reads the front page of Kenya’s Swahili-language newspaper Taifa Leo after yesterday’s attack on Garissa University College in eastern Kenya. At least 147 people were killed and 79 were wounded when gunmen claiming to belong to the Somalia-based militant group Al-Shabaab stormed Garissa University College […]
Photo: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Lausanne — Brendan Smialowski/Prensa Internacional/ZUMA IRAN AGREEMENT “A FEW METERS AWAY”Iran nuclear talks resumed today in Lausanne, for a second day since the March 31 deadline. A deal seems within reach, as Iran officials hint at more flexibility over the UN lifting economic sanctions on the country, […]
Egypt’s participation in the military operation “Decisive Storm” against the Houthis in Yemen is a question of interests, alliances and cold, hard cash.
FINAL MOMENTS FOR NUCLEAR DEALIran and six world powers (United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China) are trying to overcome their remaining differences and agree to a framework deal on Iran’s nuclear program. They are gathered in Lausanne, where their self-imposed deadline will come tonight. AIRSTRIKES IN YEMEN CONTINUEA Saudi-led coalition carried out airstrikes […]
The ISIS terror group has devoted the cover of its official propaganda magazine Dabiq to its ambitions in Africa — Tunisia in particular, as the photo of Tunis’ Great Mosque of Kairouan suggests. In the magazine’s eighth issue, entitled “Shari’ah alone will rule Africa,” the jihadist organization once again claims responsibility for the March 18 […]
INVESTIGATORS SAY ALPS CRASH WAS DELIBERATEThe co-pilot of the Germanwings flight that crashed into the French Alps Monday, killing all 150 people on board, took sole control of plane and intentionally started the descent, officials say. He has been identified as 28-year-old German national Andreas Lubitz. The New York Times reports that voice recordings from […]
The biggest threat to murderous Islamists are Muslims who believe in democracy.
Recent beheadings highlight an ongoing exodus of Christians from territories targeted by ISIS. Some have taken refuge in Lebanon.
-OpEd- PARIS — With just days to go before the Israeli election, it becomes increasingly difficult to predict who will win the race. The latest polls show the center-left Zionist Union candidates Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni leading over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling Likud party. Of course, the country’s proportional system means […]
ISIS VIDEO SHOWS CHILD KILLING TEENA video posted online by ISIS shows a young boy fatally shooting 19-year-old Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab whom the terrorist group accused of being a spy for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence services, Reuters IRAQI FORCES ENTER TIKRITThe Iraqi military, in alliance with private Shia militias, have entered parts of […]
Despite death threats, three young Syrians are fighting the jihadists terrorizing their country with the only weapon they have: pure mockery.
What was once a simple and relatively quick commute through Aleppo now takes up to 12 hours, as battered roads, endless checkpoints and ISIS violence take their toll. A bus driver’s view.
Vanguard, March 09, 2015 Niger and Chad launched major joint ground and air strikes against Boko Haram in Nigeria Sunday, one day after the militants formally pledged allegiance to ISIS and killed at least 50 in Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. The joint military operation represents a new regional push to […]
There are countless precedents for acts of cultural vandalism like ISIS perpetrated against the Mosul museum. A society’s art and cultural history may be its very embodiement of power.
Governments are taking Twitter to task for inadvertently helping jihadists “recruit, incite and horrify.” But they’re forgetting what a valuable law enforcement resource the platform is too.
Supervised and armed by Iran, young Shia volunteers have launched a major battle against ISIS in Tikrit. But taking revenge on local Sunnis is not likely to pacify the region. And what about Uncle Sam?
SENIOR NUSRA COMMANDER KILLEDAbu Hammam al-Shami, a senior commander of al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda branch operating in Syria, was killed by a Syrian government airstrike in the Idlib province, both the terrorist organization and state media have confirmed. Shami, who held the title of general military commander, was apparently meeting with other commanders when he […]
Khaled walked into an ISIS recruiting office and volunteered to fight — for $30 a month. Now he’s a refugee in Turkey. Here’s how he got from there to here.
-OpEd- PARIS — There’s something both pathetic and surrealistic about France’s obsession, at the moment, with a rather unremarkable economic reform bill (the “loi Macron“) while to the east and to the south, in Ukraine and Libya, real threats are edging closer to our continent. It’s time to wake up! Twenty-five years after the fall […]
FIGHTING DIE DOWN IN EASTERN UKRAINEThe shaky truce in Eastern Ukraine finally appears to be taking hold. Wednesday marked the first casualty-free day since the Minsk agreement and the official start of a ceasefire on Feb. 15, the BBC reports. Pro-Russian rebels continued to withdraw their heavy weaponry from the frontline and the leader of […]
The Turkish government still sees the downfall of the Assad regime as the No. 1 priority. Washington is most concerned with the battle against ISIS. Is there room for an alliance?
WORLD RESPONSE TO ISIS “SHAMEFUL,” AMNESTY SAYSIn its annual report published Wednesday, Amnesty International describes 2014 as “catastrophic” and the world leaders’ response to ISIS as “shameful and ineffective.” The 415-page report criticizes governments for failing to protect civilians from terrorist groups and details abuses in up to 160 countries. “This has been a devastating […]
WAR AGAINST UKRAINE “UNLIKELY,” PUTIN SAYSPhoto above: Mikhail Metzel/TASS/ZUMARussian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Russian television that war against its neighbor Ukraine was “unlikely,” expressing his hope that this “apocalyptic scenario” would “never happen.” Asked about the Minsk agreement, he said that if fully implemented it would see the situation in […]
In Hebron, military intelligence recently broke up what it claims was an ISIS cell. Some say there’s real cause for concern. Others see the crackdown as a convenient way to justify Israel’s occupation of the area.
Syria’s tangled web grows even more intricate. Hezbollah is key to Assad’s strategy, moderate rebels avoid ISIS and al-Nusra at all cost, and Israel helps the Free Syrian Army.
The Cairo regime is facing criticism after the ISIS beheading in Libya of 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt. Too many poor Egyptians risk it all in search of work across the border.
A group calling itself “Defenders of Jerusalem” is throwing its lot in with ISIS, making the battle between Cairo and Islamists ever more since the army ousted the Muslim Brotherhood.