JERUSALEM: A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged inside his vehicle on Monday, an incident Israeli police described as a suicide but which the driver’s family said they believed was an attack. The incident quickly touched off Palestinian stone-throwing protests and a general strike in some la

JERUSALEM: Israel will never agree to limit its construction activity in annexed east Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. “One thing should be clear: we will never accept the definition of building in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem as settlement activity,” he said at

Authorities in Makkah have thwarted plans for a beauty pageant in the holy city, citing the Shariah law that prohibits such a show as reason for the decision. The pageant, which was planned to take place in one of Makkah’s banquet hall palaces over a period of four consecutive days, starting next

JERUSALEM: Israel eased restrictions at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced agreement on steps to reduce tensions at the flashpoint compound. The site, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims, has been the focus of months of unrest in annexed Ara

SANAA: A powerful suicide bomb attack on Shiite militia fighters in central Yemen left dozens of people dead on Wednesday, military and tribal sources said. Wednesday’s blast hit a large gathering of Houthis at the residence of a local tribal chief in Rada, a mixed Shiite-Sunni town that has seen

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Myanmar government on Wednesday he is concerned about the welfare of the country’s Rohingya Muslims and asked officials to ensure access for UN agencies delivering humanitarian assistance to them. Ban, in Myanmar to attend summits of t

JERUSALEM: Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian during clashes on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, a day after Palestinian assailants fatally stabbed an Israeli soldier and a woman in attacks that raised fears of a new uprising. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said the violence was not or

JERUSALEM: Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday publicly challenged Israeli Arabs protesting against a deadly police shooting in one of their villages to go and live in the West Bank and Gaza. Ahmed Tibi, a prominent Arab legislator, said the comments showed the Likud leader had “gone off the rai

BERLIN: As Germany celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Sunday, Elke Rosin recalled how lucky her family had been. Her pet parakeet and a few personal belongings were all that Rosin managed to grab before her family fled from East to West Berlin 53 years ago. Hours af

GAZA CITY: The European Union’s new foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Saturday appealed for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying the world “cannot afford” another war in Gaza. “We need a Palestinian state — that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the Europe

The International Union of Muslim Scholars urged all Muslims to mobilise to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque and preserve it. In a statement issued yesterday signed by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Chairman of the Union and the General Secretary Ali Al-Qarra Daghi, the group warned against compromising, violating, br

JERUSALEM/GAZA: Palestinian protesters fought with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Friday, the latest clashes in a fortnight of violence over access to Jerusalem’s holiest site. At the Qalandia checkpoint separating Ramallah from Jerusalem, troops fired rubbe

CAIRO: A bomb on a train in Egypt killed four people including two policemen, officials said Thursday, while blasts in the Cairo metro and near a presidential palace wounded several others. The makeshift bomb exploded in a carriage late on Wednesday as policemen inspected it after the train stopp

Jordan has recalled its ambassador to Israel and moved to lodge a complaint at the United Nations amid attacks by Israeli troops on Palestinians at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem). On Wednesday, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur asked Foreign Minister Nasser Jud

COPENHAGEN: Governments can keep climate change in check at manageable costs but will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2100 to limit fast-worsening risks, a UN report showed. The 40-page synthesis, summing up 5,000 pages of work by 800 scientists already published since September 2

An Israeli activist group says the Tel Aviv regime has approved the construction of 500 new illegal settler units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), despite mounting international criticism of its expansionist policies. Peace Now said the Israeli Interior Ministry gave the go-ahead on Monday for the ne

GAZA CITY: The Hamas militant group says it opposes a UN reconstruction plan for the Gaza Strip following a 50-day war against Israel this summer. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Sunday called the UN mechanism “unacceptable, inefficient.” The UN announced the plan in September, creating a sy

DHAKA: A media tycoon who is a key figure in Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party was sentenced to death Sunday for war crimes, just days after its leader was ordered to hang for similar offenses. A war crimes court found wealthy businessman Mir Quasem Ali, an official of the Jamaat-e-Islami party,