ARBIL: Dozens of Kurdish peshmerga fighters left a base in northern Iraq on Tuesday headed for the battleground Syrian town of Kobani, an AFP journalist reported. The town on the Turkish border has become a crucial front in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, which overran large parts

Jeddah: The Council of Ministers on Monday slammed Israel’s plans to Judaize the Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying it was a flagrant violation of international law. Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, chaired the meeting in Riyadh. The Cabinet said the Arab League had warned of the

JERUSALEM: Tension soared in east Jerusalem Sunday as stone-throwing Palestinians and police clashed ahead of a funeral for a Palestinian man who was shot dead by police as he fled on foot from what Israeli authorities branded a “terror attack.” Palestinian political groups called for a march fro

CAIRO: A state of emergency came into force Saturday across much of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after 30 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing by suspected militants. It was the deadliest attack on the country’s security forces since the army deposed Islamist president Muhammad Mursi last yea

LOS ANGELES: A US student who had issued chilling warnings on Twitter opened fire in a school cafeteria on Friday, killing at least one person and critically injuring three before taking his own life. Terrified classmates dived for cover as the gunman, identified by media reports and fellow stude

NEW YORK: A doctor who recently returned to New York from treating Ebola patients in Guinea tested positive for the deadly virus on Thursday, the first confirmed case in the United States’ largest city. The doctor, Craig Spencer, was placed in isolation at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center e

Member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have condemned the continued attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and worshippers by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers, SPA said. Addressing a UN Security Council meeting, Saudi envoy at the UN Abdullah Yahya Al-Malami, speaking o

Masbate City: Leriza braves the darkness just before dawn to walk 2km downhill from her home in the uplands of Palanas in Masbate to school every day. Leriza is just six years old. Boulders line the path and her teachers described the path as “dangerous” for children of her age. It’s a gruellin

There are about 805 million people around the world who do not have enough to eat on a daily basis, a local academic said here Thursday, as the world marked World Food Day. Mirza Baig, a Canadian professor at King Saud University's (KSU) college of food and agricultural sciences, said more needs to

UNITED NATIONS: More than 1.2 billion people are living on less than $1.25 a day and 2.4 billion are living on less than $2 a day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Friday. He told the UN observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty that at least 700 million people were

NO ACCESS: Israeli security forces stand in front of a Palestinian worshipper performing Friday prayers in a street outside the Old City in east Jerusalem on Friday. (AFP) GAZA CITY: Hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza participated in a Hamas-organized rally Friday over Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqs

Cairo: An Egyptian court Thursday cleared 141 backers of the deposed president Mohammad Mursi of violence charges in a rare verdict involving Muslim Brotherhood, according to judicial sources. The Criminal Court in the southern city of Assiut convicted 26 other defendants in the same case of in

Katmandu: A snowstorm and avalanche in Nepal’s Himalayas has killed 17 trekkers and guides — nine foreigners and eight Nepalis — on a popular hiking route, while more than 100 others remain out of contact, officials said Wednesday. Severe weather triggered by the tail end of Cyclone Hudhud, which

WASHINGTON: US-led aircraft hammered Islamic State fighters with 21 bombing raids near Kobani on Monday and Tuesday amid signs the strikes had “slowed” the group’s advance on the Syrian border town, the American military said. In one of the heaviest bombardments so far against the encircling Koba

JEDDAH: Jewish settlements around Al-Aqsa Mosque are growing rapidly leading to the eviction of Palestinians from their native land, said Yousuf Juma Salama, imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, while talking to Malayalam News, a sister publication of Arab News. Salama, who was in Makkah to perform Haj as a g

CAIRO: Donors at an international conference Sunday promised $2.7 billion to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, but all of the key participants said their efforts would be futile without a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians. US-mediated talks broke down this summer before the 50

CAIRO: An Egyptian court Saturday jailed eight men, including two Muslim Brotherhood leaders, for up to 15 years over the torture of a lawyer during the 2011 uprising against ex-president Hosni Mubarak, judicial sources said. Thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members and supporters have been jailed

GENEVA: More than 4,000 people have died in the Ebola epidemic that broke out in west Africa at the start of the year, according to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization on Friday. The WHO said that as of October 8, 4,033 people have died from Ebola out of a total of 8,399