Greater Middle East
Syria: Alawites clash with regime, Iran troops
Syrian regime forces backed by Iranian troops clashed with residents of two Alawite villages outside Hama following a wave of mass arrests in the area.
Author: Bill Weinberg
Europe
Srebrenica at 20: ‘door open for a new war’?
The 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre comes just as Russia vetoed a UN resolution to designate the massacre an act of "genocide"—leading to new violence in Bosnia.
Afghanistan
Chinese mine threatens Afghan Buddhist site
Archaeologists are racing against time to salvage artifacts from the 5,000-year-old Mes Aynak site in Afghanistan's Logar province before it is destroyed by an open-pit copper mine.
Greater Middle East
Israel Lobby schmoozes Sisi —Assad next?
Egypt's dictatorial President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a delegation from the American Jewish Committee to discuss ways to "defeat terrorism" in the region.
Iraq
Spanish anti-ISIS volunteers face ‘terror’ charges
Two Spanish volunteers who went to Iraq to fight ISIS in an "International Brigade" were arrested upon their return and face charges of membership in a "terrorist organization."
Southeast Asia
Vietnam tilts to US in Pacific ‘Great Game’
Vietnam's paramount leader Nguyen Phu Trong meets with Obama at the White House, as the US and China play a dangerous game of chicken over disputed islands.
Iraq
Obama disses Kurdish ‘partners’ against ISIS
Obama's Pentagon speech on his strategy against ISIS boasted of "effective partners on the ground"—but pointedly made no actual reference to the Rojava Kurds.
Europe
Spain: some justice for Jews; Moors have to wait
A new law allows for the return of Jews descended from those expelled from Spain in 1492, but no such effort is being made for descendants of the Moors exiled that year.
North America
Gullah nation hit hard by Charleston massacre
Some of those slain at Charleston's Mother Emanuel church were members of the Gullah people, a "nation within a nation" that preserves West African cultural traditions.
North America
From Charleston to Rhodesia…
The Charleston massacre suspect's Facebook photo shows him with the flags of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia—as the Confederate flag flies at South Carolina's statehouse.
Greater Middle East
Kurds punished for success against ISIS
As Syrian Kurdish forces advance towards Raqqa, the ISIS capital, Turkish state media have launched a campaign charging them with ethnic cleansing of Arabs in seized territory.
Iran
Iran: artist gets 12 years for political cartoon
Iranian artist Atena Farghadani was sentenced to 12 years for a cartoon that satirized parliamentarians who voted for a law that restricts women's access to contraception.