A Turkish court ordered the arrest of journalist Mustafa Balbay for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
A Lebanese judge granted bail to three men suspected in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri—days before the planned start-up of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
A prominent Kurdish lawmaker gave a speech in his native Kurdish in Turkey’s Parliament—in defiance of the law. Turkey’s state TV network cut off the live broadcast of the official, Ahmet Turk.
As a terror attack shakes Cairo, a founder of Egypt’s Islamist movement, Sayyid Imam “Dr. Fadl” al-Sharif, has released a prison memoir harshly critical of al-Qaeda and its emulators.
Following a wave of attacks in the wake of Israel’s Gaza aggression, the Jewish Agency is working to evacuate Yemen’s remaining 280 Jews for resettlement in Israel.
Egyptian authorities freed dissident Ayman Nour, whose three years of imprisonment were a source of tension with Washington. But blogger and Gaza solidarity activist Diaa Eddin Gad remains incommunicado.
Police clashed with protesters in several Turkish cities as Kurds marched in defiance of a ban to mark the 10th anniversary of the capture of a Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the separatist PKK.
Yemen’s government denied reports that it released a large group of al-Qaeda suspects from prison—after the country’s al-Qaeda franchise announced a new leadership including ex-Gitmo detainees.
Egyptian blogger Philip Rizk, detained after a rally for Gaza, was released following an international online campaign. But Diaa Eddin Gad, a blogger arrested the same day, remains in detention.
A disturbing report from the Assyrian Policy Institute provides details on an incident in the northern Syrian town of Qamishli in which Kurdish militia fighters supposedly opened fire during a protest by local Assyrian Christians. The incident began when militia forces attempted to carry out an order by Rojava regional authorities to close Assyrian parochial schools in the town following their refusal to accept a new curriculum that school administrators said emphasized Kurdish nationalism. It ended when militiamen fired in the air to disperse the protesters who gathered at the scene. (Image: Assyrian Policy Institute)
A UN human rights panel suggests that parties to the conflict in Yemen have been perpetuating crimes under international law. The Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the country, and examine all possible war crimes since the war began in September 2014. The report concluded that air-strikes carried out by Yemen's government and its coalition, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have caused a majority of the civilian casualties. Other violations included persistent sexual violence and enlistment of young children into the armed forces of both sides in the war, which pits the government and its allies against the Houthi rebel forces. (Photo via Wikipedia)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a cybersecurity law that gives the government broad authority to block websites deemed to constitute a threat to national security or the economy, imposing prison terms for anyone found guilty of running or just visiting such sites. Amnesty International described the new law as giving "the state near-total control over print, online and broadcast media." More than 500 websites had already been blocked in Egypt prior to the new law being signed. There is another cybersecurity law before the president, which would places all Twitter accounts with more than 5,000 followers under government supervision. With street protests in Egypt all but banned, the Internet has been one of the last spaces left for dissent. (Photo: Egypt Daily News)
