Special to WorldTribune.com Sinking oil prices are weighing heavily on Mideast economies. In Saudi Arabia, the construction sector has been hit hard by low oil prices as several firms with government contracts are failing to make payroll. The Riyadh government has significantly cut spending on building projects as it seeks to reduce a budget deficit […]
Special to WorldTribune.com A delegation of American Jewish leaders met with Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi on Feb. 11 to discuss Cairo’s security cooperation with Israel and U.S.-Egypt relations. The meetings between Sisi as well as other Egyptian officials, and 36 members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations was described as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com The U.S. and Russia have traded accusations over recent airstrikes in Aleppo, Syria. After the U.S. said Russian warplanes destroyed two hospitals in the besieged city, Moscow responded by claiming U.S. warplanes bombed Aleppo on Feb. 10, an accusation the Pentagon said was a total “fabrication.” “Just before 2 p.m. Moscow time […]
Special to WorldTribune.com At least 58 people were killed when a pair of Boko Haram female suicide bombers disguised as refugees blew themselves up at a camp in northeastern Nigeria. Relief officials in Nigeria’s Borno state said dozens of others were spared when a third bomber refused to detonate her explosives when she discovered that […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Kurdish forces have seized a key strategic airbase in Syria’s Aleppo province. Backed by Arab rebel allies, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) drove Islamists and other rebel fighters from the Minnigh air base and the adjacent town, which are located north of Syria’s second city Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human […]
Special to WorldTribune.com The United Arab Emirates has named an official “Minister of Happiness” who will be tasked with creating “social good and satisfaction.” UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid appointed Ohood Al Roumi to the post as he announced his new Cabinet on Feb. 10. Al Roumi is one of eight women in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Iranian authorities have blocked a smartphone app that tracked the positions of the “morality police” in Teheran. The Gershad app was launched to give young Iranians a heads up on the whereabouts of the country’s Gast-e-Ershad (“morality police”) patrols. The creators of the app said its server was “inundated” with requests soon […]
Special to WorldTribune.com North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un continued his series of purges as army chief of staff Ri Yong-Gil was executed, according to a report on Feb. 10. Ri, who was chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Staff, was executed earlier this month “for corruption and factional conspiracy,” Yonhap and other South […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Recently released statistics detail the grim toll of Syria’s civil war: more than 10 percent of the country’s population has either been killed or injured in the past five years. Life expectancy has dropped from 70 to 55. Statistics generated by the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) found that more than […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is likely to attempt “direct attacks on the U.S. homeland” this year, top intelligence officials told Congress on Feb. 9. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, said ISIL is hiding jihadists among the wave of refugees […]
