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Business
Tunisia’s political transition examined internationally
Tunisia continues to take steps to fulfill its commitments under its ground-breaking Transitional Justice Law and realize the goals of the 2011 revolution. The 12-page paper issued by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Tunisia in Transition: One Year After the Creation of the Truth and Dignity Commission, examines…
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West Asia
EU leaders duck responsibilities on refugees
European Union leaders meeting on September 23, 2015, focused on how to stem the flow of asylum seekers instead of strategies for a responsible, humane response to the crisis at its borders, Human Rights Watch said today. “Listening to EU leaders, you could almost be forgiven for thinking there is…
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West Asia
Tunisian student gets a year in jail for homosexuality
A Tunisian court has sentenced a student to a year behind bars on charges of homosexuality, in a judgement condemned by local rights groups, AFP reports. The youth had been detained on September 6 in the Mediterranean resort area of Sousse for questioning in connection with a murder after his telephone…
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West Asia
Hundreds killed in hajj stampede in Mecca
A stampede during one of the last rituals of the Hajj season — the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca — has killed more than 700 people and injured close to 900 others in Saudi Arabia. The stampede occurred Thursday morning during the ritual known as “stoning the devil” in a…
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East Asia
Palestinian president Abbas warns of risk of new intifada
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas warned Tuesday of the “risk of an intifada” if clashes over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound continue, after a meeting with French leader Francois Hollande in Paris, reports AFP. “What is happening is very dangerous,” Abbas said, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop” the…
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South Asia
Guantanamo Bay releases ‘Bin Laden bodyguard’
A Saudi man, Abdul Shalabi, 39, has been transferred back to Saudi Arabia after being freed from Guantanamo Bay, the Pentagon said. Shalabi is said to have once worked as a bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden Shalabi was captured by Pakistani forces in 2001 and sent to the US base in Cuba, where…
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West Asia
Yemen’s president return to Aden
Yemen’s president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi has returned to the southern city of Aden after six months in exile, his office says. A government source told the Reuters news agency Hadi would spend the festival of Eid al-Adha in Aden before flying to New York to address the UN. He fled Aden…
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West Asia
Russian-Israeli talks over Syrian situation
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to allay Israeli concerns at Russia’s military build-up in Syria. At talks in Moscow, he told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Russia’s actions in the Middle East would always be “responsible”. Netanyahu is concerned by the possibility of Israeli and Russian forces inadvertently trading…
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Culture
Grevin Museum: where wax statues come to life
At the end of the 19th Century, Arthur Meyer, a journalist and founder of the famous daily newspaper “Le Gaulois”, conceived the idea of showing his contemporaries 3D representations of the front-page celebrities in his newspaper. At a time when the press did not use photography he thought of creating…
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West Asia
British help academics escape war
A British foundation created in 1933 to help academics flee Nazi Germany started helping Syrian and Iraqi academics escape in the hope that one day they will return and rebuild. In their headquarters in London’s South Bank University, Five full-time employees helped by interns work to make it easier for refugees to…
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