News and analysis

NEW DELHI: What appeared to be a peaceful protest by Shia protesters at the Ghazipur border on Tuesday turned into a traffic nightmare at night. Protesters went on the rampage at the Mayur Vihar intersection after police detained senior Shia cleric ‘Maulana Syed Kalbe Jawad’, along with 500 protesters. This …

Young UAE women have hit out at controversial comments encouraging Emirati men to take more than one wife. Federal National Council (FNC) member Ahmad Al Amash said earlier this week, during governmental discussions, that the reluctance of Emirati men to take a second wife was creating “a financial burden on the country”. …

Cairo: Egyptian security forces continue to chase armed groups active in the country. The confrontation does not seem it will come to end soon, with the information unfolding daily to security agencies about plans by those group to destabilize Egypt. Security sources revealed  “intelligence and security agencies succeeded in monitoring …

MANAMA, Bahrain: Bahrain’s interior ministry says a homemade bomb has exploded just outside the capital, Manama, wounding a policeman. The ministry says the blast happened Friday in the village of Daih. The same area was the scene of a bomb attack in March that killed three policemen. An investigation into …

At least 24 people have been killed and dozens others wounded in a bomb attack in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, officials say. The explosion took place on Wednesday morning in a busy fruit and vegetable market. “We have received 15 dead bodies and 35 injured people,” said Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences …

Malaysia has a serious human rights problem, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), which released a 100+ page report entitled “No Answers, No Apologies” detailing abuses by Malaysian authorities. The report comes on the heels of accounts that Malaysia arrested infants from the country’s minority Shia Muslim sect, based upon the “crime” …

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that the Syrian regime is no longer in danger of being toppled by rebels, adding that the world wants to see a diplomatic solution to the country’s ongoing crisis. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said that rebels taking over the country is no longer an option, …

A high-ranking Omani official has praised Iran’s prominent role in the evolution of jurisprudential issues. Speaking on the sidelines of the 13th Meeting of Development of Jurisprudential Sciences in the Omani capital Muscat on Sunday, Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah said Iran’s involvement in ideological and religious …

CAIRO, Egypt — Since when does the British government take orders from Saudi Arabia? That’s the question raised by a seemingly dry news story out of the UK this past week. The story, which emerged Tuesday, was that UK Prime Minister David Cameron recently ordered an inquiry into the links between …

Drive north from the capital, and you soon discover why relief workers call the Central African Republic a post-apocalyptic country. After a year of mass murder, the villages are abandoned and the roads eerily empty and desolate. The checkpoints are controlled by cold-eyed men from largely Christian militias who brandish …