News and analysis

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) – Far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said on Friday it would prevent schools from offering special lunches to Muslim pupils in the 11 towns it won in local elections, saying such arrangements were contrary to France’s secular values. France’s republic has a strict secular …

Omar Bakri Mohammad is on the run in Lebanon, officials say, after his house was raided as part of an operation to end the sectarian violence in Tripoli. The Sunni cleric is among 200 individuals wanted in connection with their alleged role in clashes that have left 30 people dead …

A training barracks used by Roman gladiators and the 2,000-year-old mausoleum of the Emperor Augustus could be restored with money from the Saudi royal family, in the latest effort by Italy to secure funding for its crumbling cultural heritage. In a deal brokered by Ignazio Marino, the mayor of Rome, …

FIFA has threatened to expel Israel over its treatment of Palestinian football players and officials in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip. The Inside World Football website said in a report on Monday that FIFA gave Israel until summer to improve playing conditions and travel for the …

Rafah, Gaza Strip – Two men load boxes onto a solitary motorcycle-pulled trailer in an otherwise deserted pavilion. The Gaza Strip’s customs and excise terminal on the southern border with Egypt, once a hive of activity, now sees barely a trickle of imports after the Egyptian military began destroying Gaza’s extensive network …

A court in Bahrain has sentenced 12 teenagers to life in prison for allegedly attempting take a police officer’s life, setting a police car ablaze and taking part in an anti-regime protest, a defense lawyer says. Other defendants were sentenced to up to 51 years in prison for similar charges …

New leaks by the US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden demonstrates that the NSA collected data on 122 world leaders in a single month. According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the intelligence database included 300 files only on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to the document, the …

NICOSIA — The Syrian Army has been working on encircling the nation’s largest city. Western diplomats said the Army, backed by Hizbullah and other Iranian proxies, was moving steadily into Aleppo. They said forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad were advancing into Aleppo from three directions and reached the …

A French Muslim man has rejected accusations by the French government that he has four wives, insisting that he has only one wife and several mistresses. A French muslim man accused by the government of practicing polygamy insisted on Monday that he had only one wife and several mistresses, and …

The spiritual leader of Malaysia’s Islamic party has urged religious scholars to practice polygamy, saying they could rid the practice of its bad reputation. Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who leads the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) which is part of the opposition alliance, said that ulamas could be model polygamous …