Arab world

    Saudi Arabia is to issue electronic bracelets to pilgrims travelling to Mecca for this year's Hajj, the world's largest Islamic gathering. It follows a stampede last year in which more than 750 people are believed to have died, with 900 injured. The bracelets will contain personal and medical information to help authorities care for and identify people, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Nearly 1,000 new surveillance cameras have also been installed. The ID bracelets will contain crucial information such as passport numbers and addresses but will also offer information to worshippers, such as timings of prayers and a multi-lingual help desk to guide non-Arabic speakers around the event. They will be water-resistant and connected to GPS. The information can be accessed by...

    After 6 years where there has been a serious crisis in diplomatic relations, the Turkish and Israeli Foreign Ministries signed the reconciliation agreement. Tomorrow, the cabinet is expected to approve the agreement. This morning, the Turkish and Israeli Foreign Ministries signed the Reconciliation Agreement that will bring about an end to the serious diplomatic crisis that has existed between the two countries since the Mavi Marmara raid in 2010. Tomorrow, the cabinet is expected to approve the deal. “At this good hour, Dr. Dore Gold of the Israeli Foreign Ministry signed the agreement with Turkey,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman stated and a similar announcement was made by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

    The Turkish Foreign Minister stated today that Ankara will not back down from its demand to lift the blockade on Gaza. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu declared today (Thursday) that his country will not back down from the condition it set for the signing of an reconciliation agreement- the lifting of the siege on Gaza. Despite the talks between the Turkish and Israeli sources, Cavusoglu clarified that the lifting of the blockade is a necessary condition for normalizing the relations between the two countries. Cavusoglu’s statement comes after it was reported by Turkish news agencies that the two sides have reached a compromise, according to which Israel will allow Turkish aid for building hospitals and restoring infrastructures into the Gaza Strip. It was also re...

    The Israeli Air Force (IAF) will receive its first F-35 stealth jet from the US today. The official ceremony will take place in Texas, where the plane was manufactured. All 33 F-35 planes purchased by Israel are expected to be delivered by 2021. Today (Wednesday), Israel will receive its first F-35 stealth jet from the US. According to the deal between the US and Israel, the IAF is expected to receive 33 stealth fighter jets. The official ceremony will take place at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics’ headquarters in Texas. IAF representatives and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman will attend the ceremony. When the IAF receives the F-35 jet, it will become the first air force in the Middle East to possess the advanced fighter aircraft. The Defense Ministry bought 33 fifth genera...

    The Iranian Intelligence Minister announced that Sunni Muslim organizations planned to carry out several terrorist attacks throughout the country during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. According to the reports, the Iranian authorities discovered a large amount of bombs and explosive devices after they arrested the suspects. Iran announced today (Monday) that it thwarted a series of terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings and explosions. According to the reports, the attacks were set to take place in Tehran and several other cities in the coming days. The Iranian Intelligence Ministry claimed today that it exposed “the biggest terrorist plot of Sunni Muslim militants against the Shi’ite Islamic Republic.” “In a criminal plot of the anti-Islamic terrorist takfiri [M...

    Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the government compound in Fallujah on Friday, top commanders said, a breakthrough in the nearly four-week-old offensive against the Islamic State group's bastion. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi went on state television to announce that his forces were in control of the city except for a few small pockets of jihadists. They met limited resistance from IS fighters, who were fleeing the city, the commanders told AFP, leaving the organisation on the brink of losing one of the most emblematic strongholds in its two-year-old "caliphate". It is the latest setback for the jihadists who have also lost territory in neighbouring Syria and in Libya in recent weeks. "We promised you the liberation of Fallujah and we retook it. Our security fo...

    It’s been an incredibly tough week for the LGBT community after the horrific murder of 49 people at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. While the rest of the world mourned the vile attacks, ISIS celebrated. The organisation’s homophobia is well documented – it’s outlawed, punishable by death and there are grim videos of ISIS members publicly executing LGBT people. So in a small, moral victory for the good guys, hacktivist collective, Anonymous, has infiltrated hundreds of pro-ISIS twitter accounts and given them a wonderfully gay makeover. This is by far my favourite. 10/10. A hacker by the name of WauchulaGhost has been responsible for the majority of the attacks. For instance, he broke into ISIS account, @gi_h_a_d35, changed his profile picture to a gay flag and tweeted out this...

    The son of the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia has won an appeal against a multi-million-pound award handed to his father's secret wife. Palestinian-born Janan Harb, won a package of cash and property worth more than £20m last November. Judge Peter Smith, sitting at London's High Court, accepted her assertions that Prince Abdul Aziz, had agreed to the huge payout. But lawyers for the prince later asked Court of Appeal judges to quash the unsustainable award. On Thursday, Lord John Dyson and Lord Justices Martin Moore-Bick and Andrew McFarlane announced that they were allowing the prince's appeal. They said Ms Harb's claim against the prince would now have to be retried before a different High Court judge. Ms Harb said the prince entered into the agreement to “buy her sile...

    Tens of thousands of Palestinians are left without access to safe drinking water during the Islamic holy month. A Ramadan during a hot summer month is complicated for Muslims anywhere in the world, but moreso in the occupied West Bank, as the Israeli state-owned water company has been cutting water supplies to major areas of Palestinian territory since before Ramadan, and are picking up the pace. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank now have no running water, and some are reporting that they haven’t had any running water for more than 40 days, and locals have had to rely on groundwater and the like to survive. The growing cuts come even though Israeli officials claim to have “solved” their water problems a month ago, and have been bragging up their ability to...

    Farrokh Sekaleshfar preached in Orlando in March but no evidence he influenced Omar Mateen who killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando Farrokh Sekaleshfar, a British-born doctor and senior Shi'ite Muslim scholar, arrives at the Imam Husain Islamic Centre in Sydney, Australia, June 14, 2016 Reuters Australia is urgently reviewing the visa of a British Islamic scholar who toured Orlando in March and had preached that “death is the sentence for homosexual acts. Farrokh Sekaleshfar, a senior Shi'ite Muslim scholar, is currently giving a series of lectures at an Islamic centre in Sydney on the topic of spirituality throughout the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Sekaleshfar said in a lecture in Michigan in 2013 that in an Islamic society, the death penalty should be carrie...