Arab world

    A prisoner who identified himself as Magomed Khasiev, a Russian national in this still image taken from an undated video in an unknown location. The video released online by Islamic State on December 2, 2015, purportedly showed the… In the video, a man in an orange jump suit kneels beside a lake in Syria and confesses in Russian to spying on Islamic State militants. Another Russian speaker, this one in camouflage fatigues, then uses a hunting knife to hack off the kneeling man's head. When Islamic State posted this footage online on Dec. 2, it brought the distant Syria conflict home to ordinary Russians. Here, in high-definition video, appeared to be one young Russian killing another for reasons few people could understand. It also opened up another mystery. The prisoner a...

    Saudi women waiting for their drivers outside a shopping mall in Riyadh (Picture: [copyright]) Male shoppers complained about being cat-called and followed by women, with most of the complains relating to verbal harassment, the Saudi Gazette reports. The centre's security department says CCTV footage supports the men's claims. The videos have been handed over to the police for further investigation. The newspaper suggests the men did not file formal complains because they feared "social stigmatisation". Women caught on camera molesting men at Saudi mall as cameras reveal 16 harassment cases - Naughty, naughty — تلهوه المسعري (@tlahoahalms3re6) December 28, 2015 Men interviewed by the paper suggested the solution was to enforce even stricter punishments and restrictions aga...

    Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday denied its naval forces had test-fired rockets close to a US aircraft carrier in the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. "The Guards' naval force had no exercise in the past week when the Americans claim that a missile or rocket was fired in the Hormuz Strait area," spokesman General Ramezan Sharif said on the Guards' official website. The Guards naval unit is responsible for securing Iranian interests in the Strait, where it regularly pa-trols the area and conducts exercises.

    At least 31 people have died and 107 been injured in a fire at a hospital in southern Saudi Arabia. The blaze broke out at the intensive care unit and the maternity department of the Jazan general hospi-tal in southern Saudi Arabia, the civil defence agency said on Twitter. The agency said later that the fire had been extinguished and an investigation was under way into the cause. Twenty-one civil defence teams had assisted in putting out the blaze, it added.Daily newspaper Alriyadh quoted a civil defence spokesman as saying the agency was alerted to the fire at 2am. In August, 10 people were killed and 259 wounded in a fire at a residential complex rented by oil giant Saudi Aramco in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. That fire was ignited by an electric short circuit in the...

    ISIS has been able to do what other Islamic terrorist organisations hasn't been able to do — rapidly grow its territory and conduct mass operations overseas because of an abundance of funding and a self-sufficient economy. However, the latest report by the Financial Times suggests that the ISIS self-declared "caliphate" is slowly being eroded by high levels of financial corruption among its officials, commanders and fighters. ISIS (also known as ISIL, Islamic State, and Daesh) has grown so rapidly that officials are unable to do due diligence on paperwork and verify what ISIS officials and commanders are claiming for. For example, the FT said an emir known as Abu Fatima al-Tunisi ran off with some $25,000 (£16,774) worth of "zakat" (taxes), leaving a message to former ISIS...

    Saudi Arabia is believed to be on the brink of executing a teenage boy who was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest. Campaign group Reprieve told The Independent Abdullah al-Zaher, who is now 19, was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row as part of a ruthless crackdown on political dissent in the conservative kingdom. Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment. In a last-ditch attempt to save their son’s life – and in spite of the danger of repercussions from the Saudi authorities – Abdullah’s parents have gone public with his story. Speaking to the Guardian, his fat...

    Saudi Arabia says a coalition of 34 Islamic nations has been formed to fight "any terrorist group". Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and several Gulf Arab and African states make up the coalition, a statement said. The joint statement published on state news agency SPA said: "The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations." The announcement said there was "a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organisations whatever their sect and name which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorise the innocent." Iran, a mainly Shia I...

    A Saudi woman has won a seat on a municipal court in the country's first ever elections that were open to women voters and candidates for the first time in the country’s history. Salma bint Hiab al-Oteibi won a seat in Madrakah, a region in Mecca, the official SPA news agency reporte. It fiollows the kingdom's decision earlier this year to lift its ban on women voters. Ms Oteibi ran against two other women and seven men, the president of the election commission, Osama al-Bar, confirmed. According to Saudi’s electoral commission, a total of 978 women registered as candidates, as well as 5,938 men. It is also believed that 1.35 million men registered to vote, compared to 130,000 women. The lack of female voters was attributed partly due to a lack of transport, as women are s...

    Islamic State (Isis) supporters have reportedly released the personal information of some 160 US military personnel in response to Anonymous's cyber campaign against the group. Social media accounts tied to the pro-IS (Daesh) hacking group, Cyber Caliphate, leaked names and addresses of enlisted US Army and Marines on 11 December and claimed to possess information on 700 more military personnel, the Maryland-based SITE Intelligence Group reported. It came on a day that Anonymous, a loose international coalition of hackers and activists, had designated an online "trolling day" against the Islamist fundamentalist group. Social media users were encouraged to spam Twitter accounts belonging to IS sympathisers with images of goats. Anonymous declared "war" on IS in the wake of ...

    Women in Saudi Arabia are finally being allowed to vote - despite still being unable to do basic things like drive or open a bank account without a husband's permission. While restriction remains extremely tight on what women can and cannot do, Saturday’s poll will see more than 130,000 women cast their vote - compared with 1.35 million men. Saudi Arabia was the last country in the world where only men were allowed to vote before today’s historic poll. Some 980 women and 5,000 men are running for seats on municipal councils around the country (the only publicly elected seats). These councils control things such as rubbish collection and street cleaning. Not many women are expected to win seats because of the sheer number of male candidates and because many had no previous ...