Arab world

    A total of 257 people have been killed after an Algerian military plane crashed near the country's capital. The cause was unclear and an investigation has been launched, the country's defence ministry said in a statement. It added that ten crew members and 247 passengers mostly soldiers and their relatives died in the crash. The jet came down in farmland close to Boufarik airport near Algiers and emergency services have been sent to the crash site. Black smoke could be seen rising near a motorway in footage broadcast on Algerian television, with a crowd of officials also visible in a field next to the crash site. The tail fin of a plane could also be seen above olive trees, with smoke and flames billowing from the wreckage. The country's state news agency said th...

    Two men accused of being members of the Islamic State Beatles cell have told Sky News there will be more IS-inspired attacks in Europe. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who were captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) earlier this year, issued the warning in a Sky News interview. They said they did not die on the battlefield because God decreed it was not their destiny. The men, both from west London, did not deny being members of the four man British IS cell, and seemed unrepentant. Speaking to Sky News at a detention facility in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria, they said they would wait for a court to prove they were directly part of the group that held 20 hostages and oversaw the beheading of seven. They did not specifically condemn te...

    An alleged chemical attack reportedly killed scores of civilians, including children, in Syria on Saturday, with the US describing the reports as horrifying. A Syrian rebel group accused government forces of dropping a barrel bomb containing poisonous chemicals on civilians in eastern Ghouta, with one rescue group reporting more than 150 deaths. Syrian state media denied government forces had launched any chemical attack and said rebels in the eastern Ghouta town of Douma were in a state of collapse and spreading false news. On Saturday evening, the US State Department said the reports of mass casualties were "horrifying" and would demand an international response if confirmed, laying some of the blame with Russia. One video shows the lifeless bodies of around a d...

    A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa Two British Isis fighters dubbed the Beatles linked to string of brutal killings have attacked the Government after being stripped of their UK citizenship. In an astonishing interview from their cell in Syria, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh described the execution of hostages as regrettable. Their capture sparked a row over whether they should be returned to the UK for trial or tried where their alleged crimes were committed. Elsheikh told AP the illegal revocation of the pair's citizenship exposes them to rendition and torture. When you have these two guys who don't even have any citizenship... if we just disappear one day, where is my mum going to go and say where is my son. He added they could also ...

    A Russian transport plane crashed in Syria on Tuesday, killing all 32 people on board, Russian news agencies cited the Russian Defence Ministry as saying. The ministry was cited as saying that the plane crashed at Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Latakia Province and that initial information suggested the crash may have been caused by a technical fault. It was quoted as saying that 26 passengers and six crew members were on board.

    A picture of four women wearing hijab, sitting cross-legged and playing a board game at Kaaba in Mecca has gone viral and triggered a buzz on social media. Gulf Newsquotes a report from Saudi daily Okaz and states, ‘The women were spotted at around 11 pm on Friday playing the board game Sequence at the western square near King Abdul Aziz Gate. After that, the officials in the operation room were informed and the women’s section at the General Presidency was entrusted with the task of dealing with them. Supervisors went up to the four women and requested the women to respect the sanctity of the mosque and stop their game, reports the Indian Express. The women complied and left,’ the report stated.  The General Presidency for the Holy Mosque in Makkah and the Prophe...

    A plane has crashed in southern Iran with 66 people on board, according to a spokesman for Aseman Airlines. The 24-year-old ATR-72, a twin-engine turboprop, left the Iranian capital Tehran at around 8am local time and crashed about an hour later. The plane went down near the remote mountain town of Semirom, about 390 miles south of Tehran. It had been heading to the southern city of Yasuj, in Isfahan province. Aseman Airlines spokesman Mohammad Taghi Tabatabai said there had been 60 passengers on board, including one child, and six crew. He added: After searches in the area, unfortunately we were informed that the plane crashed. "Unfortunately, all our dear ones lost their lives in this incident. Later, however, he reportedly told ISNA news agency: Given the sp...

    A judge’s punishment meted to three men who insulted the Virgin Mary went viral on Lebanese social media earlier this week. Instead of slapping them with jail time or a fine, Tripoli judge Jocelyn Matta ordered the three men to memorise verses from the Holy Qur’an’s Surat Al-Omran, which glorifies the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ, reports the Arab News. The sentence sent shockwaves across Twitter in Lebanon, and even caught the attention of Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri. The PM tweeted: A salute to judge of investigations in North of Lebanon chief Jocelyn Matta. Her ruling against the three young men in Virgin Mary’s case, and sentencing them to memorize the Holy Qur’an’s Surat Al-Omran, is the epitome of justice and promotes co-existence between Christians and Mu...

    A senior member of the top Muslim clerical body in Saudi Arabia has said women need not wear the loose-fitting, full-length robes symbolic of the Muslim faith known as the abaya. During his radio programme, Sheikh Abdullah al-Mutlaq, who is a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said Muslim women should dress modestly, but this did not mean they needed to wear the religious clothing. Saudi women are currently required to wear the garment by law. “More than 90 per cent of pious Muslim women in the Muslim world do not wear abayas,” Sheikh Mutlaq said on Friday. “So we should not force people to wear abayas.” Although, the statement does not signal a change in the law, it is the first of its kind from a senior religious figure. The move follows the recent shift ...

    Young women in Iran are part of a new generation of activists as they protest their country’s restrictive dress code. Following the example of one woman who became a symbol of popular protest in December, Iranian women now are standing on telecoms boxes and removing their headscarves. At least six images of women removing their hijabs in public appeared across social media Monday. A hashtag about women’s role in social change, roughly translating to #GirlsofRevolutionStreet, was also trending on Iranian Twitter. The images are part of the social movement called White Wednesdays, in which women post pictures of themselves on social media wearing white headscarves or pieces of white clothing in protest. Some Iran experts said that the protests have succeeded in pres...