BEIRUT (AA) – Lebanon’s prime minister announced Monday that he would not seek re-election in parliamentary polls scheduled for May 15. “I believe in the inevitability of change and the need to make room for the new generation to have its say through the upcoming parliamentary elections. I announce my decision to refrain from running,” [&helli...
PARIS (AA) – France has shut down a mosque for a six-month period amid an ongoing drive against Muslims and their places of worship. The Al-Farouk Mosque in Pessac district near the city of Bordeaux in southwestern France was closed for allegedly defending “radical Islam” and “spreading Salafist ideology,” the Gironde governo...
ERBIL, Iraq (AA) – Northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) summoned Iran’s consul general in Erbil early Tuesday over an Iranian missile attack on the city. “The reactions of the KRG and the people of Kurdistan regarding the attack, which sparked concern among the public, were conveyed to Nasrullah Rashnudi,” the KRG’s De...
CHRISTCHURCH – AA: One survivor of the attack on a mosque in New Zealand is on a journey for peace, walking the literal path of the killer, for closure. Temel Atacocugu, a Turkish man living in New Zealand for the past 13 years, was shot nine times at the Al Noor Mosque. He’s had so […]
ANKARA (AA) – Ukraine said Sunday that the Russian army has suffered substantial material losses since launching the war on Feb. 24. “The total combat losses of the enemy from Feb. 24 to March 13 are approximately as follows: more than 12,000 soldiers, 374 tanks and 1,226 armored combat vehicles,” the General Staff of the […...
GENEVA (AA) – A “worst-case scenario” awaits hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol facing starvation or death unless a concrete humanitarian agreement is reached urgently, the Red Cross said on Sunday. “Hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents are now facing extreme or total ...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Yemen on Sunday condemned “in strongest terms” the attack against the Turkish Martyrs’ Memorial carried out by Houthi elements in the capital Sanaa. In a statement, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry said the action cannot harm the “fraternal relations between the brotherly countries of Yemen and Turkey.” On Saturday morning, Ho...
TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Iran strongly condemned Saudi Arabia’s mass execution of convicted criminals over the weekend, saying the move violates “basic principles of human rights and international law.” Saudi Arabia announced the execution of 81 people — the largest mass execution in the country’s history — accusing th...
KYIV, Ukraine (AA) – Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss discussed the imposition of sanctions on Russia on Monday. “Call with @trussliz on next steps to apply more sanctions on Russia,” Kuleba said on Twitter. “Pressure must increase until Russia ceases its meaningless aggre...
ANTALYA, Turkiye (AA) – Europe should have the capacity to cope with the difficulties it faces on its own, the European Union’s foreign policy chief has said. “NATO is and will remain the way of ensuring territorial defense in Europe for all European member states. But at the same time, our union and treaties say […]
