Category: 2. Middle East

The head of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces admitted in a speech to fighters on Sunday that the group had withdrawn from the capital Khartoum which rival army forces have retaken.

The comment from RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo came three days after the group said there would be “no retreat and no surrender” and that its forces had “repositioned”, despite the army’s declaration on Thursday that the capital was “free” of the paramilitaries after nearly two years of war.

“I…

The head of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces admitted in a speech to fighters on Sunday that the group had withdrawn from the capital Khartoum which rival army forces have retaken.

The comment from RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo came three days after the group said there would be “no retreat and no surrender” and that its forces had “repositioned”, despite the army’s declaration on Thursday that “the last pockets” of the RSF had been eliminated from Khartoum after nearly two…

Iranian police have dispersed a weeks-long sit-in by demonstrators supporting the mandatory head covering for women, state media reported, after authorities deemed the gathering illegal.

The demonstrators — largely women in black full-body robes — staged the sit-in since last month outside the parliament building in Tehran.

Since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, women have been required to conceal their hair in public. However, increasing numbers, particularly in major cities including the…

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday announced a new transitional government dominated by close allies and including one woman, replacing caretaker authorities in place since the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

The announcement, initially scheduled for earlier this month, comes amid international calls for an inclusive Syrian transition following recent sectarian bloodshed, as the country’s new leaders seek to reunite and rebuild Syria and its institutions after…

A top Hamas official said on Saturday the group approved a new Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by mediators, urging Israel to back it but warning the Iran-backed group’s weapons were a “red line”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had also received a proposal from the mediators and had submitted a counter-proposal in response.

“Two days ago, we received a proposal from the mediating brothers in Egypt and Qatar. We dealt with it positively and approved it. We hope that…

US government lawyers pushed Friday for the case of a pro-Palestinian protest leader slated for deportation to be moved to a Louisiana court thought to be sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.

Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil — a prominent face of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel’s war in Gaza — was arrested and taken to Louisiana earlier this month, sparking protests.

Several other foreign student protesters have…

Marwa fled Taliban rule in Afghanistan because she wanted to study, work, wear jeans and go to the park without a male chaperone.

Now she is under lock and key in Costa Rica, along with hundreds of other migrants expelled by the United States to third countries in Central America.

Costa Rica is one of three Central American countries, along with Panama and Guatemala, that have agreed to receive migrants from other countries and to detain them until they are sent to their home nations or other…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences apologized Friday for failing to defend an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker who said he was attacked by Israeli settlers.

The group, which hosts and awards the Oscars each year, wrote to members after movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere had slammed its initially muted response to the incident.

The Academy “condemns violence of this kind anywhere in the world” and its leaders “abhor the suppression of free…

Movie stars including Joaquin Phoenix, Penelope Cruz and Richard Gere have blasted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for failing to defend an Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker who said he was attacked by Israeli settlers.

Hamdan Ballal co-directed “No Other Land,” which won best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards. This week, he said he had been assaulted by settlers and detained at gunpoint by soldiers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Unlike multiple other prominent…