U.N. Aid Agencies Launch Emergency Hotline for Displaced Iraqis

In the hopes of better responding to the needs of over three million displaced Iraqis, United Nations aid agencies today launched a national hotline to provide information on emergency humanitarian services like food distribution, healthcare and shelter.

UAE Wins Hearts and Minds at World Exhibition in Milan

She only turned nine last June. But Mahra Mustafa has become a celebrity at the Expo Milan. She stars as Sara in ‘The Family Tree’, a short film on the UAE’s heritage being screened at the United Arab Emirates pavilion. Sara is in fact the face of young, dynamic and innovative Emirates.

U.S. Provides Cover for Use of Banned Weapons in Yemen

The United States is providing a thinly-veiled cover virtually legitimising the use of cluster bombs – banned by an international convention – by Saudi Arabia and its allies in their heavy fighting against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

U.N. Official Says Human Suffering in Yemen ‘Almost Incomprehensible’

With a staggering four in five Yemenis now in need of immediate humanitarian aid, 1.5 million people displaced and a death toll that has surpassed 4,000 in just five months, a United Nations official told the Security Council Wednesday that the scale of human suffering is “almost incomprehensible”.

U.N. Relief Agency Pledges to Open Schools ‘On Time’ for Half a Million Palestinian Refugees

Overcoming a serious funding shortfall, and caught between numerous regional conflicts, the United Nation’s humanitarian agency for Palestinian refugees announced on Aug. 19 that it would nevertheless open schools on time for the roughly half-a-million children who rely on the international community for their education.

Opinion: The Writing on the Western Wall

The writing on the Western Wall is evident to most Israelis: “דמוגרפיה היא גורל” or “demography is destiny”. Those unwilling to acknowledge the prophetic message are either deceiving themselves or simply ignoring it in order to avoid facing the implications of demography for Israel’s future.

Egypt’s Terror Law Violates “Fundamental Freedoms”

Egyptian authorities are already holding a record number of journalists behind bars, and a draconian new anti-terror law signed by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday will further broaden the crackdown on dissent, press freedom groups warn.

Designed to Fail: Gaza’s Reconstruction Plan

The rubble of twisted concrete and metal bakes in the hot Mediterranean sun of a regional heat wave.

Humanitarian Crisis Deepens in War-Torn Yemen

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières  (MSF) is warning that the violence in Yemen "has radically increased" since March, with the humanitarian group seeing mass casualties from bombings and thousands of severely injured.

Settlement Expansion Largely Responsible for Violence in Occupied West Bank

Just weeks after an 18-month-old baby was killed in an arson attack in the Palestinian village of Duma, located south of Nablus city in the Occupied West Bank, a United Nations special committee has blasted Israel’s policy of settlement expansion, saying it is the root cause of violence towards Palestinians.

Amnesty Wants International Criminal Court to Intervene in Libya

Calling for an end to “an epidemic of kidnapping blighting” Libya, Amnesty International has faulted the International Criminal Court (ICC) for failing to undertake any investigations into crimes under international law committed by armed groups in the last four years.

Suez Canal Reopens to Fanfare but Not Shared by All

Ships at sea around the world will blast their horns on Aug 6 to mark the re-opening of the world-famous centenarian waterway in Egypt, local officials there say.

‘Ambassadors of Freedom’ – Palestine’s Resistance Babies

Thirteen-year-old Hula Khadoura sits on a large sofa in her grandfather’s home in the neighbourhood of Tuffah, Gaza City, her one-year-old twin brothers Karam and Adam on her lap. “I am so happy they arrived,” she beams, holding the babies’ feeding bottles in her hands.

UAE Described as Pioneer in the Field of Renewable Energy

When the government of Kenya hosted a U.N. Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy in Nairobi back in 1981, one of the conclusions at that meeting was a proposal for the creation of an international agency dedicated to renewable energy.

UAE Cracks Down on Religious Extremism

The United Arab Emirates is cracking down on hate crimes with tough legislation that prescribes up to 10 years in prison or the death penalty if convicted of "takfirism" or Sunni Muslim extremism, according to the text of the decree distributed by the official WAM news agency.

Mideast Arms Build-up Negative Fallout from Iran Nuclear Deal

The nuclear agreement concluded last week between Iran and six big powers, the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, is threatening to trigger a new Middle East military build-up – not with nuclear weapons but with conventional arms, including fighter planes, combat helicopters, warships, missiles, battle tanks and heavy artillery.

Despite ISIS Ascendancy, U.S. Public Wary of War

As the Islamic State, known variously as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, consolidates its hold over parts of Iraq and Syria to the degree that it has in many ways become a functioning state, the U.S. public remains divided over any intervention involving ground troops, a new survey shows.

Opinion: Iran Deal Has Far-Reaching Potential to Remake International Relations

The Vienna agreement between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council acting in concert with Germany has the potential to remake international relations beyond the immediate goal of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

In Search of Jobs, Cameroonian Women May End Up as Slaves in Middle East

Her lips are quavering her hands trembling. Susan (not her real name) struggles to suppress stubborn tears, but the outburst comes, spontaneously, and the tears stream down her cheeks as she sobs profusely.

Nuclear Deal Takes U.S.-Iran Ties Out of Deep Freeze – Partly, at Least

A historic deal on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme was announced today during the early morning hours in Vienna over a decade after talks between Tehran and world powers began.

Syrians: ‘Biggest Refugee Population From a Single Conflict in a Generation’

Barely 10 months ago, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said the refugee population from Syria had reached the three million mark. Today, the latest data from the field show that the number has passed four million.