By Thalif Deen | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 2016 (IPS) – The continued decline in oil prices is threatening to have a direct and indirect impact on several fronts, including development aid, migrant workers and remittances, voluntary contributions to UN agencies, humanitarian assistance to refugees and infrastructure-building in the […]
Arab Youth join socialist Syrian Kurdish militia to fight ISIL
TeleSur | – – The news comes amid rising tensions between the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia and Arabs in Syria. The “first group of Arab fighters” joined the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the YPG, according to Kurdish media. The YPG has been known to include non-Kurdish forces, including Western, Turkish and Assyrian fighters, and it […]
Two Children Die Every Day Trying to Cross the Mediterranean
TeleSur | – – Children make up 36 percent of the those making the perilous migration journey across the sea, often to flee conflicts. As the refugees crisis surges on with thousands of refugees from the Middle East attempting to cross the Mediterranean on route to Europe, two children have drowned every day since September […]
Can Morocco Create a New Middle East through Green Energy?
By Moha Ennaji | ( Project Syndicate) | – – FEZ – The global oil-price bust has devastated economies across the Middle East and North Africa. Having seen severe price declines in the past, many leaders in the region may be tempted to wait for prices to rise again. But this collapse is different, and […]
Afghanistan: Washington’s Twenty-First-Century Opium Wars
By Alfred McCoy | ( Tomdispatch.com ) | – – In October 2001, the U.S. launched its invasion of Afghanistan largely through proxy Afghan fighters with the help of Special Operations forces, American air power, and CIA dollars. The results were swift and stunning. The Taliban was whipped, a new government headed by Hamid Karzai […]
Israeli forces demolish sole school in Bedouin community
Ma’an News Agency | – – JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces on Sunday demolished a Bedouin school for children in the Abu al-Nuwaar community near the town of al Eizariya in the occupied West Bank, a spokesperson for the Al-Jahalin Bedouin community said. Atallah al-Jahalin told Ma’an that Israeli forces, accompanied by 30 vehicles and […]
Spirit and Sensuality in the mystical Sufi poetry of Rumi
By Nesreen Akhtarkhavari and Anthony A. Lee, Translators | (Informed Comment) | – – The poems of Rumi, the thirteenth-century teacher, scholar, and poet known simply as Mowlana in the Muslim world, have shaped Islamic culture for centuries. They still stand just as vital after eight hundred years. Rumi speaks to us of unchanging spiritual […]
Trumpism & Europe’s Refugees: Poland says it cannot coexist ‘with Middle East people’
By Sarantis Michalopoulos | ( EurActiv.com) A dispute over how to shelter 160,000 refugees in Europe got deeper today when Poland said its population is unable to live with people from the Middle East. EurActiv Greece reports. The Dutch EU presidency, helped by Germany, Italy and Greece, is trying to convince Eastern European countries to […]
As ISIL goes Global, Will the ‘War on Terror’ extend for Decades?
By Paul Rogers | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – The war against ISIL has seen 18 months of of airstrikes by United States-led coalition forces in both Iraq and Syria. An even more concentrated period is now under way, with signs of greater use of special forces by western militaries and pledges of ground troops […]








