JERUSALEM — The United Nations cultural agency (UNESCO) has made a controversial decision on one of Christianity’s holiest sites, winning praise from Palestinians and infuriating Israel.  UNESCO has approved a Palestinian request to declare the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem an endangered World Heritage Site. The Palestinians have More »

- UN humanitarian agencies are appealing for $193 million to help an anticipated 185,000 Syrian refugees until the end of the year.  The agencies say the number of people fleeing to neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq is increasing daily. - The conflict in Syria has renewed attention to a new treaty on the global More »

The Arab Spring was an incredible moment in the battle between dictators and democracy but, in his new book “The Dictator’s Learning Curve”, author William Dobson argues that the Arab Spring is just the latest front in a worldwide struggle against repression.  To examine the tools dictators learn to use in order to hold More »

Public protests against the government of President Bashar al-Assad have put Syria’s emerging civil war front page and at the top of the news around the world. But from the revolution’s start more than 15 months ago, Assad has all but barred the international media from providing on-the-ground coverage of events which, according to More »

Naglaa Ali Mahmoud, wife of Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Morsi, shuns the title of first lady, preferring instead the idea of a servant to the nation. A sharper contrast to her predecessor, Suzanne Mubarak is hard to imagine.  Both married future presidents while still in their teens, but the glittered, Westernized style of Mubarak proved alienating More »

The United States says escalating violence in and around Damascus is a result of President Bashar al-Assad assaulting the Syrian people and a sign that he is losing control of the capital. A bomb exploded near Syria’s main judiciary complex, known as the Palace of Justice, in central Damascus on Thursday, wounding three people. A More »

The finery of tapestry and carpets, the grandeur of soaring arches in mosques and palaces, and the beauty of calligraphy are just some of the art forms highlighted in a new film by Unity Productions Foundation, Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World.  The 90-minute documentary explores Islam’s contribution to world art and culture More »

WASHINGTON – Islamist politician Mohamed Morsi will be sworn in Saturday as Egypt’s president – the result of a democratic election after a popular uprising toppled long time ruler Hosni Mubarak last year. Thousands celebrated Mohamed Morsi’s victory in Tahrir Square last Sunday – the same square where 18 months ago Egyptians demanded the departure More »

- Kofi Annan, the United Nations and Arab League mediator for Syria, announces he will convene an international meeting in Geneva on Saturday to move the Syrian political transition forward and stop the violence that has killed more than 10,000 people. - What challenges face the new president of Egypt, Islamist politician Mohamed Morsi, once More »

CAIRO – Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Morsi has pledged to honor the peace treaty with Israel, but that has not dampened concern the Islamist leader will try to shift the cornerstone of U.S. policy in the region. For more than 30 years, the United States has counted on Egypt to shore up the position of its More »

It was June 26, 1980; then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad stood with his usual retinue of bodyguards and staff outside the official Guest Palace in Damascus, waiting to greet a visiting African dignitary. Assad at the time was in the middle of one of the biggest crises of his presidency, a full-scale uprising by the More »

- Amnesty International describes the gruesome deaths of three captured medical personnel in Syria. - UN investigators say the situation in Syria “is dangerously and quickly deteriorating” and that gross violations of human rights, including torture and summary executions, are escalating and being committed by both sides. - Egypt’s president-elect Mohamed Morsi has pledged to honor More »

For many Americans, the use of armed drones is a necessity of our times. According to survey data, most see them as an integral part of the war on terror launched more than a decade ago in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. On a global scale, however, Americans More »

CAIRO – Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi will be sworn in Saturday, and the location of the ceremony will mark his first public challenge to the nation’s powerful military. ​​Egypt’s current ruling military council says Morsi will take the oath of office in front of the constitutional court. But the president-elect has vowed to assume his More »

YINCHAUN, Ningxia – Islam in China is flourishing, with official statistics counting more than 20 million Chinese Muslims.  But, as with all religions in China, the state continues to maintain close watch over Islamic activities. Northwest China’s Ningxia is the country’s only provincial-level autonomous region for the country’s most numerous Muslims, the Hui. Ningxia’s Na Jia More »

- NATO member states condemn Syria for shooting down a Turkish military jet Friday, while NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen calls the shooting “unacceptable.” - Egypt’s current ruling military council says President-elect Mohamed Morsi will take the oath of office in front of the constitutional court, but he vows to assume his post in front More »

CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi will be Egypt’s first freely elected president according to results announced Sunday. Just a few months ago, the idea of Mohamed Morsi as Egypt’s first post-revolution leader seemed remote at best. But in Edwa, his home village in the eastern Nile Delta, no one seemed to doubt this native More »

Khadijah Sahak, 59, sits in the family room of her neatly-kept townhouse in Sterling, Virginia. The Afghan news program broadcasting from her wall-mounted flat-screen television is discussing the Taliban. This leafy Washington suburb is a long way from the refugee camp in Pakistan where Khadijah’s family says they lived after leaving Kabul in 2002. “We like More »

Egypt’s Presidential Election Commission announced Sunday that Mohamed Morsi has been elected Egypt’s next president. He won with almost 52 percent the vote, prevailing in the runoff with Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander and prime minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak. When sworn in, presumably by June 30, Morsi will become Egypt’s first More »