CAIRO – 21 January 2018: Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn asserted on Sunday, a day after finishing his official visit to Cairo, that Ethiopia will not accept Egypt’s request to include the World Bank in the tripartite technical committee’s talks on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), according to the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA). Desalegn said that Ethiopia will not ...

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has accused the US of forming a “terror army”, after Washington announced plans for a 30,000-strong force inside Syria to protect territory held by its mainly Kurdish allies. On Sunday, the US-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up the new border force. The ...

Getty Images Pope Francis attends Midday Prayer of the Divine with more than 300 U.S. Bishops at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on September 23, 2015 in Washington, DC. Pope Francis said on Monday he was really afraid about the danger of nuclear war and that the world now stood at “the very limit.” His comment, made as he ...

The bushfire has burnt more than 2200 hectares of land at Tomago, Williamtown, Raymond Terrace and Campvale, with the RFS downgrading the warning from emergency to watch and act on Sunday evening. The large air tanker Nancy Bird assisted crews to help combat the fire which continues to burn near homes on Wade Close at Campvale. Residents are urged to ...

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Sunday he would stand for re-election in May at the head of a new coalition, buoyed by victory over the Islamic State group. Abadi’s newly created “Victory Alliance” will face the “State of Law” bloc of Nuri al-Maliki, his predecessor, key rival and Shiite Dawa party co-member who now holds the post of ...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani mocked Donald Trump for failing to kill off the Iran nuclear deal despite the US leader’s 2016 election promise to do so. Trump signed off on a waiver Friday to keep several sanctions on Iran suspended, essentially keeping the nuclear deal in effect. The US President must sign such waivers every few months under the Joint Comprehensive Plan ...

Egypt is still grappling with domestic tensions, and has the uncertainty of a presidential election on the horizon. Investors, however, appear unfazed, and are betting that a host of economic reforms and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding program will pay off. Foreign investment into Egypt’s stock market recently hit the highest level since 2010, and direct investment is also ...

An anti-Iran bill passed in the House this month with the support of the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC is unconstitutional, according to a Justice Department memo obtained by BuzzFeed News. The determination is a setback for legislation Republicans hope will expose Democrats as soft on Iran and curry favor with pro-Israel donors. It also underscores the increasingly elaborate attempts ...

Earlier this month, senior U.S. and Israeli officials met at the White House to develop a plan for countering Iranian activity in the Middle East. On Thursday, Axios got a copy of the blueprint they arrived at. The document is mostly a snoozer — it will surprise no one that America and Israel would like to undermine Iran’s ballistic-missile program and limit ...

A gunman opened fire on a church south of Cairo on Friday, killing at least nine people before policemen shot him dead, officials and state media said. Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed told state television that the gunman who was shot dead had killed nine people and wounded others, including a police officer. The gunman had tried to storm the ...