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A senior Saudi prince has launched an unprecedented call for change in the country’s leadership, as it faces its biggest challenge in years in the form of war, plummeting oil prices and criticism of its management of Mecca, scene of last week’s hajj tragedy. The prince, one of the grandsons of the state’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, has told the Guardian that there is disquiet among the royal family – and among the wider public – at the leadership of King Salman, who acceded the throne in January.

If ever there was proof of Russia’s intentions in the Middle East, it can be seen in a just announced 4 nation pact there: Iraq joined Russia, Iran and Syria in a new agreement to strengthen cooperation against extremist group Islamic State, extending the Kremlin’s reach in the Middle East as it rivals Washington for influence.[…]Iraq’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that the country had signed an intelligence and security cooperation pact with Russia, Iran and Syria, pledging to cooperate in collecting information about Islamic State. The deal effectively formalizes years of military collaboration among the four nations, which have...

The Iranian president said that America's support for Israel provides an excuse for terrorism worldwide. "If we did not have the US military invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the US’s unwarranted support for the inhumane actions of the Zionist regime against the oppressed nation of Palestine, today the terrorists would not have an excuse for the justification of their crimes," Rouhani said.

CBS News September 28, 2015, 12:52 PM Putin: "We can no longer tolerate the current state of affairs in the world" EW YORK - Russian President Vladimir Putin took a defiant tone in his highly-anticipated United Nations address on Monday, ahead of a planned meeting with President Barack Obama. Putin spent much of the speech delivering the Russian perspective on world affairs, which he said is nothing more than "honest and frank." Putin dismissed many Western officials' expressed fears about Russian expansionism, saying the Kremlin has been accused too often of "growing ambitions." "It's not about Russia's ambitions but recognition...

A hospital has apologised after an RAF sergeant was asked to move out of sight of other patients in case his uniform caused offence. Sgt. Mark Prendeville, who has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia, was at the Emergency unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kent after fire extinguisher chemicals got in to his eyes during a training exercise Aircraft engineer Prendeville was relocated twice by hospital staff who said his uniform “might upset people” because “we have all kinds of different cultures coming in”. The 38-year-old was “dumbfounded” to be told on two different occasions to stand out of...

American intelligence analysts have been pressured into giving a more positive assessment of the progress of the war against ISIS, it has been reported, confirming what was obvious to everyone not subject to influence from the White House: the anti-ISIS campaign is failing. To devise an effective strategy involves understanding where ISIS came from, and that involves examining the Saddam Hussein regime. Saddam is commonly regarded as the quintessential secularist, and he was initially. But the Saddam regime Islamized over its last 15 years, effectively creating a religious movement under Saddam's leadership, giving additional space and power to the non-governmental...

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 (Reuters) - The United Nations high commissioner for refugees said on Saturday the world waited far too long to respond to the refugee crisis sparked by the wars in Syria and elsewhere, though rich countries now appear to understand the scale of the problem. "Unfortunately only when the poor enter the halls of the rich, do the rich notice that the poor exist," U.N. refugee chief Antonio Guterres told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly. "Until we had this massive movement into Europe,...

When Venezuelan Oil Minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso resigned in 1963, he blasted the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, at the time torn by internal rivalries, for failing to produce any benefits for his country. Half a century later, OPEC is still split and Venezuela is again unhappy, this time at the unwillingness of the organization’s top producer, Saudi Arabia, to rescue oil prices from a six-year low that’s dragging the battered Venezuelan economy into an even deeper crisis. On Sept. 10, Venezuela’s oil minister, Eulogio del Pino, tweeted appeals for OPEC and non-OPEC countries “to have a discussion on...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi defended his country’s intelligence-sharing agreement with Russia, Syria and Iran on Monday, saying Baghdad needs to share intelligence with these countries and others in order to defeat the Islamic State group. Iraq’s decision to strengthen ties with Syrian President Bashar Assad and his two main allies potentially complicates U.S. efforts to combat the IS group without strengthening regional foes who are also battling the extremists. It comes as Moscow has been ramping up its involvement in Syria in defense of Assad—ferrying weapons, troops and supplies to an airport near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia...

Russia Surprises U.S. With Accord on Battling ISIS By MICHAEL R. GORDONSEPT. 27, 2015 UNITED NATIONS — For the second time this month, Russia moved to expand its political and military influence in the Syria conflict and left the United States scrambling, this time by reaching an understanding, announced on Sunday, with Iraq, Syria and Iran to share intelligence about the Islamic State. Like Russia’s earlier move to bolster the government of President Bashar al-Assad by deploying warplanes and tanks to a base near Latakia, Syria, the intelligence-sharing arrangement was sealed without notice to the United States. American officials knew...

Germany's domestic intelligence chief warned Sunday of a radicalization of right-wing groups amid a record influx of refugees, as xenophobic rallies and clashes shook several towns on the weekend. "What we're seeing in connection with the refugee crisis is a mobilization on the street of right-wing extremists, but also of some left-wing extremists" who oppose them, said Hans-Georg Maassen on Deutschlandfunk public radio. He added that for the past few years his service had witnessed a "radicalization" and "a greater willingness to use violence" by all extremist groups, including the far right and the anti-fascist far left. Maassen spoke as...

German intelligence warned Tuesday that the number of Islamic extremists in the country had increased sharply in recent months and expressed serious concern that they were recruiting among refugees. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic security watchdog, said the number of radical Salafists had surged to 7,900 in September from 7,500 in June, and that many were trying to lure asylum-seekers into their ranks. "We are very concerned that Islamists in Germany are trying, under the cover of humanitarian assistance, to exploit the situation of the refugees for their own ends and to proselytise and...

Iraq says it has reached a deal to share intelligence with Russia, Iran and Syria in the fight against ISIS militants. The announcement on Saturday from the Iraqi military cited "the increasing concern from Russia about thousands of Russian terrorists committing criminal acts within ISIS." The news comes amid U.S. concerns about Russia's recent military buildup in Syria and would appear to confirm American suspicions of some kind of cooperation between Baghdad and Moscow

Donald Trump on Friday accused his GOP rivals of seeking to “start World War III over Syria” and suggested the U.S. let Russia take up the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "They want to start World War III over Syria. Give me a break," Trump said at the State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. "You know Russia wants to get ISIS right. We want to get ISIS. Russia’s in Syria. Maybe we should let them do it?," he continued. "Let them do it. What the hell are we crazy?" Trump's statements come as Russia builds up...

ISIS Fears This Story About ‘the Antichrist’ So Much They Never Mention It to Recruits By Justen Charters (9 hours ago) | Headlines, World One thing that you may be of unaware of when it comes to ISIS is that they’re obsessed with end times prophecy. In fact, the terrorists who have come from all over the globe believe their jihad in Syria will help reign in the Apocalypse. To bolster the group’s recruitment efforts, the jihadists promote the idea that a final battle between the armies of the Muslims and unbelievers will take place in Dabiq, an area located...

Stating flatly that the oppression black slaves faced has not changed in 400 years, progressive hero Noam Chomsky said that the time is now to pay descendants reparations for using Africans to build up the U.S. economy. Asked at a Harvard University forum about supporting reparations, he said: "Would I? Very much so. Not just African Americans. We ourselves didn't own slaves, but we -- me -- are rich and privileged because of the torture of blacks for centuries. And yes we own them reparations," said Chomsky, the Institute Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. JFK Jr. Forum...

This spring, many Syrian Christians rejected protestors' demands for embattled president Bashar al-Assad to resign. But Christians did broadly endorse democratic reforms that would bring an end to dictatorship. "We do not support those who are calling for the fall of the regime, simply because we are [for] the process of reform and changes," said Yohanna Ibrahim, Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, at a religious summit in France. In late May, International Christian Concern, an evangelical ministry to the persecuted church, released to Christianity Today an anonymous open letter from a "trusted Syrian source" that explains why many Syrian Christians...

On the day after Pope Francis spoke to Congress about the dangers of violent extremism in the name of religious fundamentalism, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, appearing at a Values Voter summit, threatened to murder Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Texas senator vowed that, if elected, he would “rip to shreds” the Iranian agreement deal recently passed through Congress, and kill the country’s leader if it didn’t give up its nuclear ambitions. “If the Ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to the 72 virgins,” Cruz said to wild cheers from the audience of conservative Christians. The...

Their identities are secret. They work after sundown, preferring deserted areas of the city. No one knows where they will strike next. They target different neighborhoods each time. Their mission is simple: to kill Islamic State militants. Their targets never vary, but their methods do. Sometimes they use snipers to take out a militant. Sometimes they plant roadside bombs and blow up cars. Sometimes they stab their victims, sometimes strangle them. They are Mosul's vigilante brigades, shadowy groups of civilians turned armed assassins who risk their lives to kill Islamic State gunmen — as well as those who support them....

German Anti-ISIS Coalition Chief Found Dead in Iraq Hotel by Andy Eckardtand Sarah Burke MAINZ, Germany — A German army chief in the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq was found dead in his hotel room there Wednesday, officials said. Colonel Stephan Spoettel was found dead at 8:50 a.m. local time (1:50 a.m. ET) in the Cristal Erbil Hotel in the northern Kurdish city of Irbil, the German armed forces said in a statement. Spoettel was the head of the coalition's German training contingent in northern Iraq. There was no information to suggest suicide or "third-party involvement," the statement added....