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Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

With the rise of Islamist organizations, repressive regimes, and civil conflicts which threaten regional stability, the promise of the Arab Spring of 2011 quickly devolved into an Arab winter. In an expansive article in The Economist, the threat to the Middle East is discussed in appropriately grave terms; Syria and Iraq are in flames while Jordan looms as the next domino to potentially fall. Libya and Yemen, where Islamic terror networks operate with impunity, are labeled “failed states.” Those Middle Eastern nations that are not in danger of imminent collapse are either absolute monarchies or counties which merely maintain...

The Arab Spring, which started with the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable vendor at 11.30 am on 16th December, 2010, has resulted in two failed states in the region so far.  Libya has become “Scumbag Woodstock” because of the number of terrorist organisations headquartered there.  The French and English attempt at regime change created a terrorist haven with consequences as far afield as Mali and the 300 Christian girls kidnapped in Nigeria.  Fortunately, Syria has become a meatgrinder for Islamic terrorists and for the moment has ceased being a net exporter of terrorism.  In that conflict, the Obama Administration has...

Spanish authorities say around 700 African migrants have charged its barbed-wire border fences in the country’s North African enclave of Melilla, but all were repulsed by Spanish and Moroccan border guards. An official statement says about 500 rushed the border in the first wave Saturday. About 20 stayed atop the 20-foot (6-meter) high fences for 30 minutes, then were escorted away by Moroccan forces. …

The Moroccan man facing criminal charges for allegedly planning to use remote-control planes to bomb a university building and federal building was able to remain in the United States by lying to immigration officials.El Mehdi Semlali Fathi was able to avoid a final order of removal last year — after remaining in the country for seven years after his visa expired — by claiming a fear of persecution based on his political beliefs, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit.“There is probable cause to believe, and I do believe that FATHI’s application for withholding of removal status was obtained...

The Hague (AFP) - An unrepentant Geert Wilders fought back Saturday against a storm of protest and an exodus from within his own anti-Muslim party after he vowed "fewer Moroccans" in the Netherlands. The platinum-haired populist was forced to deny parallels with Nazi leaders after he was widely perceived as having gone too far in his attack on a specific ethnic group on Wednesday. "I spoke the truth, I'm not sorry and will not apologise for the truth and expressing my political ideals," Wilders told an impromptu press conference on Saturday evening.

"9/11 plotter released in Syria prisoner exchange" SNIPPET: "The al-Qaeda recruiter reputed to have assembled the so-called Hamburg Cell, which planned and largely carried out the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, has been set free in a prisoner exchange between rebel and regime forces in Syria. Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham has secured the release of 9/11 plotter and alleged al-Qaeda core member Mohammed Haydar Zammar, adding to concerns about the composition of the Islamic Front. A naturalized German citizen of Syrian origin, Mohammed Haydar Zammar left Germany shortly after the attacks and traveled to Morocco, where he was reportedly...

In its annual survey of American Jewry published last October, the American Jewish Committee found that 75 percent of American Jews agree with the statement, “The goal of the Arabs is not a peaceful two-state agreement with Israel, but rather the destruction of Israel.” And yet, American Jews supported the establishment of a Palestinian state 50% to 47%. Next week over 10,000 predominantly Jewish American supporters of Israel will gather in Washington at AIPAC’s annual policy conference. Given their high commitment to Israel, probably most of those gathered belong to the 47% of American Jews who opposed Palestinian statehood. Yet...

Compensation for Jews pushed out of Arab lands may become yet another issue MUCH as Palestinian refugees and their offspring remember the orange groves and cinemas they lost in Jaffa when Israel was born in 1948, Jews who once lived in Iraq recite the qasidas—lyrical Arabic poetry—and recall the time when most of Iraq’s banks and transport companies were run by Jews. “Iraq has gone downhill since they forced us out,” sighs a professor at a gathering of academics of Iraqi origin at Or Yehuda, a Tel Aviv suburb, slipping into Arabic. “Mubki, lamentable.” American officials are unclear on the...

The Royal Moroccan Navy will take possession of its FREMM frigate on 30 January. (DCNS) The Royal Moroccan Navy is scheduled to commission its FREMM multimission frigate Mohammad VI (D 601) on 30 January 2014 in a ceremony to be held in Brest, France. The ceremony will be attended by Morocco's Prince Moulay Rachid, Inspector General of the Royal Moroccan Navy Vice Admiral Mohamed Laghmari, French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, and French Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Bernard Rogel. The ship will sail to Morocco about four weeks after it is commissioned. The ceremony was initially scheduled for 25...

But video of American Arab’s Got Talent singer converting is not realThough Jennifer Grout, the 23-year-old American singer, doesn’t speak a word of Arabic, she has a rare talent: singing Arabic songs, including Arabic traditional ones, so fluently, so softly and so beautifully. When Grout participated in Arabs Got Talent last year, she was among the top three finalists, with thousands viewing her spine-tingling performances of songs by Umm Kulthoum on YouTube. More recently, a video of a different kind has been drawing attention to Grout — one showing her announcing her conversion to Islam, which was posted online last...

At the request of Morocco’s king, prayers for rain were held at synagogues across the kingdom. The prayers were recited on January 11, one day after countless Muslims said similar prayers in mosques at the request of King Mohammed VI, the Moroccan daily Le Matin reported. The king made the request upon learning that Morocco may suffer a drought in 2014. Responding to the king’s plea, the Council of Israelite Communities in Morocco, or CCIM, published a statement in which it “invites worshipers to pray in all the synagogues of the kingdom” so that God may “spare our country and...

King Juan Carlos of Spain told Britain that Spain “did not really want” Gibraltar back as it would lead to claims from Morocco for Spanish territories in North Africa, newly declassified documents from the 1980s released by the Foreign Office reveal. The King of Spain admitted privately in a meeting with the then British ambassador to Madrid, Sir Richard Parsons, that it was “not in Spain’s interest to recover Gibraltar in the near future”. If it did so, “King Hassan would immediately reactivate the Moroccan claim to Ceuta and Melilla,” the monarch, who celebrated his 76th birthday on Sunday, reportedly...

Russia Says It's Ready to Arm Saudi Arabia Lyuba Pronina, Staff Writer Moscow Times February 10, 2005 No. 3103 [From David Isenberg's Weapons Trade Observer, http://lists.topica.com/lists/sento] [With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ] Moscow is preparing its first major defense contract with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest arms buyer that has traditionally spent its petrodollars on U.S.-made weapons. The deal is part of a strategy aimed at diversifying Russia's arms buyers away from China and India, Sergei Chemezov, general director of state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport, told reporters Wednesday. Russia also signed an arms contract with Morocco last month, he said, the first...

Moroccan police have arrested a teenage boy and girl for posting a photo on Facebook of them kissing, with the incident provoking a slew of copycats, a rights organization said Friday. … The incident has caused such a stir among young people that a number of other couples have posted similar photos on their Facebook pages. …

The Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs plans to award up to $1 million in taxpayer dollars to increase gender equality at work in Morocco. The purpose of the grant is “to help build the capacity of civil society organizations,including non-governmental organizations and trade unions,in the Kingdom of Morocco to address working women's issues and empower women to more fully exercise their labor rights.” “Projects awarded funding will be expected to work with local organizations to enhance service delivery to women on matters related to their labor rights and interests and to raise public awareness of women's labor rights,”...

Clearly the officials who fined and jailed this Christian were moderates; in Saudi Arabia he would have been executed. Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Morocco: "Moroccan Christian Jailed for 'Shaking the Faith of a Muslim,'" by Joseph DeCaro for Worthy News, September 12: RABAT, MOROCCO (Worthy News)– A Moroccan Christian has been fined and jailed for "shaking the faith of a Muslim." Spreading Christianity is prohibited under Article 220 of the Moroccan Penal Code; the maximum sentence for this offense is three to six months' imprisonment, but in a September hearing, Mohamed el Baldi was convicted and sentenced to...

Spain had a seemingly simple request for Morocco’s king: Pardon 18 Spaniards convicted in his country, and let 30 others return to Spain to serve out their prison terms. Instead, the monarch pardoned 48 Spanish prisoners, including a man convicted of raping children. … Police captured 63-year-old convicted pedophile Daniel Galvan Vina in southeastern Spain on Monday after he had nearly a week of freedom. Galvan had been convicted of raping 11 children and was serving a 30-year sentence in Morocco before the pardon came through. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI retracted his pardon of Galvan over the weekend, and Morocco,...

SNIP Sissi: The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from [the Muslim Brotherhood’s] concept of the state, the ideology that they adopted for building a country which is based on restoring the Islamic religious empire. That’s what made [former president Mohamed Morsi] not a president for all Egyptians, but a president representing his followers and supporters. Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you? It was obvious on the first day – the day of his inauguration. He started with offending the judiciary and not giving them the appropriate treatment. The Brotherhood experience in ruling a country...