The Israeli army said on Friday it was holding the body of a Palestinian shot dead in the occupied West Bank earlier this week, ending days of uncertainty over his fate. The announcement follows a policy change last month in which Israel said it would not return the bodies of any Palestinian killed during or as a result of an anti-Israeli attack. On Monday, 27-year-old Palestinian Samir Hamidi was killed […]
The United States has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq after warning Baghdad it could shut its embassy, two Iraqi officials and two Western diplomats say, a step Iraqis fear could turn their country into a battle zone. Any move by the US to scale down its diplomatic presence in a country where it has up to 5,000 troops would be widely seen in the region as an escalation […]
A coalition of humanitarian groups have called on the Trump administration to rescind a months-long suspension of aid to northern areas of Yemen, warning that unless it is done immediately it will cause further suffering and claim innocent lives. In a letter sent to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on Thursday, the humanitarian groups said that while they "harbor no illusions about the difficult operating environment across Yemen", […]
Syria is holding parliamentary elections across government-controlled areas of the country on Sunday, as President Bashar al-Assad marks 20 years in power amid a continuing war and deep economic woes. More than 2,000 candidates, including businessmen under recently-imposed United States sanctions, are running in the legislative election - the third since the start of the 2011 protests and ensuing civil war. The elections, originally scheduled to be held in April, […]
Jordan's king warned Israel of a "massive conflict" if it proceeds with plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank, as European Union foreign ministers agreed to step up diplomatic efforts to try to head off such a move. Israel has promised to annex Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley, which could spell the end of the long-stalled peace process by making it virtually impossible to establish a […]
Official statistics on how many women and children have been victims of sexual violence and rape in various “hot” wars around the world are extremely difficult to come by. The high number of under reported cases makes it almost impossible to form a definitive number to the scourge. What can be said, without doubt however, is that rape in war is a massive problem and that rape is used as […]
More than 3,000 South Sudanese fled into neighboring Uganda on Tuesday after government soldiers attacked the border town of Pajok, killing men, women and children indiscriminately, refugees said. The attack by government SPLA forces is the latest to hit southern towns near the Ugandan border as a three-year civil war spreads across the world’s youngest nation. South Sudan government officials were not immediately reachable for comment. “If you ran, you […]
OPINION by Ramzy Baroud When a veteran war reporter like Robert Fisk constructs his argument regarding the siege of Aleppo based on 'watching' video footage, then one can truly comprehend the near impossibility of adequate media coverage on the war in Syria. In a recent article in the British Independent, Fisk reflects on the siege, uprising and atrocious Nazi massacres in Warsaw, Poland in 1944. The terribly high cost of […]
VOC became the first Muslim radio station in South Africa when a special events license was granted to the station in Ramadan/January 1995. Subsequent temporary broadcast licenses were granted, permitting the station to broadcast for 24 hours.
