The Islamic State (IS) captured its first Lebanese city, Arsal, on Monday. Fighting began Friday evening in Arsal after Abu Ahmad al-Jumaa, a former commander in the Free Syrian Army who declared his allegiance to IS, was arrested by the Lebanese Army.
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern China killing at least 380 people and leaving at least 1,800 injured. Some 12,000 homes were destroyed and another 30,000 were damaged in Sunday’s earthquake.
As the conflict in Gaza entered its third week, pro-and-anti Israel rallies took place throughout the world. Since the beginning of the war, a surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes has taken place especially in Europe, leading to fears among Jewish communities that Europe is no longer a safe haven for its population.
The ‘Islamic State’ (IS) seized control of Iraq’s largest dam, giving the jihadist organization the ability to flood major cities. Over the weekend, IS also took control of three towns in Iraq and is beginning to amass troops to take Baghdad, defense analysts warn. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia called on its allies to provide military assistance as its believes IS will topple its government.
Fighting in Libya escalated Thursday as Islamic militias claimed to control the country’s second-largest city, Benghazi, while foreigners and U.N. workers continued their exodus in what increasingly is looking like a full-blown civil war, the Washington Times reported.
Financial markets went into a tailspin Thursday after Argentina defaulted on its debt, raising fears among skittish investors already fretting about weak corporate earnings growth, rising interest rates and an aging bull market.
China has acknowledged the existence of a new intercontinental ballistic missile said to be capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads as far as the United States, according to Agence France-Presse.
Standard & Poor’s declared Argentina in default after the government missed a deadline for paying interest on $13 billion of restructured bonds, Bloomberg reported.
Five days ago American Patrick Sawyer, 40, died of Ebola. However, days before his death he visited four airports and those in contact with him in Nigeria’s capital Lagos airport may be at risk spreading the disease globally. Now the hunt is on for 30,000 people who may be hosting the organism which kills 60 percent of its sufferers.
France has suffered the worst violence, but anti-Semitism is spiking across Europe, fueled by the war in Gaza. In Britain, the Community Security Trust (CST) says there were around 100 anti-Semitic incidents in July, double the usual number. The CST has issued a security alert for Jewish institutions. In Berlin a crowd of anti-Israel protesters had to be prevented from attacking a synagogue. In Liege, Belgium, a café owner put up a sign saying dogs were welcome, but Jews were not allowed.
A revival is taking place in the Islamic world as between two and seven million former Muslims have converted to Christianity, World Magazine reported.
A key bridge north of Baghdad, used by Iraqi forces as a supply line, was destroyed when Islamic State jihadists detonated a suicide truck bomb on Tuesday.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) blasted U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran Tuesday, saying the rolling back of sanctions and allowance of the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism to enrich uranium constituted a “dangerous national security failure,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
President Obama along with Western Nations announced new, tougher sanctions against Russia on Tuesday targeting key sectors of the Russian economy: energy, arms and finance.
The State Department issued a dire report Monday on the state of religious freedom around the world, with an alarming warning that the Christian presence in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East is becoming a “shadow of its former self,” Fox News reported.
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has nearly completed “The Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014”, which will prevent the Lebanese terrorist organization from receiving financing from international institutions.
Iraq has effectively been split into three States, each representing ethnic factions, according to a former U.S. Ambassador.
The Obama administration has accused Russia of violating a 1987 nuclear missile treaty by testing a ground-launched cruise missile and says the U.S. is prepared for immediate high-level dialogue with Moscow over the matter, Fox News reported.
Last Thursday, a river in China mysteriously turned a blood red color. China’s environmental protection bureau has yet found the cause of the incident, but suspicions are the ‘blood red’ color was a result of illegal dumping.
The United Nations called South Sudan’s food crisis the ‘worst in the world’ and urged donor nations who pledged $618 million to make good on their promise.