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MENASource

Feb 25, 2016

Top News: Egypt Sentences Coptic Students to Five Years in Jail for ‘Insulting Islam’

By EgyptSource

An Egyptian court convicted four Coptic Christian teenagers for contempt of Islam on Thursday, sentencing three to five years in prison, the maximum penalty for blasphemy. A fourth student, who is under 18, was referred to a juvenile detention facility.

MENASource

Feb 25, 2016

Top News: Syria army excludes rebel town near Damascus from truce

By MENASource

On Wednesday, Syria’s army said it would exclude an important rebel bastion near Damascus from a ceasefire set to begin at the weekend because rebel forces there include jihadists.

MENASource

Feb 25, 2016

EconSource: Gulf States to Introduce VAT in 2018

By EconSource

Emirati Minister of State for Finance Affairs Obaid al-Tayer said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states are expected to agree on a framework for a value-added tax by June, with implementation starting January 1, 2018.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Feb 24, 2016

Top News: French special forces waging secret war in Libya

By MENASource

French special forces and intelligence commandos are engaged in covert operations against Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants in Libya in conjunction with the United States and Britain, the French newspaper Le Monde reported on Wednesday.

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

EconSource: Saudi Arabia Rules Out Production Cuts

By EconSource

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Tuesday he was confident that more countries would join an agreement to freeze oil output at existing levels in talks expected in March. However, he effectively ruled out production cuts by major crude producers anytime soon.

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

Top News: Italian Student May Have Been Killed for Revenge Says Interior Ministry

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s Interior Ministry says investigators believe that “personal reasons” were behind the torture and murder of the Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found in Cairo this month, over a week after he went missing. The ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that investigation had uncovered no clues to culprits but said “the […]

MENASource

Feb 24, 2016

Mitigating US-Turkish Disagreement over the PYD

By Francis Ricciardone and Aaron Stein

Turkey and the United States share strategic interests regarding Syria, not least defeating the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). However, they remain at odds over their definitions of their full strategic purposes. One element is ripe for resolution: clarifying their respective intents toward the Kurdish communities of Syria, while revising their […]

Syria Turkey

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: UK, Turkey, Assad, and opposition skeptical over ceasefire

By MENASource

Syria’s regime agreed Tuesday to a ceasefire deal announced by the United States and Russia, but there were widespread doubts it could take effect by Saturday as planned. The State Department made the five-page plan public after Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Monday.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

EconSource: Islamic State Rigs Currency Rates in Mosul to Prop Up Finances

By EconSource

Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) militants in the Iraqi city of Mosul are manipulating the exchange rate between US dollars and Iraqi dinars as the US-led anti-ISIS coalition attacks the group’s finances.

MENASource

Feb 23, 2016

Top News: Conflicting Accounts in Case of 4-Year-Old Sentenced to Life in Prison

By EgyptSource

Denying a flurry of media reports to the contrary, the Armed Forces released a statement Monday declaring that a 4-year-old boy has not been sentenced to life in prison by a military court, but rather a 16-year-old boy of a similar name. On February 16, a military court sentenced 116 people to life in prison […]