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MENASource

Aug 17, 2015

Top News: Egypt’s Sisi Signs Counterterrorism Law

By EgyptSource

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi signed into law a controversial anti-terrorism legislation that establishes stiffer prison sentences for terror-related offenses, heavy fines for journalists who publish “false news” and a special judicial circuit for terrorism cases.

MENASource

Aug 17, 2015

EconSource: Turkish Lira Hits Another Record Low on Political Uncertainty

By EconSource

Turkey’s lira has hit a record low and lost 3 percent since talks between the ruling AK Party and the main opposition CHP failed, setting the stage for a snap election and more investor uncertainty.

Russian military participating in SCO exercise, Augest 24-29, 2014

NATOSource

Aug 14, 2015

NATO Refutes Comparison of Alliance and Russian Military Exercises

By AFP

NATO on Wednesday defended the number of military exercises it has staged as a response to “growing Russian aggression” and refuted suggestions that they were helping make war in Europe more likely.

NATO Nuclear Nonproliferation

MENASource

Aug 14, 2015

Deaths in Egypt Prisons Renew Debate on Deteriorating Conditions

By Khaled Dawoud

In a statement about the death of al-Jama’a al-Islamiya’s Essam Derbala at maximum security Aqrab Prison on August 8, the ministry of interior declared the cause of death was “natural.”Derbala, the statement said, was taken to hospital after complaining of fatigue, where he died as a result of circulatory collapse. 

North Africa

MENASource

Aug 14, 2015

Top News: ISIS kills Thirty-Eight In Sirte, House Members Call On International Community For Help

By MENASource

The Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) threatened to use gas against people in Sirte unless attacks against its members stop. Thirty-eight members of the Ferjani tribe were killed by ISIS, which had been shelling a residential area in Sirte. Fighting in the center of town earlier this week resulted in the deaths of two ISIS commanders Abu […]

New Atlanticist

Aug 14, 2015

Abe Speech May Exorcize the Ghosts of History

By Robert A. Manning

In an Asia haunted by the ghosts of history, the world was watching with baited breath to see how Japan’s nationalistic Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, would address the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II. To the surprise of many, Abe’s Cabinet-approved speech was an amply dignified and contrite effort that attempted to […]

Japan

MENASource

Aug 14, 2015

Top News: Egypt Marks Raba’a Massacre Anniversary

By EgyptSource

Egyptian police bolstered their presence in the capital on Friday in anticipation of protests on the second anniversary of the violent dispersal by security forces of Islamist demonstrators, in which at least 700 supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi died.

SyriaSource

Aug 14, 2015

Syria: An Open Letter to President Obama

By MENASource

US Representative to the United Nations Samantha Power said that the Assad regime has “apparently grown reliant on the repugnant use of barrel bombs as an instrument of terror against innocent Syrian civilians.” Over 2,000 barrel bombs dropped on Syria since the first week of July. It is within this context that Ambassadors Frederic Hof and […]

Syria

MENASource

Aug 14, 2015

EconSource: Turkey Central Bank Attempts to Stem Lira Slide

By EconSource

Turkey’s central bank lowered the cost of dollar borrowing for a fourth time this year, seeking to halt the lira’s slide after the breakdown of talks on the formation of a new government sent financial markets tumbling.

New Atlanticist

Aug 13, 2015

Of Rights and Wrongs in Cuba

By Ashish Kumar Sen

United States must continue to press Castro government on human rights, says Atlantic Council’s Peter Schechter The Obama administration must use the new opening in its relationship with Cuba to continue to press the government in Havana to respect human rights, says the Atlantic Council’s Peter Schechter. Cuban dissidents were conspicuous by their absence from […]

Cuba