Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s statements that the Shiite holy city of Karbala must be the Qibla - the direction to which Muslims pray - has stirred controversy among Islamic scholars. “Karbala must be the Qibla of the Islamic world because Imam Hussein...

  Controversy has snowballed this month over prominent Lebanese composer Ziad Rahbani’s statement that his mother, the legendary Arab singer Fairuz, supports Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Fairuz, a Syriac Orthodox Christian born in Beirut, is among the best known and...

Radical Islamist group, The State of Iraq and The Levant (ISIL) has kidnapped prominent Journalist Milad Shehabi in Aleppo today, 72 hours after arresting 7  media activists  by the same group in Aleppo, according to Activists. Shehabi runs Masaken Hanano News...

  As efforts intensify to bring the Syrian sides to a negotiating table in Switzerland, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his grave concern about the continued and indiscriminate use of heavy weapons and mortar shelling in the ongoing conflict, most recently...