BANGKOK (AP) — The Latest on violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and the flood of ethnic Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh (all times local): 7 p.m. Myanmar’s presidential spokesman says 176 ethnic Rohingya villages are now empty after all of their residents fled during recent violence in Rakhine state. Zaw Htay said there had been a … Continue reading
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — To the Kurdish peshmerga forces patrolling northern Iraq in March 2016, Mohamad Khweis looked for all the world like an Islamic State suicide bomber. They certainly didn’t peg him as a bus driver from the wealthy suburbs of Washington, D.C. As they saw him approach from the stretch of no-man’s land … Continue reading
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (AP) — Islamic State group-linked militants swept through a southern Philippine city, beheading a police chief, burning buildings, seizing a Catholic priest and his worshippers and raising the black flag of IS, authorities said Wednesday. President Rodrigo Duterte, who had declared martial law across the southern third of the nation, warned he … Continue reading
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province were publicly caned dozens of times Tuesday for consensual gay sex, a punishment that intensifies an anti-gay backlash in the world’s most populous Muslim country and which rights advocates denounced as “medieval torture.” More than a thousand people packed the courtyard of a mosque … Continue reading
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) — An Islamic Shariah court in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province has sentenced two gay men to public caning for the first time, further undermining the country’s moderate image after a top Christian politician was imprisoned for blasphemy. The court, whose sentencing Wednesday coincided with International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, said … Continue reading
AL-QASR, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi army troops sweeping through an area southeast of Mosul on Wednesday came under attack from Islamic State militants firing automatic weapons and mortars. The troops from the 9th Armored Division were on a foot patrol when they came under fire by IS militants stationed on the opposite bank of the … Continue reading
AL-QASR, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi army troops sweeping through an area southeast of Mosul have come under attack from Islamic State militants firing automatic weapons and mortars. The troops from the 9th Armored Division were on a foot patrol when they came under fire Wednesday by IS militants stationed on the opposite bank of the … Continue reading
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has slammed President-elect Donald Trump over his “escalating statements… against Islam and Muslims,” and criticized him for not distinguishing between radical and moderate Muslims. In written statement issued Thursday, the influential anti-U.S. cleric responded to the outcome of the U.S. presidential election saying “Even if the president … Continue reading
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police said one person died and seven were injured in clashes in the capital on Friday that followed a protest by hard-line Muslims demanding the arrest of the city’s minority-Christian governor for alleged blasphemy. Jakarta police spokesman Awi Setiyono said an elderly man died, possibly from the effects of tear … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces and their allies on Monday captured strategic high ground in embattled Aleppo as Russia — a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad — said it was not planning more “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in the city’s eastern, rebel-held districts. The fighting in Aleppo came as airstrikes hit … Continue reading
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Virginia taxi driver has pleaded guilty to trying to help a friend join the Islamic State group. Mahmoud A.M. Elhassan of Woodbridge was arrested in January after a government sting operation. Elhassan and a friend, Joseph Farrokh, discussed their support of the Islamic State with an individual who turned out … Continue reading
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel suspended cooperation with UNESCO on Friday, a day after the U.N. cultural agency adopted a draft resolution that Israel says denies the deep historic Jewish connection to holy sites in Jerusalem. UNESCO’s draft resolution, titled “Occupied Palestine” and sponsored by several Arab countries, uses only the Islamic name for a hilltop … Continue reading
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president said Wednesday that Abu Sayyaf militants may have plotted to kill him and kidnap boxing star Manny Pacquiao, disclosing previously unknown details about an extremist group blamed for the beheading of a Canadian hostage. President Benigno Aquino III said the Muslim militants also wanted to explode bombs in … Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Jamaica defended its decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. Iran said it seized 620 tons of different types of drugs last year and is helping protect the world from “the evils of addiction.” Cuba opposed the legalization of drugs or declaring them harmless. The first U.N. General Assembly special … Continue reading
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The suicide bombing in the city of Lahore on Easter underscores how Pakistan’s Christian minority has become an easy target for the country’s Islamic militants, although Muslims also were among the victims. There are barely 2.5 million Christians in the mostly Muslim country of 180 million, and they say they worry about … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 