Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth has declared that she has reverted to Islam. Booth, who is half-sister to Cherie Blair and a Catholic by birth, switched faith after a recent visit to Iran. A human rights campaigner and journalist, she works for Press TV, Iran’s 24-hour English language international news channel. News of Booth’s conversion surfaced after she was showcased at a rally in London under the banner of Global Peace and Unity ...

The Saudi Shoura Council on October 24 recommended that industrial investments should be promoted in underdeveloped regions. “The recommendations were made by the members of the council based on a detailed study presented by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy,” Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz Al Yahya, assistant secretary-general of the Council said in a statement following the discussions on the existing articles of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF). Yahya pointed out...

Iran will load fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on October 26, a senior MP said, and celebrations will be held to mark what is one of several important steps in the country’s nuclear programme. “The fuel of Bushehr power plant will be loaded to its core tomorrow,” the head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi was quoted as saying on October 25. Iran began fuelling the plant in August and officials have ...

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have scored a political success by gathering leading clerics in the religious bastion of Qom around him in a show of unity after months of in-fighting. Iranian media highlighted pictures on October 21 of a smiling Khamenei sitting with several top Shiite Muslim dignitaries, including some who have been critical since the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last year. The images reinforced Kham...

In a landmark decision, Turkey’s Higher Education Board earlier this month ordered Istanbul University to stop teachers from expelling from classrooms students who do not comply with a ban on the headscarf. It was the latest twist in a long political and legal tussle in Turkey between those who see the garment as a symbol of their faith and those who view it as a challenge to the country’s secular constitution. “I was ready to wear the wig, just like my cousin did,” ...

Israeli reservists critical of their military’s treatment of Palestinians have released new photos that show Israeli soldiers holding assault rifles to the head of a blindfolded Palestinian man and spray-painting “Be right back” on the wall of a Gaza home. The images, released on October 25 by the Breaking the Silence group, are the latest in a series of pictures to surface in recent months showing soldiers mistreating Palestinians. Breaking the Silence said it published t...

The chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat on October 25 accused Israel of undermining the efficacy of the United Nations. Erekat said in a press statement on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the United Nations that the member states pledged through the UN Charter to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, promote human rights and “establish the conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of intern...

Illegal forest clearing fires in Indonesia’s Sumatra Island are sending haze across the Malacca Strait to neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore, causing the worst air pollution since 2006. The haze prompted Malaysia to alert vessels in the Malacca Strait of poor visibility as short as two nautical miles and shut many schools. Singapore, covered in thick smoke last week, saw its three-hour Pollutant Standards Index recording rise to an “unhealthy” range of 10...