NEWS

By Marwan Bishara Muslims have a long memory and deep distrust of Western motives when it comes to provoking war or invoking Islam. Not a day passes without certain pundits sharing their newfound “insights” about Islam; “Islam at war”, “Islam’s war within”, or “Islam’s inherent violence”, etc. These …

Xinhua Report French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday morning voiced his intention to increase defense budget with an additional fund of 3.8 billion euros available for the next years.     “France is facing threats, serious threats,” said the French president after a Defense council in his presidential office, the …

DPA: German intelligence services spied on top French officials and the European Commission on behalf of the American spy agency NSA, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency helped the National Security Agency (NSA) carry out “political espionage” by surveilling “top officials at the French …

By J.T. and Petra News Agency His Majesty King Abdullah and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed on Wednesday the latest regional and international developments and means to strengthen relations. At a meeting in Ottawa, discussions also covered economic and development cooperation and ways to build on agreements …

Reuters: Iranian naval forces have released a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship impounded on Tuesday in the Persian Gulf. Early news reports said that the Maersk Tigris, with a full crew on board, was directed towards the Iranian island of Qeshm near the southern port of Bandar Abbas after …

In a cabinet reshuffle Wednesday, Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud replaced the country’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal who has held the post since 1975, local media reported. The veteran foreign minister has been replaced with diplomat Adel al-Jubeir, who has served as Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United …

The Bolivian Defense Ministry has already received offers from Brazil, China, Russia and Argentina. The country plans to use jet fighters to intercept drug trafficking across its borders. Russia will deliver to Bolivia 20 new jet fighters if it is awarded with a contract from the Bolivian Defense Ministry, website Horas …

By Marcel Rosenbach, Laura Poitras and Holger Stark From Speigel International Online The US intelligence agency NSA has been taking advantage of the smartphone boom. It has developed the ability to hack into iPhones, android devices and even the BlackBerry, previously believed to be particularly secure. Michael Hayden has …

By Thomas Wright From the National Interest Growing tensions between the West and Russia and between the United States and China go well beyond competing interests in a rustbelt in eastern Ukraine or over uninhabited rocks in the South China Sea. Fundamentally, they are about whether Russia and …