It has been said: “Football is a game played for gentlemen by hooligans.” However, is has long been obvious that, in fact, football is a game played by hooligans for hooligans, as well as properly behaved folk. Last weekend, the Egyptian authorities suspended indefi

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud bloc is leading in opinion polls ahead of that country’s March 17 early general elections. The latest poll gave right-wing Likud 26 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, while 24 seats were projected for its nearest rival

The depredations of the so-called Islamic State have forced US President Barack Obama and his advisors to rethink their attitude towards President Bashar Assad and his government in Damascus. When asked late last year if the US still actively discussing ways to remove Assad as p

Catholic bishop of Jos Ignatius Kaigama accused the international community of lacking determination to tackle Boko Haram, the extremist movement which has slain thousands and taken hundreds prisoner in northeastern Nigeria. He questioned last weekend's demonstrations in France

With the end of combat missions by US-led NATO troops, the ill-trained and overstretched Afghan army is having to assume responsibility for conducting the battle against the Taliban, which has gone over to the offensive and recently regained territory lost to NATO forces. While

Hamas has been criticised in liberal Western quarters for barring the visit to Israel of 37 children orphaned by Israel’s 50-day offensive against Gaza that killed 2,160 Gazans and wounded 6,000 last summer. Those chosen for the visit were children of slain combatant fathe

  The cost of the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State has surpassed the $1 billion mark. US and allied fliers have flown more than 13,000 combat missions and dropped 4,000 munitions.

In the run-up to Christmas, senior Christian and Muslim figures have called on the Christians of this region, home to all three Abrahamic faiths, to stay on in spite of the violence perpetrated by the Islamic State (IS), Jabhat Al Nusra and other extremists against all who do not

On Tuesday, UNHCR convened a gathering in Geneva with the aim of pressing wealthy countries to provide $7.2 billion in financial assistance for Syrian refugees and to offer asylum or resettlement for 130,000 of the 3.2 million registered refugees now living in Jordan, Lebanon, Tu