David Shadrach

Canadians rally support for Quebec mosque attack 'hero' NEWS / US & CANADA  OPINION Quebec mosque shooting: Beyond the official rhetoric by Kenza Oumlil Canada US & Canada, Derbali, centre, was shot seven times and has two bullets lodged in his spinal chord [Courtesy DawaNet] One of the last things Aymen Derbali remembers is standing in the Quebec City mosque as a gunman opened fire on worshippers all around him. But the father of three did not panic. Instead, he drew the attacker's focus on himself, in the hopes of saving his fellow congregants. "I tried not to panic or flee," Derbali recently told The Globe and Mail. "I tried to concentrate so that he wouldn't fire on others. I would rather have been paralysed for life than to have fled and been left unscathed, without having done something to help people." Six Muslim men were killed in the targeted attack on the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre on January 29. Derbali was shot several times...

1,000 days of war in Yemen, 'land of blood and bombs' NEWS / HOUTHIS WATCH: Yemen conflict marks 1,000 days with no signs of abating (2:44) WATCH: A look at Yemen's malnourishment problem (2:22) Yemen Houthis Saudi Arabia Middle East War & Conflict SIGN UP Hospitals are unable to treat the most basic of illnesses. Thousands of schools have been forced to shut their doors. Bustling neighbourhoods have been completely abandoned. And buildings which stood proud for centuries have been reduced to rubble and dust. Yemen , described by the Romans as the most blessed region in the Arabian peninsula, is on the brink of collapse after 1,000 days of a vicious civil war. Since March 21, 2015, when a coalition led by Saudi Arabia went to war with Houthi rebels, more than 10,000 people have been killed and more than three million have lost their homes. In just 11 days in December, 136 people died as a result of intensified air raids by the Saudi-led military coalition. Famine threat...

Trump threatens to cut aid over UN Jerusalem vote NEWS / DONALD TRUMP  Jerusalem Donald Trump UN United States Palestine The 193-member UNGA is expected to vote on the Jerusalem resolution Thursday [Jason Szenes/EPA] US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut aid to countries that vote in favour of a draft UN resolution condemning the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel . The US president said at the White House on Wednesday the US would be "watching those votes. "They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care," Reuters news agency quoted Trump as saying. The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session on Thursday to vote on the controversial US decision. The motion is expected to pass easily in the 193-member UN body, but it will be non-binding. Threatening letters The preside...

Jerusalem: Haley sends warning letter to UN members NEWS / UN Jerusalem as capital: All the latest United States UN Jerusalem Battle for Jerusalem Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, centre, vetoed an Egyptian-drafted resolution that called on countries to not establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem [Justin Lane/EPA] US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has sent a threatening letter to members of the UN General Assembly ahead of a vote on a resolution against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In the letter, obtained by Haaretz, Haley wrote that US President Donald Trump "will be watching [Thursday's] vote carefully" and "requested I report back on those who voted against us…" The warning came after the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 as it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday against Trump's decision on Jerusalem. Trump announced on December 6 that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel an...

Christmas in Bethlehem: How Trump’s move ruined it NEWS / PALESTINE  Israeli–Palestinian conflict Palestine Middle East, President Donald Trump 's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital looms large in Christmas festivities this year in the traditional birthplace of Jesus. Some food vendors, sellers of holiday trinkets and a leading hotelier in biblical Bethlehem say Palestinian protests, triggered by what many here view as a provocative show of pro-Israel bias, have hurt their Christmas business. Yet Bethlehem also offers a stage for a Palestinian rebuttal: banners proclaiming Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine have been draped over facades on Manger Square as a backdrop for Christmas TV broadcasts to a global audience. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is keenly felt - perhaps even more so at Christmas - in Bethlehem, just a few miles (kilometres) south of contested Jerusalem. Israel's separation wall cuts into Bethlehem and a segment of it has become a t...

Partial blinding of Syrian baby sparks viral campaign NEWS / MIDDLE EAST  Syrian children suffer in camps, no relief in sight Syria's Civil War Middle East Social media Twitter A Syrian boy places a hand over his eye in solidarity with Karim [Anadolu] An image of a heavily scarred Syrian baby whose mother wailled in an artillery barrage launched by government forces has sparked an outpouring of sympathy on Twitter and other social media platforms. The three-month-old child, known only by his first name Karim, lost his left eye and suffered wounds to his skull in the attacks on the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta . A portrait of Karim by the Syrian refugee artist Fares Jasem, which depicts a rose covering the child's scars, helped garner social media awareness about the boy's plight, with some describing him as a symbol of the suffering children in Syria have undergone since the civil war started in 2011. Activists launched a number hashtags in solidarity with Ka...