Azerbaijan demolishes former Karabakh Armenian parliament building
Baku, Azerbaijan Reuters Azerbaijani state television broadcast footage on Tuesday showing mechanical diggers destroying the building that once housed the breakaway ethnic Armenian parliament of Nagorno-Karabakh. The televised demolition, with giant metal claws tearing at the masonry of the gutted edifice, demonstratively underlined the restoration of control by Azerbaijan since its forces recaptured Karabakh last […]
Demolition of 300-year-old Iraq mosque minaret for road expansion enrages locals
Basra, IraqReuters The demolition on Friday of a 300-year-old minaret of a mosque in Iraq’s southern city of Basra to make way for road expansion has enraged locals, religious and cultural authorities who condemned it as a further erosion of Iraq’s cultural heritage. Built in 1727, the 11-metre Siraji minaret and its mosque were toppled […]
Bulldozers tear into Cairo’s historic Islamic cemeteries
Cairo, EgyptReuters A project to expand roads and bridges to ease congestion in Cairo has put thousands of tombs in a vast and ancient Islamic cemetery under threat, causing outcry among conservationists and family members. Known as the City of the Dead, the cemeteries along the eastern edge of Historic Cairo have been a resting […]
Life and death in shattered Mariupol – a survivor’s tale of war in Ukraine
Mariupol, Russian-controlled Ukraine Reuters Shells were exploding nearby but Tatiana Bushlanova didn’t flinch when she spoke to Reuters in front of the shattered remains of her home in Mariupol last May. Fighting in the port city has long since ended but the pensioner is still struggling to take in the enormity of what has happened. […]
Lebanon cabinet approves demolition of Beirut silos damaged in port blast
Beirut, LebanonReuters Lebanon’s cabinet on Thursday approved the demolition of the Beirut silos damaged in the August, 2020, port blast which left at least 215 people dead, Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makari said in televised comments after a cabinet session. Makari said the decision was based on a “technical report” that concluded the silos could […]
Christians and Muslims join in opposing church demolition in Baghdad
Christians and Muslims have joined together in opposing the threatened demolition of a church in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The Chaldean Catholic Church of Divine Wisdowm, built in 1929 by British architect James Mollison Wilson in the district of Adhamiya, has reportedly been marked for demolition by authorities as part of a redevelopment program […]