El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the notorious Islamic State kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles," was found guilty of all charges on Thursday for the deaths of four American hostages in Syria.
A federal jury convicted Elsheikh, 33, a former British national, of eight counts after a two-week trial, the most significant prosecution of an IS militant in the United States.
El Shafee Elsheikh, a member of the notorious Islamic State kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles," was found guilty of all charges on Thursday in the deaths of four American hostages in Syria.
A jury convicted Elsheikh, 33, a former British national, of all eight counts after a two-week trial, the most significant prosecution of an IS member in the United States.
El Shafee Elsheikh, convicted on all charges in the deaths of four American hostages, went to Syria a decade ago with two childhood friends from London to wage jihad against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Elsheikh, Alexanda Amon Kotey and Mohamed Emwazi ended up joining the Islamic State and forming a notorious kidnap-and-murder cell known as the "Beatles."
"They grew up together, radicalized together, fought as high-ranking IS fighters together and tortured and terrorized hostages together," prosecutor Raj Parekh said in his closing arguments at Elsheikh's trial.
Motorists in Iraq formed long queues for fuel Thursday after some owners of filling stations shut off their pumps to protest government policies on fuel distribution and pricing.
Some government-run fuel stations have been ordered to operate around the clock to meet demand, the official news agency INA reported.
Dozens of vehicles were lined up at stations that remained open.
Prominent Algerian newspaper Liberte printed its last issue on Thursday, three decades after it was established and a week after its owner, the country's richest man, decided to liquidate it.
The French-language daily newspaper's front page resembled an obituary, with a black band at the top and the title in red: "Thank you and goodbye."
"After 30 years of intellectual adventure, Liberte is finished," the first page read.
The war in Ukraine has "multiplied risks" for the Middle East and North Africa's poorer countries by raising food and energy prices, the World Bank said Thursday, warning of potential social unrest.
In its latest update to its MENA growth forecast, the development lender said inflationary pressures set off by Covid-19 "are likely to be exacerbated" by Russia's invasion.
Lebanon on Thursday ordered the demolition of Beirut's grain silos which are at risk of collapse following a devastating 2020 port explosion, prompting protests from relatives of blast victims who want the silos preserved.
"We tasked the Council for Development and Reconstruction with supervising the demolition process," Information Minister Ziad Makari said after a cabinet meeting, without specifying a time frame.
Three Palestinians died Thursday as Israeli forces launched fresh raids into the West Bank flashpoint district of Jenin, a week after a gunman from the area went on a deadly shooting spree in Tel Aviv.
Israel has poured additional forces into the West Bank and is reinforcing its wall and fence barrier with the occupied territory after four deadly attacks in the Jewish state that have claimed 14 lives, most of them civilians, in the past three weeks.
"Shaggy," "messy," "unprofessional". Natural curls were once looked down upon in Egypt, where Western beauty standards favoured sleek, straight locks. Now, things are changing.
For Rola Amer and Sara Safwat, their curls were once a career-hindering nuisance. Now part of an aesthetic liberation movement sweeping Egypt in recent years, they own a curly hair salon that caters to women and men like them.
Amer used to spend hours straightening her bouncy curls, she told AFP as she began her day at the Curly Studio, which became Egypt's first natural hair salon in 2018.
Two Palestinians were killed early Thursday as Israeli forces raided the West Bank district of Jenin on the sixth day of operations in the occupied territory, the Palestinian health ministry said.
"Two youths died of injuries sustained in an Israeli attack in the Jenin district," the ministry said in a statement.
The Israeli army said it had been "continuing recent counterterrorism activities", a week after a Jenin man killed three people in Tel Aviv, without commenting on the latest Palestinian deaths.
