Palestinian prisoners end mass hunger strike
AP, Jerusalem
Hundreds of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners ended their 40-day fast on Saturday after reaching a compromise with Israel for additional family visits, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. Israel prison service spokeswoman Nicole Englander said the inmates declared an end to the strike Saturday morning. She said it came after Israel reached a deal with the Palestinian Authority and the Red Cross for prisoners to receive a second family visit each per month.
Six Islamic State suspects held in Malaysia
Reuters, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian authorities have arrested six local men for suspected involvement with the Islamic State militant group, police said on Saturday.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has been on the watch for Islamic State-linked militants since an attack last year by the group in Jakarta, the capital of neighboring Indonesia.
Inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said in a statement that the six suspects were detained from separate raids in four states from May 23-26.
2 men stabbed to death in Portland
Reuters, Portland
Two men were stabbed to death in the US city of Portland on Friday when they tried to stop their attacker from harassing two women because they appeared to be Muslim, police said.
The incident unfolded on a commuter train hours before the start of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, when most of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims observe a religious fast. The attack began shortly before 4:30 pm when a man started yelling ethnic and religious slurs toward two women who appeared to be Muslim on a MAX train at the Hollywood Transit Station, the Portland Police Department said in a statement.
Taliban car bomb kills 6 in Afghan city
AFP, Khost
A Taliban car bomber killed 13 people in Afghanistan’s Khost city on Saturday, in the first major attack at the start of the holy month of Ramadan that targeted a CIA-funded militia group.
It is the latest in a series of assaults on Western-backed forces as the Taliban step up their annual spring offensive and the insurgency expands more than 15 years after they were ousted from power in a US-led invasion.
