Potsikum, Reuters—A suicide bomber dressed as a student killed at least 48 people, most of them students, and injured 79 others at a school assembly in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum on Monday, a hospital official said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in Yobe Sta
Erbil and Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was wounded and his deputy killed in a coalition airstrike on an ISIS vehicle convoy outside the Iraqi city of Mosul on Friday evening, the Iraqi defense minister said on Sunday. Khaled Al-Obaidi sa
Beirut and Damascus, AP—Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has said a ceasefire proposal for the embattled northern city of Aleppo, which has been raised by the UN envoy to the country, is “worth studying.” The official SANA news agency reported Assad’s remarks, saying they came duri
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—The new Yemeni government headed by Prime Minister Khaled Bahah was sworn in on Sunday at the Presidential Palace in Sana’a in front of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Faris Al-Saqaf, an adviser to President Hadi, told Asharq Al-Awsat the new government’s “being swor
Beijing, Reuters—After an awkward handshake, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held formal talks on Monday for the first time since the two leaders took office, a breakthrough in efforts to improve ties between the Asian rivals. Television footage showed Abe waiting
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Though the situation in Libya has steadily grown more complex and confusing to outsiders since the revolution that toppled Gaddafi with NATO help in 2011, one thing is clear: the country has descended into chaos, with different militias in different parts of the country, with
Last week, the winds of change blew with a vengeance in Saudi Arabia, when armed terrorists opened fire on visitors to a Shi’ite Husseiniyah (meeting house) in the Al-Ahsa province, killing eight people, among them three children. True, this is not the first time Saudi Arabia has witnessed a crime o
Muscat, Reuters—Iran, the United States and European Union will hold an unscheduled second day of talks on Monday on disagreements blocking resolution of a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, a US official and Iranian state media said. With two weeks to a deadline for a comprehensive accord
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Tensions have arisen within the main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, over the visit of its former leader Moaz Al-Khatib to Moscow over the weekend, according to a senior member within the organization. Samir Nashar told Asharq Al-Awsat Khatib
Barcelona, Reuters—Hundreds of thousands of Catalans voted on Sunday in a symbolic referendum on independence from Spain that supporters hope will propel the issue further despite opposition from Madrid. The “consultation of citizens” in the wealthy northeastern region follows a legal bl
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—Libyan and Egyptian sources speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat have denied reports that Egyptian cargo planes entered Libyan airspace during the past few days to supply armed groups allied to the Tobruk-based government with weapons and ammunition. A statement on Saturday, from the f
Sana’a, AP—Yemen has sworn in a new government despite objections from the ruling party, led my former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and allied Shi’ite rebels who control the capital. Thirty ministers were sworn in on Sunday. Another three rejected their appointments, and three were outs
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—If any group could be said to have powerful enemies these days, it is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), making a certain amount of paranoia on the part of the organization and its leaders understandable. It is therefore not surprising that it has just made it
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—The alleged perpetrators of last week’s attack on a Shi’ite meeting house in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahsa province received funds from abroad just days before they carried out the operation, an informed source within the Kingdom’s security apparatus told Asharq Al-Awsat. Speaking b
The only argument that I have heard in response to what I wrote recently about the dangers of extremism—which is still spreading—is to ask why we should seek to contain extremists in our community while there are extremists of all nationalities and religious doctrines out there. Some wer
Donetsk, Reuters—Heavy shelling around the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk increased strains on a two-month-old ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists on Sunday. Reuters reporters in rebel-held Donetsk said shelling by heavy artillery continued throughout the nig
Baghdad and Washington Reuters—US airstrikes destroyed an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but US officials said on Saturday it was unclear whether the group’s top commander Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi had been in any of the 10 targeted vehicles. Colonel Patr
Muscat, Asharq Al-Awsat—Omani Foreign Minister Youssef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah has been his country’s top diplomat since 1982 and is the only Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign minister who is not a member of his country’s ruling family. Alawi is known to be a close confidant to Oman’s Sult
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Well-known Egyptian writer Ahmed Khaled Towfik once wrote: “In fact, people in Egypt are fortunate. They do not need to read horror fiction in order to rehearse death. Horror—particularly its worst kind: fear of tomorrow—is a permanent sojourner with them.” It is pitiful that
Berlin, AP—Tensions between the major powers have pushed the world closer to a new Cold War, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Saturday. The 83-year-old accused the West, particularly the United States, of giving in to “triumphalism” after the collapse of the Soviet Union and t
