Cape Town, Reuters—Morocco have played down talk of next year’s African Nations Cup being cancelled, while South Africa gave a lukewarm response on Friday to a suggestion they could step in as hosts. Morocco stunned African football last week when they asked that the January 17–February
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—A senior Omani official has said that the inter-Gulf dispute between Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain is close to being solved. In comments to Asharq Al-Awsat following a speech to the Anglo-Omani society in London on Thursday, director-ge
Hong Kong, Reuters—Hong Kong pro-democracy activists recaptured parts of a core protest zone from police early on Saturday after hours of turmoil that the city’s police chief warned undermined order and jeopardised public safety. Dozens of people were injured in the skirmishes, including 15 po
Popular, political and military activity calling for the secession of southern Yemen intensified this week in Aden and Hadramout. The possibility of southern Yemen becoming its own independent state is now closer than at any time before. While unity and division are two issues that concern everyone
The air campaign against the positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have become a source of ridicule and sarcasm in the US media for its meager results and inefficiency in halting the advance of the group’s fighters. Expensive weapons are being used, costly sorties are being carried
Abuja, Reuters—Nigeria said on Friday it had agreed a ceasefire with Islamist militants Boko Haram and reached a deal for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by the group six months ago. There was no immediate confirmation from the rebels, who have wreaked five years of havoc in Afric
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Border Guard forces across the Kingdom’s southern border with Yemen have been placed on high alert after Houthi fighters took control of a key government border post on Thursday. Houthi rebels in control of as many as nine Yemeni provinces have continu
Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) black market oil smuggling operation is continuing to thrive despite escalating air strikes targeting the group’s positions in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi officials and regional oil traders informed Asharq Al-Awsat. Local and regi
Baghdad, AP—The Iraqi government imposed a curfew in the western city of Ramadi on Friday over fears that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) might try to advance on the strategically important city. The curfew began at midnight as part of an effort to limit movement in and out of the city as
Washington, Reuters—President Barack Obama said he was considering appointing an Ebola “tsar” to coordinate the fight against the virus in the United States, but he remained opposed to a ban on travel from West Africa. Obama’s administration is facing sharp criticism from lawmakers
“Yemen is simple,” says a European diplomat working on a report for NATO on the war-torn nation. “The Saudis feed the Yemenis and the Iranians arm them. So, what is left for Yemenis to do, except chew qat and fight each other?” Like all caricatures, this verbal caricature puts the aggrandizing lens
Paris, Asharq Al-Awsat—The overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 was heralded as a new beginning for Libya, a chance to start afresh and use its considerable oil wealth to build a modern, stable, democratic state. As ever, reality has been more complicated, and the destruction of Gadd
Paris, Asharq Al-Awsat—Rarely is the art of an Arab country afforded the attention Moroccan works are now receiving in France. Two exhibitions have simultaneously been dedicated to Morocco: the first will be hosted by the Louvre, the second by the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute). The
Hong Kong, Bloomberg News—Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said his government is ready to meet student leaders next week to discuss the city’s first leadership election as he seeks to end three weeks of pro-democracy protests. He said he hoped a vice chancellor of a Hong Kong univers
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—Southern secessionists in Yemen are demanding that all “Northerners” leave southern Yemen by November 30, a move which follows massive rallies and sit-ins in the country’s south calling for the restoration of South Yemen and its independence, as Houthi rebels continue to spre
Vienna, Reuters—Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday that progress was made in “very difficult” nuclear talks with top US and EU diplomats this week when possible solutions were discussed, sources who attended his briefing for Iranian media said. Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke afte
Washington, AP—The federal government is ramping up its response to the Ebola crisis after a second Dallas nurse became ill and the disclosure that she had been cleared to fly a day before her diagnosis. While Ebola patients are not considered contagious until they have symptoms and only two persons
Yet again, Washington has turned down all calls for safe havens and no-fly zones in Syria’s border areas. It has thus far refused to answer a vital question: If it really believes that “Bashar Al-Assad has no place in the future of Syria,” then what practical steps is it taking to prevent Assad’s mi
In a curious coincidence, the list of candidates for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize included two religious leaders. The Argentinian parliament nominated Pope Francis for his “efforts to bring peace in Syria.” Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the spiritual leader of most of Iraq’s Shi’ites, was nominated
Hezbollah’s media wing and those media outlets aligned with it have recently tried to limit the spread of a video distributed by the Al-Nusra Front which shows an attack on a Hezbollah post in the Lebanese border town of Brital last week. The video shows the corpses of Hezbollah fighters, while Al-N
