New York, Reuters—A seemingly unrepentant Suleiman Abu Ghaith, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday in New York following his conviction on terrorism charges. A Manhattan federal jury in March found the Kuwaiti-born 48-year-old guilty of conspiring to kill Amer
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi said in a meeting at the presidential palace on Tuesday that the Houthi takeover of Sana’a came as a result of “a foreign and internal plot,” warning that the current crisis could plunge the country into “civil war.” “There is a foreign
Beirut and London, Reuters/Asharq Al-Awsat—US-led forces carried out at least 13 airstrikes in Syria close to the Iraqi border on Wednesday, a second day of targeting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants who have seized land on both sides of the frontier, a group that tracks the Syrian w
United Nations, AP—World leaders on Tuesday were in agreement at a United Nations summit as to how seriously they took global warming . US President Barack Obama pressed other countries to follow the United States’ lead on the issue, even as the summit revealed the many obstacles that stand in
Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraqi Prime Minster Haider Al-Abadi launched a major re-organization of Iraq’s top military leadership on Tuesday, in a step many observers say was aimed at defusing growing public anger over Iraqi military defeats at the hands of radical Islamist militants. State-owned medi
The fall of Yemen’s state institutions into the hands of the Houthis without any significant resistance is a remarkable development. More interestingly, Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday that a verbal altercation had occurred between the Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Gen. Ali Mohsin A
Gaza and Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat—Residents of the Gaza Strip are anxious about the whereabouts of their young relatives who fled Gaza earlier this month in the hope of finding a better life elsewhere. Their disappearance follows the tragic news that a large number of Gazans were among migran
Yemen’s capital Sana’a has been both attacked from the outside and stabbed in the back by insiders. The prime minister and the interior minister staged a coup against the state in favor of the assailants, while Houthis shelled the city from all sides. Sana’a suffered a sad and difficult night, openi
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—As one of Muammar Gaddafi’s closest aides, Ahmed Gaddaf Al-Dam—also Gaddafi’s cousin—was often sent by the late dictator to put out fires abroad caused by Gaddafi’s own, often idiosyncratic, foreign policies. However, on one occasion in 1977, Gaddaf Al-Dam jumped t
Canberra, AP—A man was shot dead and two counter-terrorism police were stabbed in a confrontation in Australia’s second largest city on Tuesday, police said. It was not immediately clear whether the violence was related to a recent call from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) gro
Manama, Asharq Al-Awsat—Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued a royal decree on Monday reducing the number of governorates in the island kingdom, in a step aimed at achieving electoral balance ahead of the parliamentary and municipal elections scheduled for November. Under the new decree, Ba
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—British Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani at the UN in New York this week in a sign of improving relations between the two countries and growing mutual fears of the spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The meeting, expect
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—Military and security commanders loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh have “colluded” with Houthi rebels, facilitating their full takeover of state buildings in the capital Sana’a, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday. According to the source, supporters of
Beijing, Reuters—A Chinese court on Tuesday jailed for life the country’s most prominent advocate for the rights of Muslim Uighur people, a sentence that rights advocates said sent a clear signal that the government is determined to suppress dissent. Economics professor Ilham Tohti, 44,
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia is heading for a “new renaissance” thanks to the farsighted vision of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz and the structural reforms he has put in place during the previous years, Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz said on Monday, in a sp
Washington and Beirut, Reuters—The United States launched air and missile strikes with Arab allies in Syria for the first time on Tuesday, killing dozens of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters and members of a separate Al-Qaeda-linked group, and widening its new war in the Middle E
She was probably smiling for the camera behind her niqab (full face veil), this young medical student from Britain who calls herself “Bint Osama” on her Twitter profile, as she carried in her hand a severed head. We do not know to whom this head belonged, nor do we know what led its owner to [&helli
Kiev, Reuters—Ukraine’s military said on Monday it was pulling back artillery and heavy armor from the front line with separatists, backing President Petro Poroshenko’s peace plan for a conflict that has cost more than 3,000 lives. Taking a noticeably soft line on the Russian-backed sepa
London and Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Other extremist groups operating in Syria may pose a greater threat to US national security than the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a number of US government and intelligence officials have said. Speaking to the New York Times, the officials highlighted on
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—US Secretary of State John Kerry held a series of meetings on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the Iranian nuclear program in New York on Sunday, in a bid to move the talks forward and strengthen the international coalition against the militant group. According
