London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Fighters from Ugandan militias affiliated with Africa’s most wanted man, Joseph Kony, are present in the border region between Sudan and South Sudan, key opposition figures in Khartoum said. Sudan’s opposition Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) accused the Khartoum governmen
Nouakchott, Asharq Al-Awsat—Mauritanian presidential candidate and human rights activist Biram Dah Abeid stood in front of dozens of his supporters, adjusted his black turban, and began his speech by talking about his intention to free all slaves in Mauritania, known collectively as Haratin. “I will
Erbil, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraqi troops who fled the advance of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters into Mosul have denied that they abandoned their posts, saying that they had received orders to flee from up the chain of command. Iraqi military forces have received strong criticism after IS
Kabul, AP—Amid tight security, Afghans lined up Saturday to vote in a presidential runoff between two candidates who both promise to improve ties with the West and combat corruption as they confront a powerful Taliban insurgency and preside over the withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of th
Ankara, Reuters—Iran could contemplate cooperating with its old adversary the United States on restoring security to Iraq if it saw Washington confronting “terrorist groups in Iraq and elsewhere”, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday. Rouhani, a relative moderate who has pre
Salvador, Brazil, Associated Press—Louis van Gaal, one of the game’s greatest coaches, was criticized before the World Cup for being too defensive for a nation that loves attacking play. His decision to field five defenders against Spain, though, proved a masterstroke. His team thrashed the de
Kiev and Moscow, Reuters—Ukraine began preparing on Friday for Russia to cut off its gas after talks on long-running price dispute broke down, raising the prospect of supplies to the European Union also being disrupted from Monday. Kiev was still scrambling late on Friday to arrange talks before Mon
Yemen’s fuel crisis began in 2011, at the height of the Arab Spring, a time when political activists backed by Yemen’s opposition called for the immediate resignation of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Back then, Yemen’s fuel crisis was seen as a byproduct of the uprising, an ailment brought upon
Diyarbakır, Reuters—Turkish security forces fired tear gas and water cannon in dawn operations on Wednesday against Kurdish demonstrators blocking highways in southeast Turkey, in an effort to end protests which have spread across the region over the last 12 days. The unrest presents a challenge for
Tripoli and Benghazi, Reuters—Unidentified gunmen fired a rocket propelled grenade at the office of new Libyan Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq on Wednesday, one of his aides said. Nobody was hurt when the projectile hit the building’s kitchen, located on the same floor as Maiteeq’s office,
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—A senior South Sudanese Foreign Ministry official resigned on Tuesday over what he described as Juba’s “lack of sensitivity” towards the armed conflict between government forces and rebels that erupted late 2013. The latest round of talks between the South Sudan government an
Cairo and London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Egyptian President-elect Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will take the oath of office before the Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo on Sunday, after the Presidential Election Commission officially confirmed his election victory on Tuesday. The inauguration ceremony will be
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat—As president-elect Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi prepares to take the helm of Egypt’s government, Egyptians face a long period of uncertainty as the country’s new leadership attempts to turn their hopes for the revival Egypt’s struggling economy and the entrenchment of demo
Tunis, Asharq Al-Awsat—Tunisia’s political parties remain deadlocked on Tuesday over the timing of the country’s next round of elections. Two days of negotiations ended without an agreement on whether the presidential or parliamentary poll should come first. Some also renewed calls for the polls to
Warsaw, AP—President Barack Obama conferred Wednesday with Ukraine’s future leader amid hopes he could guide the nation out of crisis, as Western leaders who had united against Russia diverged on their diplomatic approach. Obama’s meeting with Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw came 10 days afte
There have been no uprisings in Palestine like those we have seen hit several neighboring countries in the region. That is to say, since its seizure of the Gaza Strip and its ejection of the representatives of the Palestinian Authority more than six years ago, Hamas has not faced any pressure from i
It is not strange to see a young man from Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey or Jordan—Syria’s neighbors—fighting alongside the Syrian opposition, or alongside the Assad regime, as this war has brought deep divisions out into the open. It is stranger when fighters from Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen
In the 1920s, Turkey, Iran and Egypt—the three nations that for centuries had set the agenda for Islamic debate and dissent, including the promotion of various heresies—found themselves set on trajectories that led to the unknown. In Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, a n
London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Food and water security has become a major concern over the last fifty years in both developed and developing countries. As global population more than doubled, so did agricultural production—the industry that uses almost 70 percent of the fresh water consumed by humans
Paris, Asharq Al-Awsat—Abdul Halim Khaddam originally met Hafez Al-Assad in the early 1950s when still a student activist, the beginning of a life-long association that would see Khaddam elevated to the posts of foreign minister and then vice-president of Syria. His relationship with Hafez’s son and
