WikiLeaks founder set for UK extradition verdict

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out on Wednesday whether he can be extradited from Britain to Sweden, as the Supreme Court hands down its judgment at the end of a marathon legal battle. Britain’s highest court is Assange’s final avenue of appeal … Read More

Al-Qaeda branch seizes key Mali arms depot as crisis deepens

An Al-Qaeda offshoot has seized a key arms depot in Mali, security sources said Sunday, deepening the crisis facing the country after rebels declared an independent Islamic state in the north. The underground weapons and ammunition depot in the strategic … Read More

Houla killings ‘vile testament’ to ‘inhumane, illegitimate’ Syrian regime: White House

The White House said on Sunday that the recent mass killing of civilians, including women and children, in the Syrian town of al-Houla was a further evidence of an inhuman and illegitimate Syrian government. “These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime … Read More

Sudan’s Bashir ready to pull troops from Abyei: Carter

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has said he is ready to pull troops from a disputed border area with South Sudan, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Sunday, describing it as a major step toward achieving peace between the neighbors. Sudan and South Sudan … Read More

Ex-Mubarak aide Zakaria Azmi sentenced to 7 years for graft

A Cairo criminal court on Sunday sentenced ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s former chief of staff to seven years in jail on corruption charges, a judicial source told AFP news agency. Zakaria Azmi was also ordered to pay a fine of 38 million … Read More

U.S. drones kill five militants in Pakistan: officials

A U.S. drone attack early Monday killed at least five militants in a northwestern Pakistan tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said. The attack took place in Hassokhel town, 25 kilometers (16 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of … Read More

Saudi women to join national guards ‘soon’: official

Head of the Saudi National Guard Prince Mitaab Bin Abdullah said he will create a department within the organization to recruit female soldiers soon, according to a newspaper report. The Saudi newspaper, Okaz, quoted on Thursday Prince Abdullah saying that a new study … Read More

Al-Qaeda identifies suicide bomber that killed troops in Yemen

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has identified the suicide bomber behind last week’s deadly attack on troops that killed nearly 100 soldiers, according to a statement posted online. A picture of Haitham Hamid Hussein Moufarrah dressed in traditional Yemeni garb was … Read More

Rocket kills two at Pakistani market: police

Rockets fired by suspected insurgents Saturday killed two people and wounded 20 others in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern city of Quetta, police and hospital officials said. One rocket which landed at a busy market killed a 17-year-old boy and wounded 18 … Read More

More than 13,000 killed in Syria since revolt outbreak: NGO

More than 13,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP on Sunday. “In total, 13,004 people were killed,” Abdel Rahman said, adding … Read More

Tens of thousands protest against Islamist-led Moroccan government

Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets of Casablanca on Sunday in the largest opposition protest since an Islamist-led government took office in January, according to AFP news agency. The protest was organized by trade unions which accuse Prime … Read More

Singapore’s ruling party misses comeback chance

A solid by-election win for Singapore’s opposition shows the ruling party has a long way to go before winning back voter support after its worst-ever showing in polls last year, analysts say. The People’s Action Party (PAP), which has run Singapore since … Read More

Maaden signs $1.5 billion aluminum refinery contract

Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has awarded a $1.5 billion contract to South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. to build an aluminum refinery in the kingdom, a bourse statement said on Sunday. The refinery, to be constructed in the Eastern Province, … Read More

Saudi Arabian Airlines gets catering unit IPO approval

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has given approval to Saudi Arabian Airlines for an initial public offering of 30 percent of its catering unit, the regulator said in a bourse statement on Sunday. The long-awaited share-sale in Saudi Airlines Catering … Read More

UAE eyes June opening for pipeline bypassing Hormuz

A pipeline being built by the United Arab Emirates to pump most of its oil exports from east coast terminals bypassing the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz, will be operational in June, the ruler of Fujairah told AFP in an interview. “The pipeline will be … Read More

Cairo shares plunge 3.49% after landmark vote

Share prices on the Egypt Exchange declined almost 3.5 percent on Sunday, a day after the first results of a landmark presidential election. The main EXG-30 index shed 3.49 percent to reach 4,789.14 points at closing in the bourse’s the first session since … Read More

Watching dissidents is a booming business in China

Every workday at 7:20 a.m., colleagues pick up Yao Lifa from his second-floor apartment and drive him to the elementary school where he taught for years. This is no car pool. Yao is a prisoner, part of a China boom in outsourced police control. … Read More

Egypt’s new president must hit the ground running or face Tahrir

Egypt’s new president will have to deliver – and fast - on a number of pressing economic issues. For one, he faces the mammoth task of creating jobs for the 3.38 million unemployed, 77% of whom are between the ages of 15 and 29 according to official government data. He’ll … Read More

Cannes jury hunkers down in Palme d’Or final straight

Tales of love, mobsters, an exorcism gone wrong and a wacky shape-shifter were hot favorites for the Palme d’Or as the Cannes festival jury hunkered down ahead of Sunday night’s award ceremony. Italian jury head Nanni Moretti and his eight jurors headed … Read More

Syria grain trade, bread shortage risk signals alarm for Assad

Syria is struggling to meet its grain import needs because of sanctions, raising the risk of bread shortages that could sap public support for President Bashar al-Assad as he tries to snuff out a 15-month-old uprising. Trade sources said a reluctance among foreign … Read More

‘Love’ by Michael Haneke wins top prize at Cannes film festival

Austrian director Michael Haneke won the Cannes film festival’s top honor, the Palme d’Or, on Sunday with “Love” (Amour), his acclaimed tale of an elderly couple facing the inescapable, yet no less tragic march of death. Haneke joins an elite group of two-time winners … Read More

With ostriches and chess, U.S. campaign ad goes viral

Politicians are famous for tooting their own horns, but not many would offer up riding an ostrich as a qualification to be elected to a congressional seat. So meet Jeff Barth, bidding to be the Democratic candidate to run against a Republican incumbent to … Read More

Ferrero leads the way into French second round

Former champion Juan Carlos Ferrero disappointed the crowd while Juan Martin del Potro overcame a knee injury as both men reached the second round of the French Open on a gentle opening day on Sunday. Ferrero knocked out battling local player, and Roland Garros … Read More

Prince Ali stunned by FIFA experts’ hijab knock back

Evidence from FIFA’s medical experts on why the ban on Muslim women footballers wearing the Islamic headscarf or hijab should remain in place was deeply flawed and had no foundation, the campaign’s principal supporter said on Friday. Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, … Read More

Eman El-Shenawi: Egypt doesn’t want to be led by Islamists

He lacks charisma, notoriety, intensity and political depth. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) candidate is not the president many Egyptians had in mind. He wasn’t even what the MB first had in mind. Mohammed Mursi, a replacement candidate for the Islamist bloc’s first … Read More

Dina al-Shibeeb: Why a Mubarak-era man’s ascent to power in Egypt shouldn’t cause shock

A veteran from ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, who had shoes and rocks thrown at him more than once, has shocked many by coming in second place in the first round of the country’s presidential elections race. The rise (once again) of former prime minister … Read More