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Sunday, March 01 2015
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News from the Middle East
US, UK missions in Yemen to resume work from Aden: Sources
The US and UK embassies in Yemen are set to resume operations within days, but from the southern city of Aden, diplomatic sources said Sunday.
Yemen's Hadi declares Sanaa 'occupied capital'
Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said Sunday that capital Sanaa is "occupied" by the Shia Houthi movement, describing the recent Houthi takeover of government as a "coup."
Iranian flight lands in Sanaa for 1st time in 25 years
A direct flight from Tehran arrived on Sunday to Yemeni capital Sanaa, the first by Iranian airlines since the unification of Yemen in 1990.
Iranian security services close Khomeni website
The Iranian security services have closed a news website operated by the family of the founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Aytollah Khomeni, Anadolu has reported.
Palestinian tanneries at risk of closure
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES
In the years before the establishment of the State of Israel, caravans and traders from neighbouring Arab states crossed open borders bringing hides from Damascus, Beirut and Cairo that fed the work of Palestine's tanneries alongside local materials. Today, the fe...
Gulf states move embassies to Aden
The UAE and Kuwait said on Friday that their embassies in Yemen have moved to the southern city of Aden, one day after Saudi Arabia took the same step. The relocation of the embassies from the capital Sana'a to Yemen's economic hub underlines their support for President Abd-Rabbu...
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News from Africa
Libya's Tobruk-backed army slams UK diplomat
The command of the Tobruk-backed army on Saturday denounced remarks made earlier by a British diplomat before the United Nations Security Council on Libya.
Arab revolutions faced by 'stagnant global capitalism'
Arab thinker Samir Amin said on Friday that the Arab revolutions are faced by a "stagnant global capitalism" that opposes the emergence of new democracies and the peaceful transfer of authority in nation states. "This capitalism deviated the track of the revolutions in a number o...
Egypt sentences four Brotherhood members to death for HQ violence
An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced four Muslim Brotherhood members to death - two in absentia - over charges of killing demonstrators outside the group's headquarters in 2013, a judicial source has said.
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News from Europe and Russia
Erdogan welcomes 'call on terror group to disarm'
A call towards disarmament of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, marks the realization of a key expectation of the Turkish government but what matters is implementation, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday.
Turkey condemns ISIS kidnapping of Christians in Syria
Turkey harshly condemned Saturday Daesh attacks on predominantly Assyrian Christian villages in the northeast Syrian province of Hasakah, where the group is thought to have kidnapped dozens civilians.
Belgium to send 35 soldiers to Iraq
Belgium is to send 35 soldiers to Iraq to help train the Iraqi army in the fight against ISIS, AFP reported on Friday. The troops are expected to leave today on a six-month tour of duty in a "secure location", a government statement revealed.
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News from Asia, the Americas, & International Organisations
PLO, PA to appeal against US court that sued Palestinians
A senior member of Fatah's Central Committee, Nabil Shaath, said on Wednesday that the PLO and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are going to appeal against the US jury that ordered them to pay $218.5m for Israeli-Americans hurt or killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel between 200...
UNSC backs Hadi as Yemeni president
The UN Security Council has given unanimous backing to Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi as "the legitimate president of Yemen" and reaffirmed its strong commitment to the country's unity, AP reported yesterday.
Kerry, Abbas discuss Israeli withholding of Palestinian tax revenues
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas discussed on Wednesday in a telephone conversation Israel's withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, a senior Palestinian official said.
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Latest In-Depth Articles
Abdullah Öcalan and a strategic case for mercy
Abdullah Öcalan should be dead, but instead he is suing for peace. The renewed efforts at Turkey-PKK peace show that pragmatic politics remain strategically superior to the Manichaeism of zero-sum 'counter-terrorism'.
The Saudi transformation and the Egyptian concern
It is clear that Egypt has been hit by anxiety after the death of King Abdullah bin Abd Al-Aziz. It is also obvious that the source of this anxiety is the Egyptian apprehension about the political inclinations of the new Saudi Monarch, King Salman bin Abd Al-Aziz. This anxiety ha...
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MEMO Commentary & Analysis
A perfect gift for Egypt's failing regime
The callous murder of 21 Copts in Libya over the weekend was a welcome gift to the military-led regime in Egypt. Like the senseless killings in Paris, it offered an opportunity for the government in Cairo to present itself as a deserving and credible partner in the great "war on ...
DEBATE by Ben White
NGOs slam 'disarmament for development' as Gaza lies in ruins
Leading NGOs have heavily criticised attempts to link the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip with its demilitarisation, ahead of a debate about the issue in Westminster today.
INQUIRY by Asa Winstanley
Spy Cables show America's hypocrisy on Hamas
The publication by Al Jazeera and The Guardian this week of a cache of cables leaked from the files of the South African intelligence services has been enlightening.
