Yemeni army killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants in clashes late on Sunday in Shabwa province, a security official said. One of them is believed to be a senior one. "Three Al-Qaeda members, one of them a top leader, were killed in the deadly exchanges with troops guarding an oilfield in the province”, Middle-east-online.com quotes a security official as saying. The militants opened fire with machine guns at the soldiers who were posted near a foreign o... Read more »

France gave technical and logistical support to Mauritanian troops in a recent military operation against al-Qaeda's North African wing. "The terrorist group targeted by the Mauritanian army is the one that executed a British hostage a year ago and has refused to give proof of life or engage in negotiations to release our compatriot Michel Germaneau," Aljazeera.net quotes the French defence ministry as saying. Mauritanian authorities said that army attacked... Read more »

The head of the militant Shia movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah said that some of its members will be among those charged with the assassination of ex-Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafik Hariri. Mr Hariri and 22 other people were killed in Beirut in a car bomb in 2005. The leader of Hezbollah, said some of the group would be indicted by the UN-backed court (The Special Tribunal for Lebanon) within the coming months. Speaking by video link for security reasons... Read more »

Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir arrived in Chad on Wednesday. This is his first visit to a full member state of the International Criminal Court demanding his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur last year. This month the court added genocide to the list of charges, accusing him of presiding over rape, torture and murder in the remote western regions of Sudan. The ICC said that as a member state Chad was obliged to detain Bashir... Read more »

The United Nations has included U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki of Yemeni origin in its terrorist list. It means that member countries are obliged to freeze his assets and ban his travel, the U.S. State Department announced yesterday. Al-Awlaki has played major role with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as a recruiter planner and trainer. He also took part in planning recent terror attacks in the USA including the failed Christmas Day attempt to t... Read more »

BP signed a major agreement with Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. on Monday to develop two offshore gas fields. This is the largest deal for the beleaguered energy giant since its notorious disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Egypt's petroleum ministry said in a statement that the deal would develop five trillion cubic metres of gas from the North Alexandria Deepwater concession and the Western Mediterranean concession. According to the ministry the fiel... Read more »

Hamas authorities ruling the Gaza strip are banning women from smoking water pipes in cafes and open places, claiming it violates customs, traditions and social norms. The smoking of water pipes loaded with scented tobacco, also known as shisha, is popular in cafes and public places of the Arab countries and was one of the few remaining leisure activities left in the isolated coastal strip. According to policemen, husbands often divorce women seen smoking i... Read more »

Sudanese state media report says that nearly 400 people were killed in recent clashes between the Sudanese army and Darfur's main rebel movement Justice and Equality Movement (Jem). UN peacekeepers in Darfur confirmed that there were at least two major clashes between the two sides earlier this week. Eighty-six soldiers were reportedly killed. Members of the UN peacekeeping mission also said they were investigating reports of a third clash happened in Daba ... Read more »

On the tenth anniversary of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's reign Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a report in which they accused him doing too little to change his country's long-running history of government. "A review of Syria's record shows a consistent policy of repressing dissent regardless of international or regional developments", Aljazeera.net quotes Human Rights Watch report as saying. State security forces have imprisoned at least 92 human... Read more »

A fire in the Soma Hotel in Suleimaniya, northern Iraq, has killed at least 29 people and left many wounded. Four Americans were among the dead, according to bbc.co.uk. Also reportedly killed in the fire were citizens of Sri Lanka, Cambodia and the Philippines, and at least one Canadian. They worked as engineers. Suleimaniya is in northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous area. City authorities said it was likely that the fire was started by an electrical fault, w... Read more »