A R A B I C A ارابيكا By Kristen Gillespie DEFECTIONDespite persistent reports to the contrary, Syria’s official media continues to deny that soldiers are defecting from the army. A quick tour of YouTube turns up dozens of defector videos. The latest is here, with Ahmed Darwish in uniform and showing his official identity […]
Category: Geopolitics
Reuters obtains video, believed to be from 2005, of Muammar Gaddafi playing with his granddaughter. The Libyan leader’s current whereabouts remain unknown.
Initially, the overthrow of the Taliban had given hope to many Afghans. But 10 years after the Al Qaeda attacks on the U.S. set off a bloody chain of events, the Afghan people seem to have accepted a fate where certain troubles are always bound to return.
Advisors say the former IMF chief will publicly offer his “regrets,” but won’t address details about what happened in the infamous Sofitel hotel room in New York. And if all goes right, he will reclaim his role as a global authority on t
A new amateur video has been unearthed, capturing the cataclysmic power of the tsunami as it hit Japan earlier this year.
Facing surprisingly high obesity rates, the Czech military is forced to crack down on high-fat diets. Some, however, have pointed out that certain plump generals set a bad example for the troops on the ground.
No central bank or state authority to manage the country’s money supply, degenerating schools and universities, no way to know who owns land. Here’s a look at how a stateless country manages to get from one day to the next.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا VANISHEDSyrian security forces are conducting arrests and house-to-house searches seeking any information related to the whereabouts of Hama’s Attorney General, Adnan Bakkour, who announced his resignation last week in a video posted on YouTube. Bakkour condemned the Syrian regime and cited the slaughter of civilians in Hama […]
Op-Ed: Julian Assange and his former German cohort Daniel Domscheit-Berg blame each other for the circulation on the Internet of the identities of secret informants from diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks. Now, with lives in danger, the organization
Making the Palestinian economy and civil society function are key steps toward statehood. A current snapshot shows very mixed results, though continued border checks by Israeli are blamed for choking back progress.
Though he fought along jihadists in Afghanistan, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who leads the Libyan rebels in Tripoli, says in one of his first interviews since taking the capital that he was never allied with Bin Laden, and only wants democracy for Libya.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, some 100,000 young women and teenaged girls are believed to have been lured from their homes in Ukraine with false promises, winding up victims of human trafficking for street prostitution and other parts of the global
South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela went back to his natal village of Qunu in July, and he’s still there. Many South Africans fear it may have been his last trip.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا FREE CITYAhmed Durat, a member of Libya’s National Transitional Council, is calling on all rebels to leave Tripoli and return to their hometowns now that the city has been liberated, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The council has the Libyan capital under control, Durat said. SIN CITYKuwait […]
In a further sign of how far Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi has fallen, a local newspaper – and local residents- openly mock the man who ruled the country with an iron fist for 42 years
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Manila Settlers Scuffle With Police
Violent protests erupted as residents lashed out against plans to demolish the shantytown in the Philippine capital that they call home.
Allied with the rebel leader in Tripoli linked to Al Qaeda, Ismail Al-Salabi says he has neither a terrorist past nor political ambitions for the future. He does, however, insist that Libya’s new Constitution emphasize Islam — and has harsh criticism for
A R A B I C A ارابيكا TERMS OF SANCTUARYCNN Arabic is reporting that fleeing Gaddafi family members agreed to certain conditions by the Algerian government before being given sanctuary in that country. A Libyan convoy of seven cars carrying 31 people, including Gaddafi family members, arrived at the Algerian border at 8:45 Monday […]
At a makeshift prison outside of Tripoli, foreign soldiers – as young as 14 – await an uncertain fate. The Libyan rebel army colonel overseeing the inmates tells an Italian reporter that human rights will be respected. The prisoners don’t seem to believe
The French President’s office vehemently denies the allegations, to be published in a new book, that he was directly involved in a corruption scandal that shook his party last year. The case comes as Sarkozy prepares for his reelection bid next year.
For many Africans khat is a stimulant drug that also stills hunger pangs. But the world’s biggest seller of khat doesn’t fit the typical profile of a drug dealer. Indeed, throughout much of the continent it is legal.
Abdel Hakim Belhadj, who leads the rebel forces in Tripoli, was a founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and is believed to have been close to bloodthirsty head of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا ACROSS THE BORDERMuammar Gaddafi’s wife, daughter Aisha and sons Mohammed and Hannibal have fled to Algeria. The Foreign Ministry of Algeria officially confirmed the Gaddafi family members are on Algerian soil following reports over the weekend that a convoy of six armored vehicles crossed the Libyan desert […]
Last week’s crash of Russian space supply ship Progress is the fourth Russian launch failure in nine months. With NASA’s Space Shuttle now decommissioned, there are concerns over whether Russia can be relied on to deliver supplies to the Internat
Op-Ed: Conservatism is on the rise in Europe as once popular social democratic parties fail again and again to energize voters. The left has only itself to blame, having jumped blindly on the free-market bandwagon and abandoned its traditional working-cla
The Arab spring hit its zenith in Tahrir Square in Cairo, but the next challenge is just as important, if not quite as glamorous: bringing real democracy to local politics, from trash collection to schools to health care.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا LIBYA TODAYLibyan rebels are launching an offensive in the western part of the country, as well as a push toward Muammar Gaddafi’s historical stronghold of Sirte. One rebel military official predicts, “God willing, we will finish soon.” LIBYA TOMORROWLibyan commentator Saleh al-Sanusi writes on Al Jazeera’s website […]
Among the documents found in the dead terrorist leader’s house in Pakistan was one that appears to have been destined for a terrorist operative in Düsseldorf who was planning an attack in Germany.
Though charges of sexual assault were dropped this week in New York against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a political future in France is not guaranteed for the man once thought to be Nicolas Sarkozy’s strongest challenger. Still, France’s opp
Western intelligence sources say that this past spring, North Korea passed a highly specialized computer program on to the Ministry of Defense in Tehran that could give Iran crucial know-how for making nuclear weapons.
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Libya: Nicolas Sarkozy’s War
From the outset, the French President saw the battle for Libya in very personal terms — as both a chance to make his mark in history, and rebound politically.
Amidst — and beyond — the rebel bombs and Gaddafi’s bunkers, the people of the Libyan capital finally feel free to speak out, and say what the upheaval means for them.
A R A B I C A ارابيكا BATTLE OF TRIPOLIViolent clashes continued on Wednesday in Muammar Gaddafi’s last stronghold in the Libyan capital. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Tripoli reports that Gaddafi’s headquarters in the Bab al-Aziziya district was hit by mortar shells fired from a nearby neighborhood. “There are snipers on the buildings in […]
Another top official in a city north of Moscow was gunned down this week after he took on allegedly corrupt local forces. Some 40 top municipal officials have been targeted over the past decade.
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Where Is Muammar?
The longer the fight to gain control of Tripoli lasts, the more Muammar Gaddafi’s whereabouts become the central question. Has he left the country? Or is he hiding in a maze of tunnels beneath the capital city? Or an artificial underground river below the
Japan’s March 11 tsunami smashed head on into tiny Oshima Island. Five months later, recovery is slow, especially since Oshima – like many other isolated islets – has been left to fend for itself. One bright spot is a volunteer group calling itself the “k
As rebel troops launch what appears to be a final assault on the famously fortified compound on the outskirts of Tripoli, an Italian reporter recounts the legends and his own personal experience within the gates of Bab-el Aziza.
As charges are dropped in New York against the former IMF chief, Le Monde blasts the American practice of the “perp walk,” which left Strauss-Kahn’s reputation in tatters. The French daily, however, reserves ultimate blame for a
Bad blood abounds along the Chinese-Russian border. But the lives of the borderland’s Russian and Chinese residents are also intertwined. In the Russian city of Chita, university students have the option to study German or French, but tend to prefer Manda
A R A B I C A ارابيكا LIBYA: DANGERWith Libyan state television now off the air, a key indicator that the regime is about to fall, a spokesman for the rebels remains cautious. “As long as Gaddafi is free, danger remains,” said Mohammed Abdul Rahman. LIBYA: DAUGHTERThe network also reports the rebels as having […]