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Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda won the 2011 World Press Photo of the Year award Friday for an image of a veiled woman holding a wounded relative in her arms after a demonstration in Yemen. ... the image has religious 'almost Biblical' overtones and noted its resemblance in composition to Michelangelo's Pieta -- but in a Muslim setting. ..." - CBC, Feb 10, 2012 "Almost Biblical." Not... even... close... Comparing Michelangelo's Pietà to some snapshot of a burqa-ed Muslim woman holding some injured Yemeni street protester is an ideal example of Westerners wearing rose-colored glasses. Many Western "intellectuals" are bending...

(AP) SANAA, Yemen - U.S. airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active al Qaeda branch killed four suspected militants, including a man suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, officials said Tuesday. Yemeni security and military officials said missiles struck a school and a car late Monday in the southern Abyan province, which has seen large swaths fall under the influence of al Qaeda as the militants seek to exploit the security vacuum since an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began last year. Tribal officials in the area said the strike hit the militants late Monday...

From the State Department: "Ali Abdullah Saleh's request to travel to the U.S. for medical treatment has been approved. As we have indicated, the sole purpose of this travel is for medical treatment and we expect that he will stay for a limited time that corresponds to the duration of this treatment. Specific questions regarding his travel plans should be directed to the Yemeni government."

Yes, that's what the mainstream in Tehran call it, though it seems to be inspiring both camps... in Tehran. The Arab Spring has undoubtedly cast its shadow over the Islamic Republic of Iran and, perhaps, sent refreshing breezes through the streets of the Iranian capital and other cities. Certainly, too, the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen have had a direct impact on the bilateral relations between Tehran and each of these countries and even countries with diplomatic relations with the revolutionary countries, such as Turkey. Such large and politically central countries as Egypt and Syria would...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is weighing an unprecedented diplomatic act — whether to bar a friendly president from U.S. soil. American officials were evaluating on Tuesday an awkward request from Yemeni strongman and longtime U.S. counterterrorism partner Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has said he plans to come to the United States for medical treatment for injuries suffered in a June assassination attempt, and he has asked for a U.S. visa for entry to the country. Fearful of appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands, the Obama administration was trying to ensure that Saleh visits only...

(NEWSER) –The debate is apparently over: Washington will allow Yemen's embattled president to visit New York for medical treatment, US officials tell the New York Times. They say the move will effectively disempower Ali Abdullah Saleh by removing him from Yemen, where demonstrators are still waging a deadly battle for democracy. “In the end, we felt there was enough good to be gained that it was worth managing the criticism that we’d get," says a US official.

HONOLULU — The Obama administration has been enmeshed in a vigorous internal debate over whether to allow the embattled president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to travel to New York City for medical treatment, with at least one administration official saying Monday that the decision to admit him had been made.

HONOLULU — The Obama administration has been enmeshed in a vigorous internal debate over whether to allow the embattled president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to travel to New York City for medical treatment, with at least one administration official saying Monday that the decision to admit him had been made. The administration, hunting for a way to ensure progress toward elections in Yemen, has been grappling with fears that the United States would be criticized for appearing to provide a safe haven for a reviled Arab leader responsible for the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators. If he is allowed...

Yemen's elite Republican Guard forces fired rifles, tear gas, and water cannons on over 100,000 marchers on a road leading to the capital of Sanaa, killing at least 9 and wounding at least 90. Participants in the so-called "March of Life" followed a 270-kilometre route from the southern city of Taez, a major opposition stronghold. The march reportedly began with some 15,000 participants but grew over four days as it made its way to the capital. They object to a transfer of power deal agreed to by outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh, in which he agreed to step down in...

Assad's regime just blamed me, among others, for fomenting the revolution. Here's what else he's been up to, which might have something to do with Clinton's "reformer" comment (with video). “Hajji� is the nickname Syrians call those pious men who prayed in Makah; it is also the nickname Syrian lampoonists confer upon the most corrupt of men. So, it came as no surprise to many that Assad just asked “Hajji� Adel Safar, a hardcore Ba’athist and regime inner circle corruptible, to form the new Syrian government.The chronology of how Syrians view the history of the last three weeks can be...

PHOTO CAPTION - SNIPPET: "Officials believe that more members of the so-called Düsseldorf cell may still be at large." SNIPPET: "Halil S. is a man who knows his way around computers. When he went online..." SNIPPET: "German security officials allege that the 27-year-old is the fourth member of the so-called "Düsselfdorf Cell." The group is believed to be the al-Qaida cell currently active in Germany and tasked with carrying out a major attack in Europe. Three other members of the cell, Moroccan Abdeladim el-K. and two accomplices, were arrested in late April and are being held in custody. Authorities believe...

...Speaking after receiving the prize at a ceremony in Oslo, 32-year-old Yemeni journalist Tawakul Karman said Saleh, who promised last month to stand down by February, "will not leave. He wants to (push) the country into civil war." "If the international community does not freeze his money and that of high officials and his family, he will continue to try to (lead) the country into civil war," she told Reuters in an interview in Oslo... During her prize acceptance speech, the 32-year-old journalist rebuked the international community for failing to support the Yemen uprising... "The democratic world, which has told...

Nasrallah making his first public appearance since July 2008, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed hundreds of thousands of followers in the south part of Beirut on Tuesday, Dec. 6... Nasrallah reaffirmed his support for reforms in Syria, saying once again that "some people want to destroy Syria and compensate for their loss in Iraq. We remain on our stance; we support the reforms in Syria, and we are with a resisting government," he said... "Regarding the Golan Heights, head of the Syrian National Council stated that he will refer the issue to the international community, and therefore this serves...

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman says she believes the pro-democracy revolts that have swept the Arab world will help "drive out" al-Qaida terrorists. Karman told The Associated Press on the eve of Saturday's award ceremony that the autocratic leaders that were toppled from Tunisia to her native Yemen created an environment where extremism could grow.

Scholar Valentina Colombo has published a commentary on Tawakkul Karman, who recently received the first Nobel prize awarded to a member of the Global Muslim Brotherhood. According to the article: Once again the West has chosen among the heroes and heroines of the “Arab Spring” the most politicized, and especially the closest, to its short-sighted policies in the Middle East. Unfortunately, as mentioned by al-Mashari Dhaid on the Arab international daily Asharq al-Awsat, we should never forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace is political, and it “is an instrument of soft pressure to fulfill a specific path of peace...

President Barack Obama welcomed the decision, saying the U.S. would stand by the Yemeni people “as they embark on this historic transition.” Saleh signed the U.S.-backed power-transfer deal; (ending his 33-year rule), brokered by neighboring countries, Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh in exchange for immunity from prosecution. If the deal holds, he’ll be the fourth leader to lose power in the wave of Arab Spring uprisings this year, following longtime dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

Yemen will hold a snap presidential election on 21 February 2012, according to a decree signed by the country's Vice-President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The move is part of a transition deal agreed this week which sees President Ali Abdullah Saleh hand power to Mr Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution. Mr Saleh signed the accord on Wednesday after months of delays, despite mounting opposition to his rule. He has ruled the country for 33 years. A crackdown on anti-government protests, as well as clashes with tribes opposed to the government, has left hundreds dead since February. Under the deal,...

A newly minted Yemeni firm has taken over Nexen Inc.’s Masila oil lease in the wartorn country, according to local media, putting an end to the Canadian company’s 20-year involvement in the field. The news Nexen had been replaced by state-owned Masila Company for Petroleum Exploration and Production on the oil block had been anticipated by investors, although the company remained neutral on the subject. “We have yet to receive any official notification that our extension will not be approved,” spokesman Pierre Alvarez said Monday. “We are waiting for final determination which needs to go to the Yemeni cabinet.” The...

The Arab League voted to suspend SyriaÂ’s membership at its meeting on Saturday and said it would impose economic and political sanctions against the regime of Bashar al-Assad as well as call for the withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Damascus. The Arab foreign ministers meeting at the LeagueÂ’s headquarters in Cairo also called on the Syrian army to cease its involvement in the killing of civilians and invited the Syrian opposition for transition talks. Opponents of Assad were hoping that the Arab League would suspend SyriaÂ’s membership after Assad pressed ahead with a military crackdown on the unrest despite an...

The news Nexen Inc. is having difficulty making any "visible progress" to negotiate an extension to its contract to produce oil in Yemen should hardly come as a surprise given the political turmoil and civil war threatening the country. The chaos that's gripped the desperately poor country situated at the south of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea this year, and most of its history, it is perhaps more surprising Nexen has lasted so long. The current round of violent clashes between the threedecade-old regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and thousands of...

Yemen's president on Tuesday called in the U.S. ambassador and told him he would sign a deal to step down, a U.S. official said. The embattled leader, who has made that pledge several times before, spoke as violence shook his capital. President Ali Abdullah Saleh informed Ambassador Gerald Feierstein of a new cease-fire, but clashes on the streets threw that into doubt. Activists said seven protesters were killed and 10 wounded. It was the first meeting between Saleh and a U.S. ambassador since Saleh returned from Saudi Arabia last month, said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland. Saleh left Yemen...

President Ali Abdullah Saleh welcomed Monday the Security Council resolution 2014 on Yemeni crisis issued on October 21. The President said that the resolution that has reaffirmed the Security Council's "support for the Presidential decree of 12 September which is designed to find a political agreement acceptable to all parties, and to ensure a peaceful and democratic transition of power, including the holding of early Presidential elections." The council has also reaffirmed "its view that the signature and implementation as soon as possible of a settlement agreement on the basis of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative is essential for an...

President Barack Obama is shredding the U.S. Constitution faster than any of the 42 men who preceded him in office, according to Fox News judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, author of the brand new "It is Dangerous to be Right when the Government is Wrong." It is so bad he should be impeached over the murder of American terror suspect Anwar al-Awlaki – and if Congress won’t take that action, he should be indicted once he is out of office. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Napolitano said it doesn’t matter that Awlaki was probably guilty – the fact is...

Anwar al-Awlaki did not leave much of a trail, frustrating the American and Yemeni intelligence officials pursuing him over the last two years. -snip- United States officials said that Friday’s strike may also have killed Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, a Saudi bomb maker responsible for the weapon carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber in the jetliner plot. He is also thought to have built the printer-cartridge bombs that, 10 months later, were intended to be put on cargo planes headed to the United States. Neither of those plots were successful.

WASHINGTON:The US should forge closer counter-terrorism ties with India to respond to threats posed by al-Qaeda and other terrorist cells operating from countries like Pakistan and Yemen, a key Republican presidential hopeful has said. Calling for a reassessment of America's relationship with Pakistan, Jon Huntsman, a former ambassador to China under the Obama administration, said "certain realities" with Pakistan had to be recognised. "This is not a relationship based on shared values," he said in a speech at Southern New Hampshire University. "It is transactional at best," former governor of Utah was quoted as saying by the leading Congressional paper,...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A US missile strike killed at least six suspected militants in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border Saturday, two Pakistani intelligence officials said, in the third such American missile attack in as many days. The officials said four missiles slammed into a compound near the border town of Angore Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region. The strike was targeting fighters of Maulvi Nazir, a militant commander who is accused of working with the Taliban and al-Qaeda to direct cross-border attacks, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Nazir is believed to have an agreement with...

An American drone strike in southern Yemen has killed seven al-Qaida-linked militants, including the media chief for the group's Yemeni branch, Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Bana. Tribal elders in the area also said the dead included Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the 21-year-old son of Anwar al-Awlaki and four other members of the al-Awlaki clan. The strike was one of five carried out over night by an American drones on suspected al-Qaida positions in Shabwa and the neighboring province of Abyan. The first strike late Friday targeted a house in the Azan district of Shabwa, but hit just after al-Qaida militants had a meeting in...

(CNN) -- The son of U.S.-born militant cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki was among those killed in a trio of drone attacks in southern Yemen on Friday night, a security official said. The attacks, carried out in the Shabwa district, killed seven suspected militants, the defense ministry said. It would not confirm that Abdul Rahman Anwar Awlaki was among them. The senior security official in Shabwa, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the younger Awlaki had been hiding in the mountains of Shabwa for more than eight months. He had...

Sana’a — Yemen’s security agencies have no substantial evidence that Al Qaeda leader Anwar al Awlaki was killed in a recent airstrike in the eastern province of Mareb, an official security source said yesterday. “The latest information available to the security agencies is that Al Awlaki was driving in a motorcade of three cars when a US drone targeted them (on September 30),” the source told the Yemeni website Mareb Press on condition of anonymity. He added that one car had been hit, while the other two escaped. “There is no irrefutable information that Al Awlaki was inside the hit...

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni women's rights advocate Tawakkul Karman. The Norwegian Nobel Committee made the announcement Friday in Oslo, saying the three women will split the coveted award for "their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights." Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland praised the work of the three recipients, saying that "we cannot achieve lasting peace in the world unless women obtain the same opportunities as men." Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 72, became Africa's first democratically elected female president in 2005....

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days after the country has been largely paralyzed by nearly nine months of mass protests against his 33-year rule. "I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," he said in a speech on state television.

Here's the trickiest counterterrorism puzzle for U.S. policymakers: How do you stop al-Qaida from attacking the American homeland, without getting bogged down in protracted wars against insurgents? One answer would be to establish deterrence in the long war against Islamic extremism, like the standoff that developed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Soviets were obviously a far bigger adversary, but the basic logic is the same: Both sides have deadly weapons; but if you don't shoot at us, we won't shoot at you. The Obama administration hasn't declared any such neo-deterrence strategy, but you...

by John HillStand With Arizona For months, America has been told by left-wing non-profits like the Alien Criminals Liberation Union (ACLU), La Raza and LULAC, that Alabama's new immigration law H.B. 56, "targets Hispanics" and is "anti-Latino". Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn wisely ignored that rhetoric when she let stand (pending trial) the law's most critical section - having police check immigration status of individuals apprehended in a lawful stop or arrest. Well, the very first such arrest has now occurred since the Judge's ruling. And - surprise, he is not from Mexico, or any other Latino American nation. He...

Former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday called last week’s CIA drone strike against al-Qaeda operative Anwar Awlaki a validation of the George W. Bush administration’s terrorist-fighting strategy, and said that President Obama should apologize for his past criticism of those policies. Cheney endorsed the killing of Awlaki as “justified,” despite Awlaki’s U.S. citizenship, and suggested that the Obama White House was being hypocritical when it approved a deadly strike against the New Mexico-born Awlaki while condemning Bush’s use of so-called enhanced interrogation methods of al-Qaeda prisoners.

SNIPPET: "Rabat — Morocco's security forces have broken up a five-member terrorist cell that used to operate in the cities of Salé (near Rabat) and Casablanca, National Police Department said on Saturday in a statement. The statement added that the dismantled cell includes a member linked to the former emir of al Qaeda network in northern Iraq. The cell, which pledged allegiance to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, used Internet to forge close ties with al Qaida, especially in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Yemen and Somalia, it said." SNIPPET: "To carry out their plans, the members of the cell contacted, via Internet, experts in...

Reporting from Washington— In the wake of the U.S. drone strike in Yemen that killed two Americans linked to Al Qaeda, U.S. intelligence officials were attempting to confirm reports that an inventive Saudi bomb maker for the terrorist organization also was among the dead. News reports said one of at least two other men killed in the CIA-led operation Friday was Ibrahim Hassan Asiri, a fugitive whose signature bomb-making style has linked him to multiple attacks that were directed by the offshoot group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Justice for USS ColeBut why did it take so long? Last Updated: 3:48 AM, September 30, 2011 Before 9/11, there was USS Cole. On Oct. 12, 2000 terrorists loaded a small boat with explosives and set it off next to the US Navy destroyer as it sat peacefully in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 more. The alleged mastermind of the attack, Saudi-born Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, was captured in 2002. Since 2006, he’s been sitting in Gitmo, untried and unpunished. Now, more than a decade after the crime, the families of the Cole...

In June 2004, the Houthis, a group of rebels in the Sa'dah governorate of northwest Yemen, began taking up arms against the Yemeni national army. They claimed, and continue to claim, to be defending their own specific branch of Shia Islam -- Zaydism -- from a Yemeni regime they say is too dependent on its northern neighbor, Saudi Arabia, and its partner in the war on terrorism, the United States. Yemen's political and military leaders have labeled the Houthis a terrorist group supported by Iran. This smoldering civil war attracted little outside attention until last month, when, on November 5...

Killing of U.S.-born terrorist raises questionsBy MATT APUZZO Associated Press Published Saturday, October 01, 2011 12:06 AM WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama steered the nation's war machine into uncharted territory Friday when a U.S. drone attacked a convoy in Yemen and killed two American citizens who had become central figures in al-Qaida. It was believed to be the first instance in which a U.S. citizen was tracked and executed based on secret intelligence and the president's say-so. And it raised major questions about the limitations of presidential power. **SNIP** "This court recognizes the somewhat unsettling nature of its conclusion --...

The New York Times reports this morning that officials in both Yemen and Washington claim that American-born Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki has reached room temperature somewhere in Yemen: In a significant and dramatic strike in the campaign against Al Qaeda, the Defense Ministry here said American-born preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leading figure in the group’s outpost in Yemen, was killed on Friday morning.In Washington a senior Obama administration official confirmed that Mr. Awlaki was dead. But the circumstances surrounding the killing remained unclear.It was not immediately known whether Yemeni forces carried out the attack or if American intelligence forces, which have been...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An American-born cleric killed in Yemen played a "significant operational role" in plotting and inspiring attacks on the United States, U.S. officials said Friday, as they disclosed detailed intelligence to justify the killing of a U.S. citizen.

Terror mastermind and senior Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is dead a senior U.S. official confirms. Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in Al-Qaeda's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said. excerpt - Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the...

The US-born radical Islamist cleric and suspected al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed in Yemen, the country's defence ministry has said. A statement said only that he died "along with some of his companions".

SANAA, Yemen -Thousands of anti-government protesters in Yemen stormed the capital's main university Saturday, preventing the first day of classes from beginning and tearing down pictures of the longtime leader whose ouster they seek. The crowds are aiming to keep Yemen's protest movement alive and out on the streets as the school year begins. Protests since February have failed to push President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power. He is currently in Saudi Arabia recovering from wounds sustained during an attack on the presidential compound in June. "No studying, no teaching until the president goes," the students chanted as they marched...

The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region. Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by...

Disgruntled Yemeni oil and gas workers threatened to shut down Nexen Inc. operations for a second time this year, saying union demands from a strike in May have yet to be met. More than four months of negotiations have ground to a halt on Nexen's "intransigent attitude," union representatives in strife-torn Yemen said by e-mail Friday. The oil and gas union also called on the government to end its 20-year partnership with the Calgary-based company when Nexen's contract on its prolific Masila block expires in December. Nexen currently is negotiating a five-year extension on its 52 per cent production agreement...

Iran has sent military submarines to the Red Sea, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. "Iranian military submarines entered the Red Sea waters with the goal of collecting information and identifying other countries' combat vessels," Fars said in a Tuesday report, citing an unidentified source. It did not say how many submarines were involved or what type they were but noted they had sailed alongside warships from the Iranian Navy's 14th fleet. State-run Press TV said in a report earlier in May that the 14th fleet – which is comprised of two vessels, the warship Bandar Abbas and the...

Where's the so-called "angry Arab street?"When will the hypocritic Arab-Muslim world start giving a 'dime' about its own people. Arab-Muslim on Arab-Muslim crimes against humanity - routine. The "moderate" voice of Islamic-Arabs: "We can kill each other by the thousands!"(Syria, Hamah massacre - 1982, Daraa, Jisr al-Shughour and Hama massacres, mass torture of kids - 2011), Black September [Jordanians vs "Palestinians"] 1970 , Iraqis vs Iraqis since 2003, "Palestinians" VS each other (Hamas/Fatah 2007), "Palestinians" & Hezbollah using civilians (routine), Libyans (2011 massacres), Bahrainians [Shiite Apartheid VS Sunni], Algerians (100,000 dead in the 1970s') Yemen (2011), Tunisia (2011), Egypt (2011),...

American counterterrorism officials are increasingly concerned that the most dangerous regional arm of Al Qaeda is trying to produce the lethal poison ricin, to be packed around small explosives for attacks against the United States. For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream. Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2011 – Somali pirates killed all four Americans they had held hostage aboard a sailing vessel in the Indian Ocean this morning, U.S. Central Command officials announced. U.S. officials were negotiating with the pirates for the safe return of the captured Americans when the murders took place, officials said. Centcom officials said that in the midst of negotiations, U.S. forces responded to gunfire aboard the S/V Quest. When the forces reached the boat, officials said, they discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors. Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately...