Free Republic

Al-Qaida is claiming responsibility for a suicide-bombing Saturday in the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla, which left at least 26 people dead and at least 20 others wounded. The bombing came just hours after a speech by Yemen's new President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who is originally from the south of the country. Witnesses say the suicide car-bomber broke through an outer barrier at a presidential compound in Mukalla blowing up himself and his vehicle, near a group of soldiers who were eating, causing dozens of casualties. Al Arabiya TV reported that the car-bomber was from Saudi Arabia and belonged...

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...