The Arab American News
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Iraq announces five-year plan to diversify economy
BAGHDAD--Iraq's government has released a five-year economic plan which will try to diversify beyond oil production and develop the industrial sector.The plan, announced this week, faces major obstacles including a rising level of sectarian violence and political infighting within the country's fractious coalition government.But if...Former Guantanamo prisoner killed in Syria after joining Islamist brigade
DAMASCUS-- A former prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base died fighting for anti-government rebels in Syria, according to an Islamist opposition group which posted a video of his funeral on YouTube.Moroccan-born Mohammed al Alami, who was released in 2006, is the first former Guantanamo detainee to die in battle in the Syrian...Opposition suspends role in Bahrain talks after leader arrest
MANAMA- Bahrain's largest opposition party on Wednesday, Sept. 18, suspended its participation in talks with the government aimed at ending 2-1/2 years of political turmoil in protest at the arrest of its deputy leader.Al Wefaq was responding to an announcement by the public prosecutor of the Gulf Arab kingdom that Khalil al-Marzouq...Egypt returns $2 billion to Qatar in sign of growing tensions
CAIRO-- Egypt has returned $2 billion that Qatar had deposited with its central bank, after talks to convert the funds into three-year bonds broke down, central bank Governor Hisham Ramez said on Thursday, Spet. 19. Egypt authorities have also refused a Qatari request to increase the number of flights between the two states, according...Sudanese woman on trial for wearing ‘indecent’ clothing
KHARTOUM-- A woman is on trial in Sudan for failing to cover her head and wearing "indecent" clothing, in a case Amnesty International says may violate international law.Amira Osman Hamed, 35, was arrested Aug. 27 and charged with "indecent or immoral dress" for refusing to wear a headscarf.Amnesty International said police arrested...Egypt military court sentences five Palestinian fishermen to one-year in jail
CAIRO- An Egyptian military court on Wednesday, Sept. 18, sentenced five Palestinian fishermen to a year in jail for illegally crossing into Egypt's territorial waters, Egyptian security sources said."The court had arrested five Palestinians recently for crossing without permits to the Egyptian waters in North Sinai (that borders Israel...
Navy Yard shooting: Who is Aaron Alexis?
September 19th, 20130 WASHINGTON — The deadly attack at the Washington Navy Yard, this week, was carried out by one of the military's own: A defense contract employee and former Navy reservist, who used a valid pass to get onto the installation and started firing inside a building, killing 12 people, before he was slain in a gun battle with police.The...Attack on power lines leaves parts of Yemen in darkness
SANAA- Large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, have been left without electricity after Yemeni tribesmen attacked power lines on Thursday Sept. 19, a Yemeni official said.The attack in the Maarib province resulted in a key power station shutting down and came less than 24 hours after tribesmen targeted another part of the...Syria diplomacy helps shuffle global order
NEW YORK - When U.S. President Barack Obama tried to drum up momentum for airstrikes in Syria to punish and deter the use of chemical weapons, he failed to gain much of a following.At the G20 summit in St. Petersburg – which featured leaders from 20 of the world’s top economies – the U.S. proposed a statement to condemn Syria’s...
Officials, community pay tribute to Shatila
September 19th, 20130 DEARBORN — Hundreds gathered at the memorial service of Riad Shatila on Saturday, Sept. 14, at the Islamic Center of America here. Elected officials honored Shatila for his years of service to the community by presenting his family with declarations. “We begin by recognizing what he did as a wonderful American, successful...
Celebrating our twenty-ninth anniversary, quietly
September 13th, 20130 It is our 29th anniversary. Although the occasion is worth celebrating, talk of war has overshadowed anything else. September 7, 1984, marks the birth-date of The Arab American News. On this day, the first word was written in the first story that would go into the first edition of a publication that would make history in this...Here’s how the U.S. can help rid the world of chemical weapons
If President Obama is serious about ridding the world, and not just Syria, of chemical weapons, he and America’s closest allies in the Middle East should lead the way.Although the United States has ratified the 20-year-old Chemical Weapons Convention, it has not destroyed its entire arsenal, as required under the CWC. In reference to...Obama has no authority to attack Syria
Despite his own recent statements to the contrary, President Barack Obama has no legal authority to assault the government of Syria, even as “a warning shot.” Neither the United States Constitution, nor the War Powers Act of 1973 gives him such authority in the absence of an emergency that allows Congress no time to react.Obama...Most 2006-2009 queries of a phone database broke court rules
SAN FRANCISCO — The National Security Agency routinely violated court-ordered privacy protections between 2006 and 2009 by examining phone numbers without sufficient intelligence tying them to associates of suspected terrorists, according to U.S. officials and documents that were declassified on Tuesday, Sept. 10.The Foreign...Russia throws Obama a life preserver on Syria
WASHINGTON— With President Barack Obama facing increasingly certain defeat in his quest for Congressional authorization to carry out military strikes against Syria, the Russian government, Monday, appeared to offer the White House a way out of the crisis.Seizing on what seemed to be an offhand remark by Secretary of State John Kerry......
Obama offers no evidence Assad was behind chemical attack in Damascus, yet defends unprovoked war anyway
September 13th, 20130 In what NPR called “perhaps President Obama’s last best chance” to make his case for launching a war against Syria, the president tellingly didn’t make a single effort to present hard, compelling evidence to prove that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been behind the alleged Sarin Aug. 21 attack on residents of a suburb of...Tale of Two Cities: Ramallah, Gaza and the Identity Crisis
The distance between Gaza and Ramallah, in sheer miles, is hardly significant. But in actuality, both cities represent two different political realities, with inescapable cultural and socioeconomic dimensions. Their geopolitical horizons are vastly different as well – Gaza is situated within its immediate Arab surroundings and turmoil,...Egypt extends state of emergency by two months
CAIRO — Egypt extended a state of emergency by two months on Thursday Sept. 12 because of the security situation, the presidency said in a statement.The most populous Arab state has been gripped by political turmoil since the army overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3. A week ago the interior...Tunisia arrests senior Islamist militant leaders
TUNIS — Tunisian police on Monday, Sept. 9, arrested a senior leader from a banned Islamist group and killed two other militants, during a raid near the capital Tunis, authorities said.Tunisia's government, led by moderate Ennahda Islamists, in coalition with two smaller secular parties, is under popular pressure to crack down on......
Bombings at Baghdad mosque kill dozens
BAGHDAD — A coordinated car and suicide bomb attack on a Shi'a mosque in the Iraqi capital killed at least 33 people on Wednesday, Sept. 11, police and medical sources said.Worshipers were leaving the mosque after evening prayers when the car bomb exploded, and as witnesses rushed to help the wounded, a suicide bomber blew himself up...Jordan asks for $1.1 billion in aid to cope with Syrian refugee crisis
AMMAN — Jordan needs hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to cope with the mounting number of Syrian refugees, Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan said in Paris on Thursday, Sept. 12.There were already more than one million Syrian refugees in Jordan and health and education services were absolutely stretched, Abu Hassan told......
Bomb hits Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi
BENGHAZI — A car bomb damaged a Libyan foreign ministry building in Benghazi on Wednesday, Sept. 11, the first anniversary of the attack on the U.S. consulate in the country's second largest city.Two years after the revolt that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is riven along regional and tribal lines and dogged by armed violence,...Government may help marijuana shops get banking services
WASHINGTON — U.S. law enforcement agencies are in talks about steps they may take, under federal law, to allow legal marijuana businesses to have access to bank accounts.Although the Justice Department in August gave states new leeway to experiment with legalized marijuana, the drug remains illegal under federal law. As a result, under......