http://www.aawsat.com/english Asharq Alawsat English Edition is your insight into the Middle East en-us © 2005 Saudi Research and Publishing Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT 1 http://www.aawsat.com/english http://www.aawsat.com/english/images/aaaeng.gif 144 33 Asharq-e delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest stories, weather, entertainment, politics in the Middle East http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29678 It is clear that the discourse of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood has become more populist after the group tasted the spoils of politics, elections and power. We have yet to fully emerge from a crisis Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29677 Isn’t it strange for the Shiite Bahraini opposition to announce large-scale demonstrations on Friday in Bahrain, calling this the "in your service my homeland” protests, against union between Saudi Arabia Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29676 WASHINGTON, (AFP) — A special US military tribunal at Guantanamo is weighing whether to hold separate trials for five accused plotters of the September 11 attacks, a defense lawyer said. The men, who Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29675 TEHRAN, (AFP) — Iran on Saturday said sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme should be lifted in talks with world powers next week in Baghdad, but maintained the punitive measures would not compel Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29674 BEIRUT, (Reuters) - A car bomb blew up in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, state television and an opposition group said, without giving details on casualties. A bulletin on Syrian Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29673 CAMP DAVID, (Reuters) - Group of Eight leaders agreed in their initial discussions at Camp David on Friday that Iran needs to disclose more about its nuclear ambitions and that it was time to focus on Sun, 19 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=7&id=29670 CAIRO, (AFP) — Algerian singer Warda, who died in Cairo aged 72 late on Thursday, was a regional icon whose powerful patriotic tunes were matched in popularity by her romantic ballads. Known throughout Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=6&id=29671 NEW YORK, (Reuters) - Investors are bracing for Facebook's Wall Street debut on Friday after the pioneering online social network raised about $16 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=6&id=29661 WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - Leaders of major industrial economies meet this weekend to try to tackle a full-blown crisis in Europe where fears are growing that Greece could leave the euro zone bloc, threatening Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29669 London, Asharq Al-Awsat – Iraqi Kurdistan Region representative to Baghdad, Mohammed Ihsan, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that “the National Alliance’s response to the Erbil meeting’s message to Iraqi Prime Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29658 Fearing isolation as a new geopolitical landscape takes shape in the Middle East; the Khomeinist regime is still clinging to three forlorn hopes. The first is to save the Ba’athist regime in Damascus Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29662 VIENNA, (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are making headway towards a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29668 The explosions that have taken place in different Syrian cities – always in the same manner and always on the day when observers are present, whether they are from the Arab League or the United Nations Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29663 DAMASCUS, (AFP) - Syrian National Council chief Burhan Ghalioun said he will step down to avert divisions within the opposition bloc, after activists on the ground accused him of monopolising power. "I Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29664 JERUSALEM, (Reuters) - Surrounded by aides, including one whose only task seems to be light his cigarettes, Mahmoud Abbas sits in a vast presidential office and speaks of his ambition to create a Palestinian Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29665 AMMAN, (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Wednesday that countries trying to "sow chaos" in Syria could be infected with it themselves, an apparent warning to Arab Gulf nations that Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29666 DAMASCUS, (AFP) — Regime forces fired on protesters who took to the streets of Aleppo on Friday, wounding several people at the biggest rally seen in Syria's second city since a revolt erupted last year, Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29667 BAGHDAD, (AFP) — Three near-simultaneous bomb blasts at a pet market in east Baghdad killed five people on Friday, officials said, just hours after an attack in the city's southeast left five dead. The Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29672 DUBAI, (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mainly Shi'ite Bahrainis protested outside the capital Manama on Friday against the possible unification of Gulf Arab countries, a Reuters witness said. Arab heads Sat, 18 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=6&id=29657 ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish gold sales to Iran in March soared over 30 times and gold companies said Iranians were turning to gold for savings and possibly trade as Western sanctions tighten. Sanctions Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=3&id=29660 London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi is the Yemeni Foreign Minister. Born in 1942, al-Qirbi was extensively educated in the United Kingdom, and holds degrees from the universities of Edinburgh, Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29652 King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz’s call for the establishment of a Gulf union in December 2011 received considerable attention in Arab and foreign circles. On the one hand, this call posed a serious question Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29653 The televised presidential debate that took place in Egypt is an event to build upon. Nothing in the above statement is particularly groundbreaking, but it is necessary to recognize that the televised Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=2&id=29651 Utilizing diplomatic language, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal stated that confidence in Kofi Annan’s mission in Syria “has started to decrease quickly”. To be more explicit, this means Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29647 UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) - Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29648 BEIRUT (AP) — A key activist group is threatening to withdraw from Syria's main umbrella grouping, saying the council has drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution. A pullout by the Local Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29649 CAIRO (AP) — A black smoke covered Cairo's Tahrir Square. Around a dozen protesters who had been holding a weekslong sit-in demanding an end to military rule had come to the conclusion their gathering Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29650 UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) - Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son has refused to appoint a Libyan lawyer to defend him against accusations of murder and torture during a crackdown on a revolt against Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29654 London, Asharq Al-Awsat – Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi played down reports that his name and position have been removed from the official website of the Iraqi presidency, stressing that such Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT http://www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=1&id=29655 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but that Britain doesn't want to host him. Ahmadinejad Fri, 17 May 2012 13:10:36 GMT