Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr delivers a speech from the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on February 18, 2014. (AFP Photo/Haidar Hamdani)

Iraq: Sadr vows to protect Shi’ite holy sites from ISIS

by Hamza Mustafa | May 20, 2015 | Middle East

Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Powerful Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr has vowed to protect all Shi’ite holy shrines in the country following threats purportedly made by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. In an audio...

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Saudi traders monitor the stock in Riyadh in this undated file photo. (Reuters)

Opinion: Getting Islamic Finance to Fulfill its Promise

by Masood Ahmed | May 20, 2015 | Opinion

What do the Olympic Village in London and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai have in common? The answer is Islamic financing, or financing under Islamic principles. Though still accounting for a small share of the global financial industry, Islamic finance is one of its...

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Yemeni Vice President Khaled Bahah (R), Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi (C) and GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani at the Riyadh conference on Yemen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 19, 2015. (SPA)

Yemen: Riyadh dialogue calls for “safe zones” and joint Arab force

by Nasser Al-Haqbani | May 20, 2015 | Middle East

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Riyadh conference on Yemen concluded on Tuesday with calls for the establishment of safe zones in the war-torn country to allow the legitimate government to resume its duties and the formation of a joint Arab force to help secure major...

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In this undated picture released by North Korea’s state news agency on May 9, 2015 North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un smiles while observing a test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile at an undisclosed location. (AFP photo/KCNA via KNS)

North Korea modified submarine missile launch photos, says US official

by Asharq Al-Awsat | May 20, 2015 | World

Seoul, Reuters—Photographs showing a North Korean missile launched from a submarine were manipulated by state propagandists and the country may be years away from developing such technology, analysts and a top US military official said on Tuesday. North Korea,...

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In this November 12, 2010 file photo, Hezbollah fighters hold their party flags, as they parade during the opening of new cemetery for colleagues who died in fighting against Israel, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

Opinion: No More Illusions about an “Occupied Lebanon”

by Eyad Abu Shakra | May 20, 2015 | Opinion

If the sentence passed by Lebanon’s Military Court against former Lebanese MP and cabinet minister Michel Samaha is to stand, he will be set free within just seven months. This is all he will serve of the official four and a half year “prison sentence” that was...