Muslim clerics Dr Abdullah Basfar (L) and Dr Saud al-Funaisan have reportedly been arrested in Saudi Arabia in new campaign (Twitter/@@m3takl_en) New wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia Saudi authorities recently launched a new arrest campaign, detaining a famous religious figure, a Quran reciter, a university professor and many others, according to the Prisoners of

Photo: Credit Reuters Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region will head to the polls on Wednesday in defiance of the federal government, the latest challenge to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed from a slew of regional leaders flexing their muscles ahead of next year’s national elections. Abiy has overseen sweeping democratic reforms since taking power in Africa’s second

In this photo released by the 10th Regional Japan Coast Guard Headquarters, a Filipino crewmember of a Panamanian cargo ship is rescued by Japanese Coast Guard members in the waters off the Amami Oshima, Japan Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020. Japanese rescuers have safely plucked the crewmember from the sea while searching for the cargo ship

Photo/Somali Times What you need to know: For Somalia, the old story of miraa ban returned last week after a delegation of farmers’ representatives returned empty-handed. But the miraa story has always been political. Nairobi has had a month-long standoff with Tanzania. This has led some analysts to think the region, despite having integration blocs,

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has listed nine Kenyan individuals suspected of supporting terrorist activities in the country. In a statement on Tuesday, the CS Ordered that the bank accounts and property of the individuals be frozen with immediate effect. “The only way to deny terrorists the means to threaten our way of life is

Photo/Somali Times The Acting Deputy Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Ambassador Cherith Norman Chalet, said her country had spent nearly $3.5 billion to restore Somalia’s security over the past two decades, without achieving any results. Norman added that the US continues to use airstrikes to target the leaders of Al-Shabaab movement,

Ethiopian-Americans against US cutting $130M aid to Ethiopia to enforce Egypt friendly agreement on sharing Nile waters. The US has now formally stepped in, to support Egypt and punish Ethiopia over the river water sharing dispute between the two African countries. Last week, the Trump administration announced blocking a $130 million aid that had been

In this Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 file photo, a man walks on a mountain of plastic bottles as he carries a sack of them to be sold for recycling after weighing them at the dump in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya. The oil industry in 2020 has asked the United States to pressure Kenya

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks with King Salman in Riyadh in 2018 (SPA/AFP) By Madawi al-Rasheed Since the discovery of oil in the country in the 1930s, Saudi Arabia has been an important hub for western interests in the Middle East region. King Salman bin Abdulaziz will leave the throne almost a century

Somalia’s spy chief Fahad Yasin. By Michael Rubin Another terror threat against America could be brewing. On August 23, 1996, Usama Bin Laden, a then-obscure Saudi jihadist, declared war on the United States. It would be more than a week before wire services or the U.S. press would pick up Bin Laden’s statement which came