Global briefing
Week in review: Al Qa'eda denounced by Libyan group
- Jihadist ideology is now under attack from its erstwhile proponents. A Libyan group has issued a new religious document denouncing the tactics used by al Qa'eda as illegal under Islamic law.
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Zimbabwe debates castration penalty for men who rape children
Rights groups say the typical sentence of at least 10 years fails as a deterrent and are calling for a more severe punishment.
Morocco’s new climate of distrust
Moroccan activists are concerned that the country is regressing on human rights issues after incidents in advance of UN talks over the territory's future.
Thousands of illegal settlers evicted from Kenyan forest
About 30,000 people have been living in the Mau Forest illegally, felling trees for charcoal and timber and clearing the land for farming
Voter registration at centre of Sudan dispute
A growing north-south rift between the country's coalition parties poses a serious threat to national unity.
Sudan president forced to stay home
Omar al Bashir, ncreasingly isolated by an international arrest warrant, has been forced to stay in Sudan and focus on April’s presidential election.
Climate change imperils life on Zambezi
Report says adverse environmental impact will affect Zambezi’s flow, leading to frequent floods, drought and outbreak of diseases.
Post-apartheid wall comes tumbling down
Twenty years after the Berlin Wall fell, Germany’s ambassador strikes the first blow to demolish the barriers dividing South Africa’s communities.
Kenyans lose faith in their favourite son
One year on from the celebrations that greeted Barack Obama's election victory, it is a very different picture in Nairobi.
Sudan goes all out for Darfur deal
The Sudanese government is pinning all its hopes on what it describes as a “final and comprehensive peace agreement for Darfur”, expected to be reached at a conference in Doha next week.
Terrorism trial rocks Zimbabwe unity government
A top aide to Zimbabwe’s prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai began his terrorism trial in a case that has rocked Harare’s fragile unity government.
Online ticketing fraud cited for World Cup 2010
Consumer watchdog warns of potential fraud in online ticketing for next year’s football World Cup in South Africa.
Activists sue Zimbabwe for $500m
Eight people, including members of the opposition MDC party, sue ministers for alleged torture and wrongful arrest.
Today's comment
A spiritual analysis of extremism
Jihad Hashim Brown : Westerners need to stop thinking they are celebrities living out pop-modern lives for us on a stage for all their eastern fans to wish they were them.
Your Prophet is your Islam
Omid Safi: Whenever I ask non-Muslims about the Prophet Mohammed: the response is invariably one of deafening silence.
Cold feet as I prepare for journey of a lifetime
Hadeel al Shalchi: By this time next week I hope to be in the final stages of possibly the most challenging duty of my faith – the Haj.
Most popular stories
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- Germany’s Christmas offensive
- Hundreds rescued from floodwaters
- Army faces friction over evacuations
- Iraqi exiles praise vice president’s election law veto
- Karzai sworn in for second term
Highway tax takes toll on Zimbabwe
Charges raise US$676,000 in first 12 days but the government may have broken the law by not offering alternative routes.
Clinton vows support to Muslim world
US secretary of state pledges to help with education, women’s rights and civil society in struggling countries and to send embassy officials out to offer training.
Ministers slow to give up the Merc
Innovative scheme to auction of fleet of fuel-guzzling vehicles would raise money to resettle people displaced by last year’s rioting.
War crimes without the war?
The world’s only permanent war crimes court says it is looking into whether atrocities were committed in Kenya and Guinea last month.
Spotlight
The legal legacy of a ‘hedonist’
- In an unprecedented case, the former prime minister Ehud Olmert faces trial for graft, while some of his ministers have been sentenced.
Frontiers
Why the historian is wearing flippers
- Prehistoric European cultures existed along coastlines that have since been reclaimed by the sea. Archaeologists are turning to the ocean floor to join the missing pieces of human civilisation.
Dispatches
Bad blood between Egypt and Algeria runs deeper than football
- Violence is latest incident in escalating diplomatic row between Egypt and Algeria, whose two World Cup qualifying matches this week inflamed decades-old tensions.
The week
- 14.11.2009 to 20.11.2009 Jet fighters took to the Dubai skies, five people survived two months adrift on open seas and Apple entered talks to allow music downloads in the UAE.
Review
- World Young Egyptian women, Ursula Lindsey reports, are taking to blogs and publishing books to give voice to their frustration with the indignities of single life, the pressure to marry and the stigma of divorce.
