First Independent Mena Newspaper
In an effort to formally tender his bid for next month’s presidential election, Egypt’s former military chief, Abdel Fattah El Sissi, on Monday submitted eight times the number of signatures required of any aspirant running in the May 26-27 vote. Mr El Sissi, a 59–year-old career soldier who successfully ousted President Mohammed Morsi last July, […]
Interim Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani has announced that he was leaving his post but stressed that would stay as head of the government until a successor has been named. The announcement of the departure of the PM exacerbates the political tension in the North African country and shows the fragility of the Libyan government […]
The trial with Gaddafi’s officials, which has been eagerly expected by Libyans for three years, opens in Tripoli today (April 14). The trial includes also two sons of Muammar Gaddafi and about three dozens of former officials, all of whom are going to court over a long list of alleged war crimes committed during the […]
Tunisia and Libya agreed on Wednesday (April 9) that they would work together to keep the Ras Jedir border crossing open and secure. Traffic started moving across the major transit crossing already on Monday (April 7) for the first time in a month. Despite the impasse accompanying the discussion on the opening of the border, […]
There are reports that Egyptian banks have been ordered by the Central Bank to refrain from doing business with some banks in African and Arab countries amongst which are Qatar, Libya, Syria and Sudan. The central bank’s decision is aimed at reducing the scale of money laundering in compliance with the anti-money laundering laws. Several […]
For two days, since Wednesday (April 9), Rouhia, a governorate of Siliana, has seen bloody clashes between Tunisian security forces and the religious extremists close to Ansar al-Chariaa movement resumed. The clashes were due to the arrest of sixteen “wanted takfiris” on Monday night. After religious extremists close to Ansar al-Chariaa movement reportedly attempted to […]
When Libyans recently staged a day of “civil disobedience” to express their increasing dissatisfaction and frustration with the deteriorating security situation, the protestors in the streets of Benghazi also demanded the General National Congress (GNC) to be suspended and new parliamentary and presidential elections to be held as soon as possible. In Libya’s second largest […]
After the removal of Colonel Gadhafi from power in 2011 by the rebels with the help of the NATO forces, Libya has been vulnerable to attacks in recent years and as such the parliament is tasking the acting Prime minister, Abdullah al-Thinni, for a new cabinet. Al-Thinni is expected to improve security in Libya. Thinni […]
Although the ongoing presidential campaign in Algeria has not impressed much by now, the six candidates have recently started complaining about “irregularities”. The National Election Monitoring Committee (CNISEL) now receives complains every day at both national and local levels. According to the CNISEL’s chief, Fateh Boutbik, the complaints are mostly related to the violation of […]
The United States and Morocco have renewed pledge to use their strong strategic partnership to advance shared priorities of a stable, democratic and prosperous Maghreb, Africa and Middle East. The pledge was renewed during the second session of the United States-Morocco Strategic Dialogue held last Friday in Rabat. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who […]