عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Osama Bin Laden’s Former Spokesman Set for London Return after US Prison Term

Adel Abdel Bary, 60, seen here in a court sketch from September 19, was convicted of terror offenses for his role in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. (Reuters/File Photo)
Adel Abdel Bary, 60, seen here in a court sketch from September 19, was convicted of terror offenses for his role in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. (Reuters/File Photo)
TT
TT

Osama Bin Laden’s Former Spokesman Set for London Return after US Prison Term

Adel Abdel Bary, 60, seen here in a court sketch from September 19, was convicted of terror offenses for his role in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. (Reuters/File Photo)
Adel Abdel Bary, 60, seen here in a court sketch from September 19, was convicted of terror offenses for his role in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. (Reuters/File Photo)

Osama bin Laden’s former London spokesman is set to return to Britain a free man after being released from jail in the US because of concerns about COVID-19 in prison.

Adel Abdel Bary is obese and suffers from asthma and is highly prone to coronavirus infection.

Bary, 60, was convicted for taking part in the terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 and wounded dozens in 1998.

A year later he was arrested in Britain and eventually extradited to the US after a protracted legal battle. He agreed to a plea deal that involved admitting three charges, including conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad.

In 2015 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison but consideration was given to the 16 years he had already spent in custody.

Bary had been charged with 285 offenses, eventually pleaded guilty to just a handful, including threatening to kill by means of explosives and conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad.

Notably, he was born in Egypt but granted asylum in Britain in the early 1990s.

He is currently in a US immigration and customs enforcement detention facility until he is sent back to the UK.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
TT
TT

Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)

Russia on Sunday sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit, the second such launch since July, Iranian state television reported.

The report said that a Russian rocket sent the satellites to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit from the Vostochny launchpad in eastern Russia. The three satellites are dubbed Paya, Kowsar and Zafar-2.

The report said that Paya, weighing 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is the heaviest satellite that Iran has ever deployed into orbit. Kowsar weighs 35 kilograms (77 pounds), but the report didn't specify how heavy Zafar-2 is.

The satellites feature up to 3-meter resolution images, applicable in the management of water resources, agriculture and the environment. Their life span is up to five years.

Russia occasionally sends Iran's satellites into orbit, highlighting the strong ties between the two countries. In July, a Russian rocket sent Iranian communications satellite Nahid-2 into orbit.

Russia, which signed a “strategic partnership” treaty with Iran in January, strongly condemned the Israeli and US strikes on Iran that came during a 12-day air war in June and killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Retaliatory missile barrages by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.

As a long-standing project, Iran from time-to-time launches satellite carriers to send its satellites into space.

The United States has said that Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in 2023.

World

Israel's Recognition of Somaliland 'Threat' to Regional Stability, Says Somali President

Man holding the Somaliland flag in front of the Hargeisa War memorial (AFP).
Man holding the Somaliland flag in front of the Hargeisa War memorial (AFP).
TT
TT

Israel's Recognition of Somaliland 'Threat' to Regional Stability, Says Somali President

Man holding the Somaliland flag in front of the Hargeisa War memorial (AFP).
Man holding the Somaliland flag in front of the Hargeisa War memorial (AFP).

Israel's recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland "is (a) threat to the security and stability of the world and the region," Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told an emergency parliamentary session Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Friday announcement, making his country the first to recognise Somaliland, "is tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic," Mohamud said.

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has for decades pushed for international recognition.

A self-proclaimed republic, it enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own money, passports and army.

But it has been diplomatically isolated since its unilateral declaration of independence.

Somalia's government and the African Union reacted angrily Friday after Israel's announcement.

Mogadishu denounced a "deliberate attack" on its sovereignty, while Egypt, Türkiye, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and Organization of Islamic Cooperation all condemned the decision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

World

Italy Arrests Nine Over Alleged Hamas Funding through Charities

President of the Palestinian Association in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, carries a Palestinian flag during a nationwide strike, called by the USB union, in solidarity with Gaza and against the government and its plan to increase military spending, in Rome, Italy, November 29, 2025. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mohammad Hannoun is among nine people arrested on December 27 on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units. in Italy. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
President of the Palestinian Association in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, carries a Palestinian flag during a nationwide strike, called by the USB union, in solidarity with Gaza and against the government and its plan to increase military spending, in Rome, Italy, November 29, 2025. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mohammad Hannoun is among nine people arrested on December 27 on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units. in Italy. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
TT
TT

Italy Arrests Nine Over Alleged Hamas Funding through Charities

President of the Palestinian Association in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, carries a Palestinian flag during a nationwide strike, called by the USB union, in solidarity with Gaza and against the government and its plan to increase military spending, in Rome, Italy, November 29, 2025. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mohammad Hannoun is among nine people arrested on December 27 on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units. in Italy. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
President of the Palestinian Association in Italy, Mohammad Hannoun, carries a Palestinian flag during a nationwide strike, called by the USB union, in solidarity with Gaza and against the government and its plan to increase military spending, in Rome, Italy, November 29, 2025. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said Mohammad Hannoun is among nine people arrested on December 27 on suspicion of financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units. in Italy. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Italian prosecutors said on Saturday they had arrested nine people on suspicion of ​financing Hamas through charities based in Italy, in an operation coordinated by anti-mafia and anti-terrorism units.

The suspects are accused of "belonging to and having financed" the Palestinian group, which the European Union designates as a terrorist organization, prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Genoa said in a statement, Reuters reported.

Those arrested allegedly diverted to Hamas-linked ‌entities around 7 million ‌euros ($8.2 million) raised over the ‌last ⁠two years ​for ‌ostensibly humanitarian purposes, prosecutors said. Police seized assets worth more than 8 million euros.

In another statement on Sunday, police said officers had seized 1.08 million euros in cash found in the offices of a pro-Palestinian charity and in the private homes of suspects, as well as pro-Hamas material.

The ⁠Italian investigation began after suspicious financial transactions were flagged and expanded ‌through cooperation with Dutch authorities and other ‍EU countries, coordinated through the ‍EU judicial agency Eurojust.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked ‍the authorities for "a particularly complex and important operation" which had uncovered financing for Hamas through "so-called charity organizations."