Al-Qaeda’s center of gravity ‘shifting’ from Pakistan to Yemen.

Al-Qaeda’s center of gravity ‘shifting’ from Pakistan to Yemen.

A police trooper guards a checkpoint on a street in Sanaa,
 Yemen August 10, 2013. Analysts say the recent terrorist
threat in Yemen suggests al-Qaeda is moving its
 powerbase away from Pakistan. (Reuters)

 Islamabad | AFP | 14 Aug 2013 :: As al-Qaeda marks its 25th anniversary this month, analysts say the recent security threat in Yemen shows the organization’s center of gravity is shifting away from its historic base in Pakistan.

U.S. President Barack Obama has cautioned that affiliates such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a unit of the extremist group that effectively controls parts of Yemen, still pose a threat despite successful efforts to disrupt the organization’s core leadership.

His warning came after the United States closed 19 diplomatic missions in the Middle East and Africa last week after reported intelligence intercepts from al-Qaeda suggested an attack was imminent.

Reports indicated the intercepts involved some kind of group communication between al-Qaeda supremo Ayman al-Zawahiri, and AQAP leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi.

Zawahiri assumed al-Qaeda leadership when Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. Special Forces raid in Pakistan in 2011 and the 62-year-old Egyptian is believed to be hiding in the border region with Afghanistan.

Rahimullah Yusufzai, an expert on Islamist groups in Pakistan, said that while the traditional core leadership of al-Qaeda -- which was founded in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan, in 1988 -- still retains symbolic importance, its operational center of gravity has moved.

“In terms of strength, of power, of effectiveness, we can say it has shifted,” he told AFP.

“It is no longer Pakistan or Afganistan, so most of the fighters, most of the affiliates, are not in Pakistan and Afghanistan. By and large, the plans are not coming from Zawahiri.”

Zawahiri, who has a $25 million U.S. government bounty on him, lacks the charisma of bin Laden but has long been seen as the brains of al-Qaeda.(Courtesy:Al Arabia)Read More>>>

Pakistani clerics ban women from shopping alone in northwest area.

Pakistani clerics ban women from shopping alone in northwest area.

 Pakistan | DERA ISMAIL KHAN | Reuters | 21 Jul 2013 ::  Clerics in northwest Pakistan have issued a temporary ban on women shopping unless accompanied by a male relative, a police official said on Saturday, in a step designed to keep men from being distracted during the holy month of Ramadan.

Police are supporting the ban, announced over mosque loudspeakers on Friday in Karak district in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, district police official Fazal Hanif told Reuters.

Unaccompanied women will be arrested and shopkeepers may be punished for selling items to women on their own.

One trader said he feared the ban would affect business and damage the region's reputation.

"We never supported this ban and convened a meeting on Wednesday to protest over the clerics' decision," Munwar Khan, one of the merchants in the region, told Reuters.

Vast swathes of rural Pakistan, whose name means "Land of the Pure", are deeply conservative. Thousands of women have been killed in recent years for behaviour their families considered improper.

The mosque announcements said the ban was intended to stop men from being distracted during Ramadan, when Muslims are meant to fast from dawn to sunset. The annual period of fasting and prayer falls in July this year.

The ban was proposed by a faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party led by Fazl-ur-Rehman, local administration official Sarfaraz Khattak said.

Such religious parties have typically performed poorly in Pakistani elections, winning only a handful of seats. But mainstream politicians are often slow to criticise religious leaders, partly for fear of being targeted by their supporters.

Some residents of the area also oppose the ban.

"The male members of the family don't have enough time to take women to the market," said Mohammad Naeem Khattak. "Where can women go for shopping if they are banned in the market?" (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) (Courtesy:Reuters)