perilous
power vacuum.
A Saudi man has gone
on trial
at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with being behind an al-Qaeda attack on an American warship in Yemen more than a decade ago. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is accused of organising the suicide attack on the USS Cole in the year 2000. Marcus George reports from Guantanamo.
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was led into court,
unshackled
by minders wearing surgical gloves. His hair and beard were cropped, and he was dressed in white prison clothes. This was his first appearance in public since his capture. He appeared calm and spoke with his attorneys with ease, at one point, giving them a
thumbs-up
sign. What followed was an initial hearing to discuss the charges against him. He's accused of organising the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen using a craft laden with explosives that killed 17 American servicemen.
The US army has handed over its second biggest base in Iraq to the Iraqi government ahead of the planned withdrawal of all American forces at the end of the year. Joint Base Balad housed more than 35,000 US military personnel and contractors at the height of the Iraq conflict. At one time, the US had some 500 bases in Iraq. There are 11 left.
World News from the BBC
Syrian and Egyptian activists have prevented Syrian opposition leaders from meeting the Arab League in Cairo, accusing them of treachery.
The activists threw eggs and