DUBAI Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned Britain on Saturday as a “source of evil and misery” for the Middle East after British Prime Minister Theresa May called Iran a regional threat. “Shamelessly, the British have recently called … Iran a threat to the region, but everyone knows that … it is the British who have always been the source of threats, corruption and misery,” the […]
By MacDonald Dzirutwe | MASVINGO, Zimbabwe MASVINGO, Zimbabwe Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was confirmed on Saturday as his party’s sole candidate for the next presidential election in 2018, when he will be 94. Supporters at a party conference sang a song titled “Mugabe should rule until eternity” as the veteran leader rose to give a speech in which he called for an end to infighting within the […]
A group of intelligence experts, including a former head of MI6, has cut ties with fellow academics at Cambridge university, in a varsity spy scare harking back to the heyday of Soviet espionage at the heart of the British establishment. Sir Richard Dearlove, the ex-chief of the Secret Intelligence Service and former master of Pembroke college, Stefan Halper, a senior foreign policy adviser at the White House […]
By Peter Nicholls | BIRMINGHAM, England BIRMINGHAM, England Hundreds of rioting prisoners took control of at least two wings of an English jail on Friday, authorities said, in the latest and most serious disturbance at a British prison this year. The trouble erupted at HMP Birmingham in central England, which can hold 1,450 male prisoners, shortly after 0900 GMT, forcing staff to withdraw, according to G4S (GFS.L), […]
By Laila Bassam, Lisa Barrington and John Davison | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The evacuation of the last opposition-held areas of the Syrian city of Aleppo was suspended on Friday after pro-government militias demanded that wounded people should also be brought out of two Shi’ite villages being besieged by rebel fighters. The second day of the operation to take fighters and civilians out of Aleppo’s rebel enclave […]
Photo A member of the Syrian government forces watched the evacuation operation of rebel fighters and civilians from Aleppo on Friday. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — The process of evacuating residents from the last rebel-held section of Aleppo broke down on Friday, a day after Syrian government buses and ambulances began taking residents out of the besieged area. The reason for halting […]
By Elizabeth Piper and Alastair Macdonald | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS European Union leaders agreed their plan for Brexit negotiations on Thursday, pledging to move swiftly and stick together to ensure Britain does not cherry pick a sweet deal that might inspire others to unstitch the bloc. Prime Minister Theresa May left before the other 27 leaders met briefly to formalise their plan for how to run Brexit talks. […]
Theresa May on Thursday embarked on a Brexit charm offensive in Brussels, amid warnings from a senior diplomat that a final exit deal could take a decade to complete. Mrs May will tell an EU summit that Britain will play a full role in tackling migrant flows from north Africa to Europe, even after Brexit. She will also reassure fellow leaders from Latvia and Lithuania that Britain […]
By Marc Jones | LONDON LONDON A quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, life satisfaction in Russia and other ex-Soviet states remains stubbornly low, and enthusiasm for democracy and open market economics is wavering, a survey published on Tuesday showed. The study found that only 15 percent of Russians think their households have a better quality of life, compared with 30 percent […]
Free Fire Director: Ben Wheatley Starring: Cillian Murphy, Brie Larson, Michael Smiley, Armie Hammer Four stars British director Ben Wheatley returns with Free Fire, his sixth feature film and probably his most high profile to date. The cast includes Brie Larson, the Oscar-winning star of Room, District 9’s Sharlto Copley, and Batman Begins and Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphy, while the list of executive producers is headed […]
By Nigel Stephenson | LONDON LONDON Global shares edged up on Tuesday, helped by gains in banks after Italy’s largest lender unveiled a 13 billion euro share issue, while the dollar held steady before a Federal Reserve meeting expected to deliver higher interest rates. UniCredit launched Italy’s biggest share issue to clean up its balance sheet and boost profitability in the latest move to strengthen the Italian […]
By Emmanuel Jarry and Andrew Callus | PARIS PARIS France’s far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who wants to become president in next spring’s elections, celebrated Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. “Victory for freedom!” she said on her Twitter page in June after Britons voted for Brexit. “We now need to hold the same referendum in France and in (other) EU countries.” But unlike […]
Photo Kayla Harrison plans to take up mixed martial arts in the World Series of Fighting, and hopes “to see it go more toward the professional route.” Credit Earl Wilson/The New York Times Only one American has ever won an Olympic gold medal in judo: Kayla Harrison. And she has won two, in London in 2012 and in Rio this year. Yet despite her achievements, Harrison is […]
By Alastair Macdonald | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS European Union leaders will set out plans this week for negotiating Britain’s exit, diplomats said, after national officials met late on Monday to prepare an EU summit statement. After the 28 national leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday, British Prime Minister Theresa May will leave and the other 27 will dine without her and agree principles on how negotiations with London […]
By Alwyn Scott | SEATTLE SEATTLE Donald Trump on Monday widened his attack on defence contractors, slamming Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive as aides to the president-elect said he intends to keep pushing to cut the costs of military hardware. Trump’s latest Twitter broadside sent defence shares tumbling and fanned concerns that the incoming administration will reduce defence contractors’ profit margins […]
WASHINGTON Donald Trump on Monday criticized Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive, the latest attack by the U.S. President-elect on large defense contractors. Lockheed shares dropped 5.1 percent and shares of several other defense contractors also tumbled. “The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Trump said on Twitter, echoing campaign promises to cut waste in federal spending. “Billions of dollars can and […]
ALEPPO, SYRIA: The Syrian army recaptured a major district of Aleppo on Monday, leaving opposition fighters cornered in a small pocket as the battle for the city entered its “final phase.”President Bashar Assad’s forces held more than 90 percent of the onetime opposition stronghold of east Aleppo, a monitor and military official said, and appeared on the verge of retaking the entire city.A Syrian military official in […]
LONDON Hundreds of thousands of commuters in south London and southern England along with travellers to Gatwick Airport were facing travel misery on Tuesday as a strike by train drivers was set to bring rail services to a standstill. Drivers working for Southern Rail, which runs trains from central London to Gatwick and Brighton on the south coast, will walk out for 48 hours over a long-running […]
Britain’s exit from the European Union will mean it can forge free trade deals with Gulf Arab allies, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday in a speech also heralding closer defence ties to the conservative monarchies. Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, and Iran of stoking proxy wars […]
By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies captured Sheikh Saeed district in Aleppo in overnight fighting, a war monitor and a Syrian official said early on Monday, amid the most intense bombardment in days, leaving insurgents in only a tiny pocket of the city. Sheikh Saeed lies in the south of the rebels’ east Aleppo enclave, which […]
Photo: Bullit Marquez, AP FILE – In this Dec. 2, 2016, file photo, protesters burn a mock American flag during a protest against the planned joint US-Philippines military exercise in central Philippines in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. The Philippines has again thumbed its nose at the U.S., its longtime defense ally, saying it won’t be used as a springboard for U.S. ships and […]
LONDON A major shareholder in British pay-TV company Sky (SKYB.L) will vote against Twenty-First Century Fox’s (FOXA.O) $14 billion takeover bid, the investor told Reuters on Sunday, while another said it is unhappy about the offer. Rupert Murdoch’s Fox offered 10.75 pounds ($13.52) a share in cash on Friday in its second attempt to buy the 61 percent of the business that it does not own, with […]
British actor Bill Nighy walked the red carpet at the Dubai International Film Festival on Friday night at a gala screening of his latest movie, the Second World War drama Their Finest. But with the fifth film of the Underworld franchise still in local cinemas, and given that he played Vampire elder Viktor earlier in the series, it seems his mind was at least partly on all […]
By John Irish | PARIS PARIS Backers of the Syrian opposition appeared resigned to the fall of eastern Aleppo on Saturday, with the United States urging Russia to show “grace” when officials meet in Geneva to try to reach a deal for civilians and fighters to leave the city. Syrian government and allied forces have in the last two weeks driven rebels from most of their territory […]
