News related to
British

LONDON — In a significant indication of warming Western relations with Iran after a deal limiting its nuclear program, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will reopen Britain’s embassy in Tehran, probably on Sunday, British officials said Thursday. Four years ago, in November 2011, the ambassador’s residence there was ransacked and the British flag burned by protesters angry about the economic sanctions imposed on Iran in response to its […]

Listening to music before, during and after surgery reduces patients’ pain, eases anxiety and lessens the need for painkillers, British scientists said on Thursday. After reviewing evidence from around 7,000 patients, the scientists said people going for surgery should be allowed to choose the music they’d like to hear to maximise the benefit. But they also warned that the music should not interfere with the medical team’s […]

SANA, Yemen — After five months of war in which more than 4,000 people have been killed, Yemen’s government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, faces a fateful decision: leverage recent battlefield gains to negotiate a cease-fire with a weakened Houthi rebel movement, or try to rout the rebels once and for all. Backed by air support and ground troops from Persian Gulf nations, fighters allied with the government […]

A Tunisian police officer stood guard at the scene of a shooting attack in June at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Sousse. By CARLOTTA GALL August 9, 2015 MONASTIR, Tunisia — A dozen police officers, one with an assault rifle across his knees, guard the presidential mausoleum in this sleepy seaside resort, easily outnumbering the foreign visitors on a recent morning. It was here, the […]

RAS LAFFAN, Qatar — The temperature hovered around 100 degrees on the jetty here, where a set of pipes were connected to a giant red-hulled ship. But the moisture in the air froze on the pipes and flaked off, creating snowlike flurries on the early summer evening. The incongruous sight is common on the Qatari ship, the Al Rekayyat, which carries a frigid fuel known as liquefied […]

JERUSALEM — The how-to manual in Hebrew reads like a chilling premonition. Among its recommendations, how to set fire to a Palestinian house: “Stock up with a petrol bomb, preferably of a liter and a half; a lighter; gloves; a mask; a crowbar/hammer; a bag to carry it all. When you get to the village, search for a house with an open door or window without bars.” […]

Payfort, a leading online payment service provider, has launched its installments service in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The new service that makes it easy for ecommerce merchants to offer pay-via-installment options to customers and gives consumers greater purchasing power. “Many consumers show a preference for purchasing-via-installments, but methods of processing monthly installments in common usage in the region have proved cumbersome for consumers,” […]

Advertisements

For centuries, Yemen and the people of the UAE have enjoyed a prosperous and enduring relationship. Historically, Yemen stood as a leading civilisation in the Arab world. During the British occupation of the country that began in 1839, Emirati traders would frequent the coastal city of Aden to trade in goods and services with their neighbours. With the rise of the Gulf states and eventual decline of […]

|By Matein Khalid|So Pearson PLC has sold the FT Group (with its flagship Financial Times newspaper) to Japan’s Nikkei Inc for $1.32 billion. Pearson will use the cash proceeds to increase its investment in education publishing businesses in the US and Canada, now 75% of revenues. This deal is a milestone in the history of newspaper publishing and my own life as an investor/financial journalist. I discovered […]

ABU DHABI // The brightest 15-year-old in the world can’t find a place at university because she’s too young. Sitara Brooj Akbar moved from Pakistan to the UAE last year after breaking international records in passing examinations. She is the youngest pupil to reach the top level, Band 9, in the International English Language Testing System. IELTS Band 9 qualifies her as an “expert user” of English, […]

|By Matein Khalid| Last week was a roller coaster and the Nikkei Dow closed at 19,800. Abenomics has had a seismic impact on Japan’s economy, financial markets and banking system. The yen has fallen from 76 on the eve of the election in 2012 to 122 against the US dollar. Corporate profits have exploded. Land price rises, job growth, bonuses, capex and consumer spending have lifted Japan […]

|By Matein Khalid| De Gaulle dissed gold as a “barbarous relic” and Lenin sneered the yellow metal was fit only to “pave capitalist latrines”. So what? Gold has been an monetary metal in human history for centuries, back to the time of Pharonic Egypt, the Inca Empire, King Midas and the Spanish conquistadores of Mexico. While President Nixon removed the gold/dollar Bretton Woods linkage in 1971 and […]

JERUSALEM — Robert Turner is recognized everywhere in the Gaza Strip, jokingly called its governor. To most people there, he is known simply as “Mr. Bob.” He departs on Thursday after serving as Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for three years — or, put another way, through two wars between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls the coastal enclave. Mr. […]

ABU DHABI // After paying nearly Dh60,000 in annual tuition fees, parents at Raha International School have been told that they must also foot the bill for expensive textbooks. On June 22, the school issued a notice to parents of pupils entering the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programme, saying they had until the end of last month to place an order with the school to purchase the […]

By RICK GLADSTONE and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 Islamic State militants indulged in new public displays of artifact destruction this week, sledgehammering a half-dozen statues said to have been stolen from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The militants also broke up a hidden 2,000-year-old lion statue they discovered in a Palmyra museum garden and demolished a 13th-century tomb near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The destruction, publicized in […]

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, paid his condolonces to the Prime Minister of Britain on the deaths of British citizens in last week’s attack in Tunisia. Sheikh Mohammed, during a meeting with David Cameron on Thursday, also wished those who were injured in the attack in Sousse a speedy recovery. The attack, he said, was […]

VIENNA — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation’s top leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran’s nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging the talks would need to continue beyond what was once considered the absolute deadline for […]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS June 20, 2015 CAIRO — A prominent Al Jazeera journalist was detained Saturday in Germany over an Egyptian arrest warrant, the latest in a series of legal entanglements between Egypt and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera, which is based in Qatar, reported the detention. The journalist, Ahmed Mansour, who works for the broadcaster’s Arabic service, was detained while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight at Berlin’s […]

Humans will be extinct in 100 years because the planet will be uninhabitable, according to Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner, one of the leaders of the effort to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. He blames overcrowding, denuded resources and climate change. Fenner’s prediction is not a sure bet, but he is correct that there is no way emissions reductions will be enough to save us from our trend […]

Mohamed Alsawafiri, the presenter of  “The News Program,” playing with a prop on the set last month. By DIAA HADID and MAJD AL WAHEIDI June 19, 2015 GAZA CITY — Men and women stood with suitcases at the port, waiting for a boat. Suspicious, Tarek, a 13-year-old tea seller, wandered over and asked, “Are they really leaving?” He had never seen anyone leave Gaza before, he explained. As it turned out, his […]

Video | Morsi Death Sentence Confirmed by Judge A judge in Egypt announced the confirmation of last month’s sentence of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK June 16, 2015 CAIRO — An Egyptian judge slammed the rule of the deposed president Mohamed Morsi as “a black night that lasted a whole year” and confirmed a death sentence against […]

“I don’t discriminate with music,” says Mannan Alawar with a laugh, “as long as it’s good.” Whether he is reinventing the UAE national anthem on electric guitar for a YouTube audience or leaping into a crowd mid-solo, Alawar is hardly the average Emirati banker. The 24-year-old is a musician at heart, dividing his time between his day job, several bands and finishing a business degree. When he […]

ABU DHABI // Thirty-six members of the British parliament have signed a motion calling for the Queen Elizabeth II ocean liner to be returned to Scotland from its Dubai berth. The early day motion, a measure to call for a formal debate in parliament, has been predominantly backed by members of the Scottish National Party (SNP). After expressing “grave concern” at the condition of the vessel, the […]

Video | Orange’s Boss Meets With Netanyahu Stéphane Richard, the chief executive of Orange, the French telecom giant, tells Israel’s prime minister that he regrets the furor caused by his statements about doing business in the country. By JODI RUDOREN June 12, 2015 JERUSALEM — The chief executive of a French telecommunications company made an extraordinary personal pilgrimage on Friday to apologize to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, […]

VISHNU RAJA
RYO YAMADA
HITORI GOTOH
IKUYO KITA