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By Patricia Zengerle and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump blasted ousted FBI chief James Comey as a “showboat” and “grandstander” on Thursday even as the agency’s acting leader contradicted the president’s account that the FBI had been in turmoil before he fired Comey. In testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, acting Federal Bureau of Investigation director Andrew McCabe promised to tell the panel of […]

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s acting director has contradicted Donald Trump over the firing of James Comey, denying the ousted chief had lost the support of employees as he insisted the FBI’s Russia probe would not be knocked off course. Andrew McCabe, the FBI acting director, also told the Senate intelligence committee that the probe into alleged collusion between Moscow and the Trump election campaign was “highly […]

WASHINGTON Russia’s attempts to interfere in foreign elections are one of the top worldwide security threats, the senior Democrat on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee said on Thursday. “Russia’s direct interference in democratic processes around the globe is a direct assault that we must work together to repel,” Senator Mark Warner said as the panel began its annual hearing on worldwide threats, featuring testimony by leaders of […]

Moon Jae-in’s presidency of South Korea began with admirable pledges to handle an unpredictable and belligerent next-door neighbour, North Korea, and tackle economic problems. He will also tackle broader regional tensions, China’s outrage at the United States THAAD missile defence system in South Korea and rising fears over that same northern neighbour‘s nuclear programme. But one other challenge may be almost as crucial in determining the success […]

By Leigh Thomas and Matthias Blamont | PARIS PARIS While street demonstrations are mainly a younger person’s domain in France, when it comes to protest voting by spoiling ballots, the over 65s appear to be the most active age group. Turned off by the choices on offer in the country’s most unusual presidential election run-off in decades, the segment of voters most likely to have protested by […]

By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam | BEIRUT BEIRUT Lebanon is on the brink of crisis again with its politicians at odds over an election law at the heart of the nation’s sectarian system, threatening to leave the country without a parliament for the first time. Parliament’s term expires on June 20 and without a compromise Lebanon faces what one minister has called the most serious political […]

But the candidates still provide significant choices compared with elections in many other Middle Eastern countries. Continue reading the main story The incumbent president, Hassan Rouhani, promotes economic and social freedoms. His main opponent, Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the country’s wealthiest religious foundation, opposes many such ideas and wants Iran to become more self-sufficient. Televised debates this year have been held with new restrictions, in contrast […]

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YANGON The International Committee of the Red Cross has asked Myanmar to let aid workers get access to people caught up in conflicts that have displaced tens of thousands despite a transition that brought Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power. Authorities have blocked the ICRC from areas under the control of ethnic minority forces and from visiting some prisoners, the organisation’s president, Peter Maurer, told […]

By Amanda Becker | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s dismissal of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey has raised questions about the future of the agency’s probe into Russian attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign. Democrats are worried Comey’s firing on Tuesday could jeopardize the ongoing FBI probe and have renewed calls for an independent investigation. Some Republicans have […]

By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The anger behind Donald Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday had been building for months, but a turning point came when Comey refused to preview for top Trump aides his planned testimony to a Senate panel, White House officials said. Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had wanted a heads-up […]

By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks rose early on Thursday, getting a lift from a record high close on MSCI’s global stocks benchmark after strong gains in oil prices buoyed energy stocks globally. Oil prices held on to 3 percent-plus overnight gains, their biggest one-day jump since Dec. 1, following a steep drop in U.S. inventories and support from Iraq and Algeria for an extension […]

Abu Dhabi // The president of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa, has been invited by Saudi King Salman to attend talks in Riyadh later this month with the US president. The ruler of Abu Dhabi was invited to both the US-GCC talks as well as the summit expected to be held a day later, on May 21, between Donald Trump and leaders from more than a dozen of […]

An unabashed Donald Trump called for warmer US relations with Russia on Wednesday as his firing of FBI director James Comey sparked pressure from Democrats for an independent probe of his election campaign’s alleged ties to Moscow. Mr Comey’s dismissal shook Washington, igniting the biggest crisis of Mr Trump’s presidency as opponents amplified allegations throughout the day that the president was seeking to frustrate the FBI probe. […]

By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A U.S. far-right online activist credited with initially sharing on Twitter hacked emails from the French presidential campaign of centrist Emmanuel Macron is the latest conservative media figure to receive White House access from the Trump administration. Jack Posobiec, a Washington-based writer at the Rebel Media, a Canadian online political and social news commentary platform, attended the daily press briefing on […]

ISLAMABAD –  Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had no moral right to rule after the verdict in Panama Papers case by the Supreme Court. Speaking to Pakistan People’s Party leaders including Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and former interior minister Rehman Malik here in separate meetings, Zardari said that the PM should quit, to allow the Joint Investigation […]

PARIS Several French news companies, including Le Monde and Le Figaro, said their websites went temporarily offline on Wednesday because a company that helps speed delivery of their content was hit by a cyber attack. The company, Cedexis, said it had come under a “unique and sophisticated” distributed denial of service attack, which is when hijacked and virus-infected computers target networks with data requests until they can […]

By David Morgan and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump defended his firing of FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday as Democrats intensified accusations that the ouster was intended to undermine an agency probe into his presidential campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to sway the 2016 election. The Republican president’s abrupt move on Tuesday stunned Washington and was swiftly condemned by Democrats and by […]

Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays, has apologised to shareholders for the “error” he admitted he had made in trying to uncover the identity of a whistleblower. In an attempt to take the sting out of the bank’s annual meeting on Wednesday, the Barclays CEO said: “I feel it is important that I acknowledge to you, our shareholders, that I made a mistake in becoming involved in […]

BEIRUT Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday that any attempts to disrupt the presidential election on May 19 would be dealt with harshly. The vote has shaped up to be primarily a contest between incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who has campaigned on a platform of opening up the country to the West and easing social restrictions, and hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi, who […]

As we reported last night, pretty much no one within the FBI had the slightest idea that Comey’s firing was coming.  Even Comey himself, according to the New York Times, learned of his dismissal on the news and thought it was just a prank. Not surprisingly, this sudden and shocking ouster of an FBI director that has led an agency of 56 U.S. field offices and 30,000 […]

VIENNA Reinhold Mitterlehner, Austria’s Vice Chancellor and leader of the People’s Party, said on Wednesday he would resign, paving the way for someone new to lead the conservatives into the next parliamentary election. “It’s enough,” he told a news conference in Vienna called at short notice, referring to months of quarrelling within his party about his leadership qualities. Mitterlehner, 61, said he would resign his posts of […]

BEIJING China said on Wednesday it had complained to the United States after a U.S. Congressional delegation visited exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in India this week. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi flew with a bipartisan delegation to the Himalayan hill town where the 81-year-old Buddhist leader is based, seeking to draw world attention to human rights in Tibet as President Donald […]

10 May 2017 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – Jannah Hotels & Resorts’ award-winning flagship hotel, Jannah Burj Al Sarab played host to the ultimate Iftar preview party for the media delegation of the UAE and the GCC on 7 May. The all-day restaurant The Dining Room specializing in French and Mediterranean cuisine, served an extensive menu of Middle Eastern and International dishes for the Iftar buffet […]

VANCOUVER British Columbia’s ruling Liberal Party won a tight election in the Western Canadian province but lost its majority, according to a CBC Television projection early on Wednesday morning. CBC said the right-of-center Liberals were set to win 43 seats in the 87-seat legislature. The left-leaning New Democratic Party was likely to take 41 and the Green Party three. (Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; editing by […]

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