Middle East Memo From the West Bank In the 10th year of a four-year term in the absence of national elections, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has lost the public’s confidence. A poll published on Tuesday showed trust in him falling to 16 percent from 22 percent in March. By JODI RUDOREN September 1, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas, the aging Palestinian president, may be paving the way […]
Middle East Video Protesters took over the office of Lebanon’s environment minister in the capital on Tuesday, calling on him to resign for failing to find a solution to the garbage crisis. By ANNE BARNARD September 1, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Demonstrators from the “You Stink” movement, protesting a garbage pileup and political dysfunction, occupied the offices of Lebanon’s environment minister in downtown Beirut on Tuesday, declaring that they […]
Middle East By THOMAS ERDBRINK August 31, 2015 TEHRAN — Iranian security forces arrested a prominent reformist politician on Monday, hours after he held a news conference thanking President Hassan Rouhani for a more open political atmosphere, several Iranian news agencies reported. The arrest of the politician, Ali Shakorirad, put a damper on the hopes of Iran’s reformists. Just last week they launched the Islamic Iranian National Union Party, […]
CAIRO — The Egyptian foreign ministry said Sunday that it had summoned the British ambassador to object to his comments on a recent court ruling to jail two journalists, escalating the government’s defense of its crackdown on dissent. The two journalists, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, have attracted special attention because, unlike most journalists in Egypt’s jails, both have had long careers at respected international news organizations. […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese demonstrators gathered by the thousands on Saturday evening to protest towering garbage piles, corruption and political dysfunction, largely avoiding the clashes with security forces that had marred earlier protests. The crowd in downtown Beirut was the biggest turnout yet, and many people arrived leery of the possibility of violence. Last weekend, security forces used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets as some […]
INTERNATIONAL. The enduring impasse between Israel and the Palestinians in the peace negotiations and their changing internal political dynamics has made it impossible for them to resolve the conflict on their own. Leaving them to their own devices is no longer a viable option as the continuation of the conflict is hazardous and potentially explosive. The resumption of bilateral peace negotiations with US mediation alone will not […]
|By Matein Khalid| A month ago, I published a column predicting history’s first Made in China global recession. Wall Street finally agreed with me last week after we witnessed the most brutal crash in global equities since October 2008. I have predicated a 20% fall in US equities several times in the last three months and the 1000 point drop in the Dow last week only reinforces […]
UDF AGAIN CAVES IN TO IUML PRESSURE TACTICS By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government again…
ABU DHABI // Candidates for the Federal National Council have told of their reasons for stepping forward, as the objection process for the elections began on Monday. Sheikh Musallam Salem bin Ham Al Ameri said the people of his emirate had asked him to nominate himself. “The idea was crossing my mind, but when the people asked me to run I was happy to,” said Sheikh Al […]
|By Matein Khalid| Geopolitics is now another source of risk for the Turkish lira, government debt and Istanbul equities. The Turkish air force is bombing Daish in Syria and the secessionist Kurdish PKK party in northern Iraq. Suicide bombings have killed Turkish citizens in eastern Anatolian cities on the Syrian border. Ankara has given the US a green light to launch military airstrikes from the Incerlik air […]
By THE NEW YORK TIMES August 21, 2015 For decades Cairo was considered safe for residents and visitors. Not anymore. Nearly two years of escalating bombings in and around Cairo are gradually changing the feel of the city. Neighbors are becoming more suspicious of strangers asking questions, and commuters are getting used to changing their routes to avoid police cordons after each bombing. The New York Times asked readers on Facebook, […]
FRANKFURT Smartphone apps that help people learn languages for free or nearly free, a few sentences at a time, are piling pressure on established education firms and setting the pace for how to make lessons more engaging. Phone and tablet-based mobile products from newcomers like Germany’s Babbel, Britain’s Memrise and U.S.-based Duolingo have overtaken names like Berlitz and computer self-learning pioneer Rosetta Stone (RST.N) in terms of […]
DUBAI // The last day of Federal National Council registration lived up to expectations as 90 candidates rushed to apply before the deadline. “Just as we thought, the last day of registration in Dubai had the biggest turnout,” said Ahmed bin Humaidan, the head of the Dubai Federal National Council Election Committee. In Dubai, 21 candidates registered yesterday, six of whom were women. “We’re very pleased with […]
By Nora Chopra Rahul Gandhi may be the star campaigner in Bihar, despite the fact that that both Lalu and Nitish do…
KUWAIT. On Aug. 14, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA/A-1+’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kuwait. The outlook is stable. RATIONALEPrices for crude oil have fallen by around 50% in the last year. We now forecast an average Brent oil price of $55/bbl in 2015 and $67.5/bbl in 2015-2018. The sharp fall in oil prices over the past […]
Headsets hang in front of a screen displaying a Spotify logo on it, in Zenica February 20, 2014. Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Files EDGARTOWN, Mass. If hearing Barack Obama break into song hasn’t satisfied your presidential music needs, you can now listen to his playlists on Spotify. The White House on Friday released two music sets “hand-created” by the president of the United States for daytime and evening listening as […]
INTERNATIONAL. The word tragic has often been used to describe the civil war in Syria, but it is a pale description of the raging madness on the ground. The bloodletting and massive destruction that has swept the nation is not a mere tragic event; the magnitude of the destruction and loss of lives is catastrophic by any measure unseen since the horror of World War II. The […]
An employee works near screens in the virus lab at the headquarters of Russian cyber security company Kaspersky Labs in Moscow July 29, 2013. RUSSIA-CYBERCRIME/ Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin/Files SAN FRANCISCO Beginning more than a decade ago, one of the largest security companies in the world, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, tried to damage rivals in the marketplace by tricking their antivirus software programs into classifying benign files as malicious, according […]
ANTAKYA, Turkey — The foreign minister of Iran arrived in Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday to discuss the civil war in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad, while rebel shelling and government airstrikes killed more than 30 people nearby. The visit by the Iranian minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, came amid intensified diplomacy among Russia, the United States and several Middle Eastern powers seeking to end the conflict, which has […]
The first journalist from an American Jewish pro-Israel publication to be given an Iranian visa since 1979 reported Wednesday that he had found little evidence to suggest that Iran wanted to destroy Israel, as widely asserted by critics of the Iranian nuclear agreement. The journalist, Larry Cohler-Esses, assistant managing editor for news at The Forward, an influential New York-based newspaper catering to American Jews, also wrote that […]
A demonstration on Sunday in Baghdad to show support for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after he proposed government reforms. By OMAR AL-JAWOSHY and TIM ARANGO August 9, 2015 BAGHDAD — Facing widespread protests against government corruption and poor services as well as a crucial call for change from the country’s top Shiite cleric, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday proposed to radically reshape the dysfunctional political system of Iraq that has […]
ISTANBUL — Confronted with widespread protests two summers ago, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered a harsh police crackdown and tarnished the demonstrators as traitors and spies. Faced with a corruption inquiry focused on his inner circle, he responded by purging the police and judiciary. So when Mr. Erdogan, now president, suffered a stinging electoral defeat in June that left his party without a majority in Parliament […]
|By Matein Khalid| Every global recession since the OPEC oil shocks of 1973-74 was triggered by a contraction in the $17 trillion US economic colossus. The failure of Lehman Brothers, the meltdown in US subprime mortgages, the impotence of the implicit “Fed/Uncle Sam” put, the ice age in the commercial paper and interbank money markets all tipped the US economy into recession in late 2008 and triggered […]
AMMAN, Jordan — The young visitor from America rode his skateboard, jogged near his house or strolled to the market, barely acknowledging his neighbors. He was a regular at the mosque, but never bothered to introduce himself to fellow worshipers, appearing as indifferent to them as he seemed to his surroundings. “He made no effort,” said the mosque’s imam. After Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, was identified by […]
