In almost any other part of the world, a friendly, on-camera hug between two senior politicians at a public event would have raised no eyebrows. But in the febrile atmosphere of a Hong Kong bracing itself for the “election” of its fourth chief executive since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997, Tung Chee-hwa’s embrace of Carrie Lam during a public ceremony in […]
DHAKA A fire that broke out in Bangladesh’s central bank on Thursday night on floors 13 and 14 of the 32-story building has been brought under control. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known. “Twelve units of the fire fighting department controlled (the fire) after several hours of efforts,” a fire department official said. “Those floors are very important as those floors deal with foreign […]
CAIRO — Ten Egyptian soldiers and 15 militants were killed during a raid on an Islamist insurgent base in the restive Sinai Peninsula, a military spokesman said Thursday. The deaths underscored the strength of the Sinai insurgency, led by an Islamic State affiliate, despite almost four years of concerted Egyptian counterterrorism operations. In recent months Sinai militants have expanded their area of operations, targeted Christian civilians and […]
By Robin Emmott and Alissa de Carbonnel | BRUSSELS BRUSSELS Hours before Wednesday’s attack in London, the head of the European Union police agency Europol warned that a large group of radicalised individuals posed a constant threat to Britain and Europe. “Some of these are likely to succeed in the future,” Rob Wainwright, who is British, wrote in a blog to commemorate the attacks in Brussels that […]
By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The top U.S. general in Europe said on Thursday that he had seen Russian influence on Afghan Taliban insurgents growing and raised the possibility that Moscow was helping supply the militants, whose reach is expanding in southern Afghanistan. “I’ve seen the influence of Russia of late – increased influence in terms of association and perhaps even supply to […]
ANKARA Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called British Prime Minister Theresa May to express condolences for the attack in London and stressed that the two countries were partners in the fight against terrorism, sources in Erdogan’s office said on Thursday. Erdogan told May that Turkey was in full solidarity with the United Kingdom against terrorism that threatened international peace and security, the sources said. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; […]
By Pavel Polityuk and Alexei Kalmykov | KIEV KIEV Ukraine accused Russia of “state terrorism” after a former Russian lawmaker and key witness in a treason case against former leader Viktor Yanukovich was shot dead in broad daylight outside a hotel in central Kiev on Thursday. Russia called the allegation “absurd”. Former MP Denis Voronenkov was killed by an assailant who was armed with a pistol and […]
GENEVA Fighting around Syria’s capital Damascus has cut 300,000 people off from humanitarian aid and pauses in the fighting are needed to let aid convoys in, Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian advisor on Syria, said in an interview on Thursday. “They are totally dependent on our supplies. Starvation will be just around the corner unless we get there in the coming weeks,” Egeland told Reuters after chairing the […]
The man who killed three people and injured at least 40 in the terror attack on Westminster was British born and has previously been investigated by MI5, Theresa May said on Thursday. Although the attacker, who was fatally shot by police, was known to the domestic security service, it is believed he acted alone and was “not part of the current intelligence picture”, the prime minister said. […]
ANKARA Turkey summoned the Russian charge d’affaires to convey its unease after a Turkish soldier was killed by sniper fire from a part of Kurdish-held Syria where Russian forces are active, Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. The Turkish military fired into the northwestern Syrian border region of Afrin on Wednesday, an area contolled by the Kurdish YPG militia, after the soldier was killed by cross-border […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and rebels, including jihadist groups, fought in the capital Damascus and north of Hama on Thursday after the insurgents’ biggest offensive for months, underscoring the bleak prospects for peace talks which resume later in the day. The offensive seems unlikely to reverse 18 months of steady military gains by the government, culminating in December’s capture of the rebel enclave in Aleppo, but it […]
“The fighting is raging on as I speak and is expected to last several weeks until the dam, airfield and city are free from ISIS control,” said Col. Joseph E. Scrocca, a spokesman for the American-led command in Baghdad. Continue reading the main story As the operation unfolded, Syrian state television and local residents asserted that at least 30 Syrian civilians were killed in an airstrike that […]
DUBAI: Social media users made fun of Syrian First Lady Asma Al-Assad being named as the “Mother of the Nation.”In comments replete with derision and taunts, they said it was galling on her part to be called the “Mother of the Nation” after having overseen the murder of nearly 400,000 of her compatriots since the 2011 revolution.Almost 5 million people have fled Syria since the beginning of […]
Two-and-a-half years ago, Nathan Law took to the streets of Hong Kong with tens of thousands of fellow students, demanding Beijing give them the right to vote for the leader of their own city government. This Sunday Mr Law will have that opportunity — but not in the way he envisaged during the “Umbrella Revolution” protests. When he was voted on to the city’s Legislative Council in […]
“Reflecting on the past year or so, we should be encouraged by the significant progress we as a coalition are making,” Mr. Tillerson said. Continue reading the main story Mr. Trump has long insisted that citing “radical Islamic terrorism” is key to defeating the Islamic State. “You can’t solve a problem if you refuse to talk about what the problem is,” he said in November 2015. Yet […]
In the wake of the terror attacks in England, France, Germany and elsewhere, can we finally admit that the war on terror is an utter and complete failure? 10 Ways to Reduce Terrorism So if the war on terror has failed, what should we do to stop terrorists? I. Stop Overthrowing the Moderates and Arming Crazies We know it’s a difficult concept to grasp, but if we […]
Britain’s Houses of Parliament came under attack on Wednesday from a knife-wielding assailant who ploughed a vehicle through throngs of people on Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing a police officer. In the largest-scale terrorist incident in London since suicide bombers killed 52 people in July 2005, at least five people died, including the attacker. A further 40 were injured, according to police. The attack paralysed the heart […]
By Chine Labbé and Adrian Croft | PARIS PARIS Militants are increasingly turning to vehicle-ramming attacks, like the one staged near Britain’s parliament on Wednesday, because they are cheap, easy to organise and hard to prevent. Experts say the tactic of mowing people down avoids the need to obtain any explosives or weapons and can be carried out by a “lone-wolf” attacker without using a network of […]
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock at the attack in which four people were killed and at least 20 injured in London on Wednesday, and she said her thoughts were with the British people and everyone in the capital. In the attack close to the British parliament a car ploughed into pedestrians and an attacker stabbed a policeman, in what police called a terrorist incident. “Although […]
Former US VP Stresses Role of Governments in Reaching Global Consensus to Fight Climate Change SHARJAH-UAE: March 22, 2017 His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Member of Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah today attended a conversation panel with Al Gore, former US Vice President and founder-chairman of the Climate Reality Project as part of the sixth edition of International Government Communication Forum (IGCF […]
DUBAI // An Ethiopian businesswoman threatened to have a policeman fired from his job, a court heard on Wednesday. The accused, 36, denied charges at Dubai Criminal Court of verbally assaulting an officer of the law and threatening to fire him and have him deported from the country on July 14 last year. The Yemeni officer was responding to the report of a fight at a cafe […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — At least 30 Syrian civilians have been killed in an airstrike by the United States-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in a rural area of Raqqa Province, according to residents, activists and state television. The attack, which hit a school where civilians had taken shelter Tuesday night, marked the second time in a week that Syrians had accused the United States of involvement in […]
Markets now and again behave in ways least expected, none more so than the resilience of emerging market currencies against the US dollar. Two of the main factors underpinning EM foreign exchange flows — globalisation and oil — are going the wrong way. Globalisation looks more vulnerable than ever following the G20 finance ministers’ meeting that pointedly failed to include the need to fight protectionism in its […]
MOSUL Islamic State militants shelled areas recaptured by Iraqi forces in western Mosul, hitting civilians fleeing the fighting early on Wednesday as troops edged their way through the narrow, dangerous streets of the Old City. Heavy mortar fire killed at least five civilians and wounded more than 20 in Mosul Jadida and Rifak districts – areas that the militants had recently lost to Federal Police and Rapid […]
