November 15, 2016 by: Kathrin Hille in Moscow Vladimir Putin has urged Donald Trump to co-operate on the war in Syria and develop economic ties in his first push to improve strained Russian relations with the US following America’s election. The Russian president spoke by telephone with Mr Trump, the US president-elect, late on Monday and expressed a “willingness to build a dialogue between partners with the […]
BRUSSELS: The European Union extended its sanctions on Syria on Monday, banning the country’s central bank chief and its finance minister from traveling in Europe and freezing their assets in a further step to isolate President Bashar Assad.The decision to target Central Bank Gov. Duraid Durgham and Finance Minister Maamoun Hamdan, along with 16 other government ministers, made good on the EU’s threat last month to increase […]
MOSCOW — A Russian fighter jet crashed off the Syrian coast on Monday while trying to land on an aging aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, Russian military officials said. The Russian Defense Ministry blamed a technical failure for the crash of the jet, a MIG-29, according to a ministry statement carried by the Interfax news agency. The pilot, who was the only one in the jet, ejected […]
After months of sending government troops to battle militants blowing up oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, Muhammadu Buhari tried a different tack. The Nigerian president invited the region’s community leaders and traditional rulers to his villa this month for talks — a step energy sector executives hoped could halt a wave of sabotage since January that has cost the country billions of dollars in damages and […]
While the pesh merga attacked ISIS from the north and the east, the Iraqi military was approaching from the south. The job of the battalion moving toward Bashiqa was to shore up the eastern front and extend a cordon around Mosul. The Iraqis’ next moves would depend in part on the Kurds’ success. For the moment, in other words, the progress of the central conflict in the […]
An aspiring weatherman in Kentucky has been charged with arson after he allegedly started a wildfire and then uploaded the video on Facebook. The 21-year-old Johnny Mullins admitted to the crime of starting the wildfire, according to the local police chief. Starting A Wildfire For Facebook Views “It’s really too bad because he’s not a bad kid — he’s just misguided,” said Jenkins, Kentucky police chief James Stephens. […]
Photo Albrecht Dürer’s “The Rhinoceros,” 1515. Credit From the National Gallery of Art It is a Sunday afternoon in a provincial town in France. Two men meet at a cafe. One of them, Berenger, is half-drunk. He is being berated by his companion, Jean. All of the sudden, they hear a great noise. When they and other townspeople crane their necks to figure out what’s going on, […]
Pay attention to the fine print and you’ll see that some of the online messages touting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton are paid for by “Hillary for America,” while others are sponsored by the “Hillary Victory Fund.” How powerful is this two-word change? It means the difference between ads funded by donors who may legally give Clinton up to $2,700 — or by those who may give […]
Photo Members from the Free Syrian Army take part in a battle in northern Syria last month against Islamic State fighters. Credit Nazeer Al-Khatib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — The hours are ticking down to what the Syrian government and its main ally, Russia, say could be the most devastating aerial assault yet on besieged rebel-held districts in the Syrian city of Aleppo. The Obama […]
Titanfall 2 Electronic Arts PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC Four stars Robots just want to be our friends. Sure, there have been a few bad apples, such as the Terminators, Cylons and Ultron – but what about all the nice ones, such as Data from Star Trek and Rosie from The Jetsons? BT-7274, the co-star of Titanfall 2, just wants to be loved. Granted, this giant bucket […]
Donald Trump and top allies have shown signs the New York billionaire may moderate some of his biggest campaign promises, while digging his heels in on others. In the wake of Mr Trump’s stunning electoral win last week, both political analysts and financial investors are waiting to see which of the two Donald Trumps will prevail: the bombastic primary candidate, or a pragmatist who viewed his more […]
Iraqi forces say they have recaptured Nimrud, the site of an ancient Assyrian city seized by jihadi militants when they swept through northern Iraq in 2014. “Troops from the Ninth Armoured Division liberated Nimrud town completely and raised the Iraqi flag above its buildings,” the Iraqi army said in a statement on Sunday. Modern day Nimrud is about 1km west of the remnants of the 3,000-year-old city, […]
Peter Thiel, the billionaire who became Donald Trump’s most prominent backer in Silicon Valley, made a critical distinction last week. He complained that the media tended to take the man literally, but not seriously. Now that Mr Trump is the president-elect of the US, everyone takes him seriously. And hence it becomes vital to work out whether we should take what he has been saying literally. After […]
Photo Members of the Iraqi police tried to pull a body from a mass grave discovered in Hamam al-Alil on Monday. Credit Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GENEVA — Islamic State militants have summarily killed scores of civilians in the Iraqi city of Mosul in recent days, sometimes using children as executioners, and have used chemical agents against Iraqi and Kurdish troops, United Nations officials said […]
Nearly 25 years after they first conquered the White House and captured the commanding heights of the Democratic party, the Clinton family crashed to earth on Wednesday, shattering the ambitions of Hillary Clinton and her clan of fiercely loyal operatives. But as they come to terms with their rout some Democrats see a glimmer of hope, and a badly needed chance to rebuild a party that can […]
MOSUL/BAGHDAD: Elite Iraqi forces were engaged in “intense” fighting with rebels in eastern Mosul on Saturday, an officer said, as civilians gathered on the city’s outskirts to flee. The special forces backed by US and Iraqi air power took control of two districts of eastern Mosul after heavy fighting in which they destroyed nine cars deployed by ISIS as suicide bombs, the military said.The military statement said […]
BEIRUT/MOSCOW/ANKARA: Backed by huge Russian support, the Syrian army captured the Dahiyet Assad district of western Aleppo on Saturday, reversing all the gains made by rebels two weeks into their counter-attack against government-held areas, a war monitor and rebel official said. In a related development, a flotilla of Russian warships is ready in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast after being sent to reinforce Russia’s military […]
MOSCOW: The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday it would need the UN mission in Syria to formally confirm its ability to deliver aid to eastern Aleppo before Moscow agreed to any new humanitarian pauses in fighting in the shattered Syrian city.Moscow says previous temporary cease-fires on the ground, to allow aid deliveries and the evacuation of the wounded and civilians, have come to nothing because rebels […]
In most of the high-profile swing states, the story was the same. In Ohio, Team Clinton was responsible for about 75 percent of the 79,000 TV ads aired in the race since mid-June, after the primaries had ended. In North Carolina, Team Clinton was likewise responsible for about three-quarters of the 63,000 presidential race TV ads since mid-June. And in Pennsylvania, Team Clinton was responsible for nearly […]
newslide Shah Rukh Khan coming to Abu Dhabi to finish Raees filming Shah Rukh Khan is reportedly coming to Abu Dhabi to complete the shooting of his upcoming film Raees. According to The Indian Express, the Bollywood superstar has arranged an “undisclosed” location to finish the film, which is due for release in January. Production of the movie, which also stars Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, was affected […]
Round 3 brought more of the same, though the champion’s leg kicks seemed to be landing with more of a snap. Continue reading the main story As a championship fight, this bout was scheduled for five rounds, rather than three. And the crowd finally had something to cheer about in Round 4, when Kowalkiewicz stung Jedrzejczyk with a punch and put her on the back foot for […]
Britain’s Brexiters have seized on the election of Donald Trump, arguing that it offers the chance to strengthen ties with the US, in an echo of the partnership forged decades ago between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, has depicted Mr Trump’s victory as “a great opportunity”, emphasised the possibility of a post-Brexit trade deal, and called for Europe to snap out of […]
It has been a tough year for music fans. We lost David Bowie and Prince, two musical icons who unquestionably justified the use of the term “genius” in their obituaries. Now Leonard Cohen, whose death at the age of 82 was announced on Thursday, can be added to the list. As recently as last month, the Canadian artist, poet, novelist and singer-songwriter was garnering rave reviews for […]
Syrian forces supported by Russian air power beat back rebel gains around the embattled city of Aleppo on Saturday, tightening the siege on opposition-held areas where civilians are grappling with critically low supplies of food and medicine. Embattled Aleppo, divided between rebel control on the east and government control on the west, has become one of the most violent battlegrounds of the five-year civil war between President […]
