MANAMA, Bahrain — The political shock waves from the American presidential election are being felt here in the Persian Gulf, where diplomats, military commanders and other senior leaders say they are both fearful and excited about which Donald J. Trump shows up after he is sworn in as president on Jan. 20. Will it be, they ask, the President Trump who has vowed to cut off American […]
Donald Trump has named Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn to head the White House National Economic Council, marking his third top appointment from the ranks of the bank despite his pledge to sever links between Wall Street and Washington. The appointment of Mr Cohn, who serves as chief operating officer, leaves Goldman nursing another big departure from its leadership team just weeks after the news that the […]
A court in Denmark has barred Apple from using a refurbished iPhone as replacement for a device that it fails to repair. Danish customers are, therefore, entitled to a new handset if they exchange a faulty iPhone that is still covered by Apple warranty. New vs. Refurbished iPhone Replacement The ruling is based on a complaint filed by David Lysgaard, who returned a damaged iPhone 4 in […]
More than two million people lived in Mosul when it fell to the Islamic State on June 10, 2014. It was a conservative city where most women already covered their hair with a scarf and their arms with long sleeves. But as in other places where the militants imposed their creed, the new rules took enforced modesty to such an extreme that it riled families in Mosul, […]
By Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD Several thousand Iraqi federal police are ready to join the assault against Islamic State in east Mosul, a spokesman said on Monday, reinforcing troops who have faced weeks of fierce counter-attacks from the militants. The extra forces are being deployed as the gruelling U.S.-backed campaign to crush Islamic State in its Iraqi stronghold enters its ninth week. Elite army troops have […]
ALEPPO, Syria The Syrian military operation to recapture rebel-held east Aleppo is in its final stages after the army took Sheikh Saeed and other districts, Lieutenant General Zaid al-Saleh, head of the Aleppo security committee, said on Monday. “The battle in east Aleppo should end quickly. They (rebels) don’t have much time. They either have to surrender or die,” he told a group of reporters in the […]
Britain’s exit from the European Union will mean it can forge free trade deals with Gulf Arab allies, foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Friday in a speech also heralding closer defence ties to the conservative monarchies. Johnson was speaking at a conference in Bahrain a day after footage was published of him accusing Saudi Arabia, an important ally for Britain, and Iran of stoking proxy wars […]
By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies captured Sheikh Saeed district in Aleppo in overnight fighting, a war monitor and a Syrian official said early on Monday, amid the most intense bombardment in days, leaving insurgents in only a tiny pocket of the city. Sheikh Saeed lies in the south of the rebels’ east Aleppo enclave, which […]
By Howard Schneider | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve inaugurates the Trump era this week with a near-certain interest rate increase and new economic forecasts providing a first glimpse into whether the U.S. election has reshaped the central bank’s growth and inflation outlook. Fed fund futures show a 97 percent probability that the Fed will lift rates by a quarter of a percentage point at the end […]
BEIRUT The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday government forces had seized the eastern Aleppo neighbourhood of Sheikh Saeed from rebel fighters in overnight fighting, meaning the opposition has now lost 90 percent of the area they once held in the city. It said government warplanes had been mounting heavy air strikes overnight on remaining rebel-held areas of eastern Aleppo. (Writing by Tom Perry; Editing […]
December 12, 2016 by: Andrew Byrne in Skopje Macedonia’s election results hung in the balance on Monday morning, with former prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s ruling party holding a narrow lead over the leftwing opposition but both claiming victory. With 98 per cent of votes counted by early Monday morning, the conservative VMRO DPMNE party had 37.9 per cent compared with 36.6 per cent for Zoran Zaev’s SDSM […]
By Laila Bassam and Tom Perry | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT Syrian rebels have received a U.S.-backed proposal to leave Aleppo along with civilians under safe passage guaranteed by Russia, rebel officials said as government forces closed in on Sunday, but Moscow denied a deal had been reached. If the proposal were to be taken up by all sides, it would end four years of fighting in […]
By Laila Bassam and Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ALEPPO, Syria/AMMAN ALEPPO, Syria/AMMAN The Syrian army and its allies made new gains in Aleppo on Sunday, forcing rebels back into an ever shrinking pocket crammed with civilians, but lost control of the desert city of Palmyra to a swift Islamic State attack. Final victory in Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city before the civil war, would constitute the biggest triumph yet […]
Mobile computing in 2016 was quite literally explosive, but when you look beyond the schadenfreude of watching Samsung mishandle its defining crisis of the year, the past 12 months have hardly set the world alight. The best example of the current state of affairs is the Google Pixel XL. Technically, this is the best Android phone on the market at the moment. Its 5.5-inch AMOLED screen is […]
ISLAMABAD: Though the Supreme Court’s (SC) timely intervention helped avert a serious political crisis in early November, it is helpless to resolve such a complex riddle of Panama Papers without proper investigation of some vague claims by both the sides by a professional anti-corruption body. Both sides want the apex court to pen down a verdict at the earliest without realising the fact that before passing a […]
BEIRUT The United States and Russia on Sunday tabled a proposal to rebels in Aleppo that would offer safe passage from the city for fighters, their families and other civilians, three opposition officials with Aleppo rebel groups told Reuters. The rebel groups in Aleppo have yet to respond to the proposal, the officials said. The proposal promised rebel fighters a “secure” and “honourable” withdrawal from the city, […]
BAGHDAD Eight people were killed in two car bombings in the Iraqi city of Falluja west of Baghdad on Sunday, police and hospital sources said, and a news agency close to Islamic State said its militants carried out the attacks. The bombings took place as Iraqi forces wage an eight-week military campaign to crush Islamic State in its north Iraq stronghold of Mosul, the largest city in […]
Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s foreign minister, has been chosen to replace Matteo Renzi as prime minister amid signs of a quick solution to the political crisis that has convulsed the eurozone’s third-largest economy during the past week. After three days of consultations with parliamentary leaders of all stripes, Sergio Mattarella, Italy’s president, on Sunday summoned Mr Gentiloni to the presidential palace in central Rome and asked him to […]
By Patrick Markey | QARAQOSH, Iraq QARAQOSH, Iraq For decades, the Immaculate Conception Church in Qaraqosh was the heart of Iraq’s largest Christian town. After two years under Islamic State rule, it lies scarred and desecrated. In the church’s inner courtyard, Islamic State fighters set up a shooting range for target practice, leaving behind bullet-riddled female mannequins and hardboard figures when they were driven out. The yard’s […]
BEIRUT Syrian rebels control only a small area of Aleppo that is full of civilians and under very fierce bombardment after pro-government forces took the al-Maadi district, a Turkey-based official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group said on Sunday. Rebel groups in Aleppo had received no word about U.S.-Russia talks to resolve the crisis in Aleppo, the official said, warning that it would end “in a tragic […]
By Angus McDowall | BEIRUT BEIRUT When President Bashar al-Assad turns from the wreckage of Aleppo to assert his authority across a fractured Syria, it will be as a figure who is virtually unassailable by rebels, but still faces great challenges in restoring the power of his state. The expected fall of Aleppo would mean rebels have almost no chance of ousting Assad, but their revolt has […]
AMMAN Russian air strikes forced Islamic State fighters to retreat to the outskirts of Palmyra on Sunday, a day after they had stormed the ancient city in eastern Syria, a war monitor said. The militants were now fighting in orchards on the fringe of Palmyra, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its jets had launched 64 strikes and killed more than […]
Bombs outside Istanbul soccer stadium kill 29, wound 166 – minister | Reuters Top News | Sun Dec 11, 2016 | 7:53am IST ‘+Reuters.inlinevideo.title+’ ‘+Reuters.inlinevideo.length+’ ‘); } ISTANBUL A car bomb followed by a suicide bombing less than a minute later killed 29 people and wounded 166 outside a soccer stadium in Istanbul on Saturday night, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said. All but two of those […]
By Dominic Evans and Stephanie Nebehay | BAGHDAD/GENEVA BAGHDAD/GENEVA The Iraqi army said it took full control of two more districts of east Mosul on Saturday, pushing back Islamic State militants in a slow and hard-fought advance into the city whose 1 million residents face growing shortages of fuel, water and food. A military statement said elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) troops took over the neighbourhoods of […]
