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John Lee

Open Source: French Firm Latest Target of Palestinian-Led Movement to Boycott Israel

June 4, 2015 Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY While many Israelis were enraged by comments from the chief executive of the French telecommunications company Orange, who told journalists in Egypt that he would like to cut ties to an Israeli cellphone service provider that operates in the occupied West Bank, pro-Palestinian activists working to isolate Israel argued that the statement was insufficient. The Orange chief executive, Stéphane […]

Families Press for Changes in Policy on Hostages

Diane Foley in August after ISIS beheaded her son, James. She has taken part in a review of government policy on hostages. By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS May 29, 2015 WASHINGTON — When President Obama met recently with the mother of James Foley, the American hostage beheaded last August by the Islamic State, she said, he told her that freeing her son and the other American hostages held with him had […]

Alibaba's latest gambit in fighting fakes: foster local brands

Guards stand near an entrance to Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, May 18, 2015. Reuters/John Ruwitch PUTIAN, China Criticised and even sued by luxury brand Gucci and others for facilitating the counterfeit goods trade, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has been quietly piloting a scheme to try to curb fakes at source. In the coastal city of Putian, in Fujian province, Alibaba is […]

Obama Defends Approach to ISIS Fight but Says More Is Needed

By PETER BAKER May 21, 2015 WASHINGTON — President Obama denied that the United States and its allies were losing the fight against Islamic State forces in the Middle East, but he acknowledged in an interview posted online on Thursday that more should be done to help Iraqis recapture lost territory. While repeating his refusal to commit large-scale American forces to the region, the president said Sunni fighters in […]

Obama Aide Calls Netanyahu’s Planned Visit ‘Destructive’ to U.S.-Israel Ties

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS February 25, 2015 WASHINGTON — Susan E. Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser, sharply criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday over his plans to address a joint meeting of Congress next week, saying his actions had hurt his nation’s relationship with the United States. Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to travel to Washington to deliver the speech two weeks before the Israeli elections has “injected […]

The Mandy Rice-Davies I knew was more than a glossy, scandalous celebrity blonde

Mandy Rice Davies photographed in the 1960’s Photo: Rex Features  I was 13 when it all happened. Parents in those days wished their children wouldn’t read scandals, with the predictable result that, for the first time in our lives, we read the papers avidly. Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, the girls involved in the Profumo scandal of 1963, were of elder-sister age: the beehive hair, short shift-dresses and […]

Because You Asked: Why Hasn’t US Struck Assad?

I recently reached out to my Twitter followers, asking “What can I, as a VOA reporter in Washington, write about that you need/want to know?” The responses were varied and interesting, but one topic dominated: U.S. policy in Syria. Why hasn’t the U.S. done more to help the Syrian people? “There is lot of frustration with the Obama’s administration’s ambiguous, vague and often incoherent strategy regarding dealing […]

Few See New Palestinian Intifada in Jerusalem Unrest

A view of the Dome of the Rock, which along with Al Aqsa Mosque is on the site in Jerusalem known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews. By JODI RUDOREN November 6, 2014 JERUSALEM — One cartoon circulating on social networks on Thursday depicted a car as the barrel of an automatic weapon, captioned in Arabic, “Revolt and resist, even by your car.” Another […]

Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel as Tensions Rise in Jerusalem

Video | Aftermath of Attack in Jerusalem A witness and a spokesman for the Israeli police described the scene after a Palestinian man rammed his car into people near a light-rail station in Jerusalem on Wednesday. By ISABEL KERSHNER November 5, 2014 JERUSALEM — Amid heightened tensions over an important holy site, two drivers, in separate incidents, plowed their cars into Israelis on Wednesday, and Jordan recalled its ambassador […]

CAIRN INDIA STARTS MANGALA OIL RECOVERY PROGRAMME

Mumbai: Cairn India Ltd (Cairn India), the oil and gas unit of Sesa Sterlite Ltd, has initiated a polymer injection programme in the Mangala field in its Barmer oil and gas block in Rajasthan, said a company note released on Friday evening.   This will help to arrest the falling output from the field and help the company in enhancing the oil recovery from the field.   […]

Obama’s Top Military Adviser Warns of Possible ISIS Attacks in Baghdad

By BRIAN KNOWLTON October 12, 2014 WASHINGTON — Fighters for the Islamic State were managing to blend in with disenfranchised Sunni populations in some Iraqi towns and villages near the capital, raising the chances of militant attacks against targets in Baghdad, President Obama’s top military adviser said on Sunday. “I have no doubt there will be days when they use indirect fire into Baghdad,” the adviser, Gen. Martin E. […]

Hugh Grant: the most undervalued actor of his generation?

Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral Photo: Alamy Anyone who thinks Hugh Grant is not an accomplished actor is surely underestimating how difficult it is to do light comedy. It’s harder than drama, but the secret is making it look effortless, and effortless performances are rarely appreciated – it’s the showy mannerisms and thundering speeches that win awards, not comic timing (which you only notice when […]

Turkey Open to Bids for Refuge by Muslim Brotherhood Exiles

ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said on Monday that several exiled leaders of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood who fled to Qatar but lately have come under pressure to leave that Persian Gulf monarchy could perhaps find a new refuge in his country. “If they make any request to come to Turkey, such an application would be assessed and examined,” Mr. Erdogan said, according to a […]

Kerry Scours Mideast for Aid in ISIS Fight

Secretary of State John Kerry and Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister, in Cairo. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK September 13, 2014 CAIRO — Secretary of State John Kerry received broad assurances but no public commitments from Egypt on Saturday as he continued his tour of the Middle East to try to assemble a coalition behind an American campaign against the extremist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq […]

Paths to War, Then and Now, Haunt Obama

President Obama on Wednesday in Washington. Mr. Obama says he is aware of the “political price” he pays for being deliberate. By PETER BAKER September 13, 2014 WASHINGTON — Just hours before announcing an escalated campaign against Islamic extremists last week, President Obama privately reflected on another time when a president weighed military action in the Middle East — the frenzied weeks leading up to the American invasion of […]

From art shows to films, our canals are awash with culture

The Floating Cinema drops anchor on the Grand Union Canal at King’s Cross, London Photo: HYDAR DEWACHI ‘It’s really captured people’s imagination,” enthuse producer Anna Ramsay and curator Laura Harford as they sit on the deck of the Floating Cinema, their 60ft wide-beam canal boat fitted out as a mini-Odeon. “I think it’s because it’s something so unusual, not at all what they expect to see on a […]

Solution to Palestine-Israel conflict

|By Rashidul Bari| Palestine and Israel, once known as cradle of civilization, have become the hub of cemeteries in modern times. Their conflict has shed untold blood and produced graves as far as the eye can see. The countless tombstones are silent, but the sound of their outcry has carried from Middle-East to here at New York University’s Bobst Library—where I’m writing this article—and from which I’m […]

Kerry Issues Warning to Iraqi Leader

Secretary of State John Kerry in Sydney, Australia, on Monday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON August 11, 2014 SYDNEY, Australia — Secretary of State John Kerry warned Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq on Monday not to interfere with the process of picking a new Iraqi leader, cautioning pointedly that a power grab would lead to a cutoff of international support. “There should be no use of force,” Mr. Kerry […]

INDIA, US DECIDE TO JOINTLY PRODUCE DEFENCE EQUIPMENT

New Delhi: With co-development and co-production of defence products in mind, India and the US on Friday agreed to take the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative forward.

The decision was taken at the delegation-level talks between defence minister Arun Jaitley and US secretary of defence Chuck Hagel, who is on a three-day visit to the country.

In the meeting, both sides took note of the progress made over the years in deepening defence ties. Both the sides reaffirmed their desire to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation, especially in technology and discussed ways for strengthening this partnership.

Stressing on indigenisation of the defence industries, Jaitley said, “The develop

FDI IN DEFENCE MAY GO UP TO 100% IF CEO IS INDIAN

New Delhi: Global defence equipment majors such as BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin could set up manufacturing units in India and bring in foreign direct investment (FDI) exceeding 49 per cent, provided the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) is Indian.

As the objective was to let only serious players enter the market, the defence FDI policy approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday categorically stated investee companies should be self-sufficient in product designing and have maintenance and life cycle support facilities for the products they manufactured here, said a senior department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) official.

The Union Cabinet had approved an increase in the composite foreign investme

Daniel Radcliffe: Will Harry Potter work his magic in a romcom?

‘When Harry Potter Met Sally’: Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan in ‘What If Photo: Entertainment One Casting a spell over cinemagoers is a piece of wizardry even Harry Potter would be hard-pushed to pull off – yet that is precisely the challenge his alter ego, Daniel Radcliffe, has set himself. Later this month, Radcliffe, the diminutive actor seared into the national psyche as a bespectacled schoolboy from Hogwarts, […]

U.S.-Israel Ties Strained Over Diplomacy on Gaza

Video | Cease-Fires of the Gaza-Israel Conflict With the Israeli Army now moving into defensive positions, a historical look at how the fighting could end. By MARK LANDLER August 4, 2014 WASHINGTON — When the State Department condemned Israel’s strike on a United Nations school in Gaza on Sunday, saying it was “appalled” by this “disgraceful” act, it gave full vent to what has been weeks of mounting American […]

BP & NIKO CANNOT BE PARTY TO ARBITRATION

NEW DELHI: Stung by Reliance Industries’ alleged bid to “influence” the foreign third arbitrator appointed by the Supreme Court in the KG-D6 block case, the government is set to approach the court with a plea that the relevant arbitration be done strictly within the country sans a foreign umpire.

Armed with a law ministry opinion conveyed to it recently, the petroleum ministry will also take the firm stand that RIL’s foreign partners, BP and Niko, should not be made a party to the arbitration, which was initiated by the Indian company, sources familiar with the matter told FE.

The government’s move would escalate the conflict between it and RIL over the alleged suppression of gas production at the once-pro

Gaza Fighting Intensifies as Cease-Fire Falls Apart

By JODI RUDOREN and ISABEL KERSHNER August 1, 2014 JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants sprang from the ground and confronted Israeli soldiers Friday morning, as they have repeatedly in recent days. This time, Israeli officials said, one exploded a suicide belt while another unleashed machine-gun fire. This time, two Israeli soldiers were killed and the militants apparently escaped with a third. The attack, at the start of what was supposed to be […]