WASHINGTON — Nearly 30,000 foreign recruits have now poured into Syria, many to join the Islamic State, a doubling of volunteers in just the past 12 months and stark evidence that an international effort to tighten borders, share intelligence and enforce antiterrorism laws is not diminishing the ranks of new militant fighters. Among those who have entered or tried to enter the conflict in Iraq or Syria […]
AMMAN, Jordan — Mohammad Smarat sat gazing at the few plants sprouting outside the entrance of the white stone hospital here, recalling how he had collapsed in a sea of green fields after getting shot. He had been helping farmers pick tomatoes near his home in Dara’a, Syria, when a stray bullet shattered his left hip joint. Though he had obeyed his father’s orders not to join […]
DUBAI // You are an employer who catches a staff member stealing a chocolate bar from another worker’s desk. Who are you going to call? It may be time you dealt with it internally rather than calling the police, judges say. A series of minor offences have gone through the Dubai Criminal Court recently and judges have voiced their concerns about cases that cost far more than […]
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he had reached a “common understanding” with Chinese President Xi Jinping on curbing economic cyber espionage, but threatened to impose U.S. sanctions on Chinese hackers who persist with cyber crimes. The two leaders also unveiled a deal to build on a landmark emissions agreement struck last year, outlining new steps they will take to deliver on pledges they made […]
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has notified Congress that he has approved sending a high-profile detainee at the Guantánamo Bay prison to Britain, a move that will ease a point of diplomatic tension between the United States and a close ally. The detainee, Shaker Aamer, is a Saudi citizen but was a longtime British resident. Prime Minister David Cameron; members of Parliament, including Jeremy Corbyn, […]
INTERNATIONAL. Gleaming glass skyscrapers, state-of-the-art technology, and wealthy merchant families have replaced the Gulf’s muddy towns and villages populated by traders and pearl fishers that once lacked electricity, running water or modern communications. The region’s modern day projection of a visionary cutting- edge, 21st century urban environment masks however the fact that some things have not changed. Gulf states continue to be ruled by the same families, […]
UAE. One of the most powerful gatherings of Arab region and international minds will convene in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, next month (October) for a Summit which is aimed at producing recommendations for a blueprint to reposition the Arab world’s standing within the global landscape. Running October 10 and 11 at The St. Regis Abu Dhabi, Beirut Institute Summit will probe a […]
WASHINGTON — As the war in Iraq deteriorated, a senior American intelligence analyst went public in 2005 and criticized President George W. Bush’s administration for pushing “amateurish and unrealistic” plans for the invasion two years before. Now that same man, Gregory Hooker, is at the center of an insurrection of United States Central Command intelligence analysts over America’s latest war in Iraq, and whether Congress, policy makers […]
ABU DHABI // As the Sun slowly crept into the sky, thousands gathered at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque on Thursday morning to mark Eid Al Adha. Among those, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, who offered prayers. Afterward, Sheikh Mohammed and members of the royal family visited the tomb of his father, the founding President, Sheikh Zayed. People travelled […]
ABU DHABI // Residents of Jumeirah’s old fishing neighbourhood are worried that the Federal National Council might not be paying attention to their needs, and the needs of the elderly. The sight and sound of fishing boats heading into the Arabian Gulf or returning with their catches is a common one at the small harbours dotted along the coastline. While better facilities for captains and their crews […]
DUBAI // A woman who claimed she was tortured and threatened with rape after being mistaken for an Al Qaeda terrorist faces months of uncertainty awaiting the outcome of a legal case against the Kenyan government. Mother of three Kamilya Mohammedi Tuweni, 50, relived her 72-day ordeal this week as she gave testimony via video link from London to the high court in Nairobi. She was too […]
Kuwait’s government spending in August stood at KD4.2 billion ($13.91 billion) fiscal-year-to-date (fytd), marking 22 per cent of the FY15/16 budget, slightly above the historic average of 14 per cent, a report said. The figure, while being 6 per cent lower than during the same period last year, indicates that spending cuts have not yet been fully reflected in the interim figures, added the latest Economic Update […]
DUBAI // The late Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed has been remembered as a “noble knight” who raised the flag of the UAE, as tributes continued to flow after his death on Saturday. Condolences were offered on Sunday at Zabeel Palace to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, for the death of his eldest son after a heart attack at the age of 33. […]
SANA, Yemen — A Saudi-led military coalition bombarded government buildings and residential neighborhoods in Sana, the Yemeni capital, overnight on Saturday, killing more than two dozen people, officials and witnesses said, and destroying homes in Sana’s Old City, a Unesco World Heritage site. The Saudi coalition, which includes nine other Arab nations and is supported by the United States, began fighting Yemen’s Houthi rebels in March, two […]
INTERNATIONAL. The era of the autonomous vehicle (AV) is fast approaching. Mass-market adoption of AVs will be the greatest inflection point for the automotive industry since the introduction of the assembly line and will confer tremendous benefits on society, according to a new report from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled Revolution Versus Regulation: The Make-or-Break Questions About Autonomous Vehicles, is being released today. It […]
INTERNATIONAL. Emerging Asian economies remain a challenging operating environment according to new risk ratings released today. In their first jointly produced economic and political risk ratings, Oxford Economics and Control Risks have evaluated the outlook for 164 countries worldwide, producing for each country a score based on a weighting of key political, economic, business and security risks. The ratings, drawn from the new Economic and Political Risk […]
Middle East By ISABEL KERSHNER September 18, 2015 JERUSALEM — Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, called Pope Francis to brief him on the “ongoing Israeli aggression in occupied East Jerusalem, and particularly against Al Aqsa Mosque.” Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, told the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, that “Israel is acting against the violence on the Temple Mount” and “is strictly maintaining the status […]
A magnifying glass is held in front of a computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21, 2013. Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. The U.S. Defense Department is building a massive, electronic system to provide an overview of the vulnerabilities of the military’s computer networks, weapons systems, and installations, and help officials prioritize how to fix them, the deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command […]
The development of autonomous vehicles (AV) hinges on cooperation among technology players in the areas of cybersecurity, high-definition maps, and vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, said an industry expert. “But there are equally pressing questions about liability, vehicle certification, and regulatory frameworks,” explained said Nikolaus Lang, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm. “Multi-stakeholder collaboration is key to developing win-win solutions—and […]
Russian Hackers Targeting U.S. Government, F-Secure Says State-sponsored cyberattacks have been tied directly to a hacking group that gathers intelligence for Russia’s Kremlin. F-Secure Labs has just published a white paper that outlines seven years of attacks against governments in the United States, Asia and Europe. A malicious group called the Dukes uses a family of malware toolsets to steal information by infiltrating computer networks and sending […]
Middle East Maricela Rangel Davalos, one of the Mexican tourists wounded on Sunday in an Egyptian Army airstrike in the Western Desert, left a Cairo hospital for the airport on Thursday. By JARED MALSIN September 17, 2015 CAIRO — Egypt’s chief prosecutor issued a ban on news media coverage in the case of an attack by security forces that killed 12 people, including eight Mexican tourists and their Egyptian […]
A recently discovered vulnerability in Android Lollipop allows an attacker to bypass the password lockscreen on a mobile device and gain full access. The flaw was discovered by a security researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, who said he has already alerted Google about his findings. The exploit requires an attacker to have physical access to the device but it will only work if the […]
WASHINGTON — Only four or five Syrian individuals trained by the United States military to confront the Islamic State remain in the fight, the head of the United States Central Command told a Senate panel on Wednesday, a bleak acknowledgment that the Defense Department’s $500 million program to raise an army of Syrian fighters has gone nowhere. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the top American commander in […]
WASHINGTON — President Obama will host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Nov. 9 in their first face-to-face meeting since their rupture over the international nuclear agreement with Iran, the White House said Wednesday. Mr. Obama invited Mr. Netanyahu to talk about the way forward now that the Iran agreement has cleared obstacles in Congress. The president has offered to find ways […]
