ABU DHABI // Of the many legacies left behind by Sheikh Zayed that has continued to prosper is the country’s foreign aid contribution, an audience at a Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis was told on Monday. The UAE is the world’s top donor because Sheikh Zayed, the founding President, made foreign aid a fundamental pillar of the country’s foreign policy, said Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of […]
Mohammad Javad Zarif, center, the foreign minister of Iran, sat next to Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief as they meet with other foreign ministers in Vienna on Tuesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 6, 2015 VIENNA — With foreign ministers from around the world arriving here in hopes that the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are entering their final hours, a senior Iranian official said on […]
Oil price flux unlikely to hit long-term sector growth BEIRUT, 13 hours, 17 minutes ago The cyclicality of the oil and gas industry is unlikely to impact the long term trajectory of the sector, a report said, noting that the current fluctuations may speed up some of the trends that were already unfolding. The new report entitled “Oil and Gas Reality Check 2015” released by Deloitte, a […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 5, 2015 VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran on Sunday that hard choices were still needed to seal a landmark nuclear accord, and that the United States was prepared to walk away if a sound agreement could not be reached. “We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues,” Mr. Kerry said in a […]
By RICK GLADSTONE and MAHER SAMAAN July 3, 2015 Islamic State militants indulged in new public displays of artifact destruction this week, sledgehammering a half-dozen statues said to have been stolen from the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The militants also broke up a hidden 2,000-year-old lion statue they discovered in a Palmyra museum garden and demolished a 13th-century tomb near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The destruction, publicized in […]
Palestinians carrying the body of Muhammad Hani al-Kasba in the Qalandia refugee camp in the West Bank, on Friday. By ISABEL KERSHNER July 3, 2015 JERUSALEM — Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank on Friday as he and others hurled stones and rocks at their army vehicle, the Israeli military said, while Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank arrested more […]
A supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange holds a placard with his mouth during a gathering outside the Ecuador embassy in London, Britain June 19, 2015. Reuters/Stefan Wermuth PARIS France swiftly rejected on Friday a request for asylum by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The founder of the transparency website had appealed directly to President Francois Hollande, days after Wikileaks published documents showing the United States had spied […]
UAE. According to EY’s report ‘How will the GCC close the skills gap?’, employers struggle to retain nationals due to high salary expectations; however, these employers rank young people’s lack of work experience (53%), communications skills (36%), and required skills and qualifications (22%) as further challenges to retention in the private sector. Three quarters of GCC employers feel the education system doesn’t know what skills employers need. […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, paid his condolonces to the Prime Minister of Britain on the deaths of British citizens in last week’s attack in Tunisia. Sheikh Mohammed, during a meeting with David Cameron on Thursday, also wished those who were injured in the attack in Sousse a speedy recovery. The attack, he said, was […]
According to a recently published white paper, cable boxes have the potential to become protocol-agnostic Internet-of-Things (IoT) hubs and in the process begin to address the competing protocols and closed systems that continue to hold back the IoT industry. The paper was written by Susan Crouse, director of product management for Alticast, which sells products and software for multi-screen viewing and TV interactivity. In the white paper, […]
A funeral on Thursday in Ashmoun, in the Nile Delta, for First Lt. Mohamed Ashraf, one of the soldiers killed Wednesday in a militant attack in the Sinai Peninsula. By KAREEM FAHIM and MERNA THOMAS July 2, 2015 CAIRO — Egypt’s military killed 23 militants in the northern Sinai Peninsula early Thursday, a senior security official said, as the government sought to reassert control and eradicate what it called the area’s […]
By CARLOTTA GALL July 2, 2015 TUNIS — The Tunisian authorities said on Thursday that eight people had been arrested in connection with the massacre of 38 foreign tourists at the beachside resort of Sousse last Friday. Kamel Jendoubi, the minister responsible for coordinating the response to the attack, said that 12 people had been interrogated by the police, and that eight of them had been detained, pending charges. […]
World Briefing By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 1, 2015 At least 1,466 Iraqis were killed in episodes of armed conflict in June, up more than 40 percent from the previous month as security forces battled the Islamic State group, according to United Nations figures released Wednesday. The monthly death toll was the highest since September, and the rise from last month appeared to be almost entirely attributable to higher casualties […]
UAE. 85 percent of financial institutions from around the world reported that their boards of directors currently devote more time to oversight of risk than they did two years ago, while 79 percent felt that increasing regulatory requirements and expectations were their greatest challenge, according to the ninth edition of Deloitte’s Global risk management survey. In addition, the most common board responsibilities are approving the enterprise-level statement […]
JERUSALEM — An Israeli man died Tuesday after being shot in the West Bank the night before. Palestinian gunmen are suspected in the attack on the victim, Malakhi Rosenfeld, 26, a student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and three other Israelis as they rode in a car near an Israeli settlement. Also Tuesday, Israeli security guards shot and wounded a Palestinian man at the Kalandia crossing […]
An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket explodes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 28, 2015. Reuters/Mike Brown WASHINGTON The failure of a SpaceX rocket over Florida on Sunday should not lead U.S. officials back to Russia to look for a rocket engine that can get military equipment into space, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said on Monday. “This mishap in no way diminishes the […]
VIENNA — Iran’s top nuclear negotiator was heading back to Tehran on Sunday to consult with his nation’s top leadership, as negotiators remained divided over how to limit and monitor Tehran’s nuclear program and even on how to interpret the preliminary agreement they reached two months ago. With all sides now acknowledging the talks would need to continue beyond what was once considered the absolute deadline for […]
TEHRAN — Persian carpets were rolled out in the Beit-e Rahbar, the downtown Tehran offices of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday, a sign that important guests were on their way. One by one, members of Iran’s establishment, politicians, clerics and commanders filed in, many exchanging the perfunctory greetings of committed rivals. They sat cross-legged and waited anxiously, knowing a crucial week of nuclear negotiations […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of Kuwaitis, both Sunnis and Shiites, marched Saturday in a funeral procession for the 27 victims of a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque during communal prayers the day before, an attacked claimed by the jihadists of the Islamic State group. The Kuwaiti authorities were questioning a number of people to determine whether they were connected to the plot, and the Interior Ministry […]
Sophisticated attacks by an Islamic State branch in Saudi Arabia show the jihadist group is better established there than previously suspected, and that fueled by anger over Arab civil wars, Riyadh’s militancy problem is not going away. A sustained militant campaign could undermine stability in the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, one of the few major Arab states that has so far mostly avoided […]
UAE. MENA’s digital market value is expected to reach US$35 billion in 2015, and overall digitization initiatives could add $820 billion to regional GDP, creating 4.4 million jobs by 2020. However, this rapid digitization and the resources of the region make MENA an attractive target for a wide array of cyber-threats, according to a study by Strategy&. The Strategy& study looks into national cyber-security efforts by the […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Terrorists attacked sites in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, leaving a bloody toll on three continents and prompting new concerns about the spreading influence of jihadists. In France, attackers stormed an American-owned industrial chemical plant near Lyon, tried unsuccessfully to blow up the factory, and left behind a decapitated corpse. In Tunisia, at least one gunman disguised as a vacationer opened fire at […]
RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Palestinian man was shot after he opened fire on Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank early Friday, the Israeli Army said. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said the attack had occurred at a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley, a fertile basin that extends across much of the east West Bank along the border with Jordan. No […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The militants of the Islamic State carried out two new offensives in northern Syria on Thursday, entering a provincial capital and detonating large bombs in the border town of Kobani, where intensive airstrikes by a United States-led coalition helped Kurdish forces rout the jihadists last year. In southern Syria, rebel groups began a new campaign to push government forces from the city of Dara’a. […]
