August 19, 2014 Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY After St. Louis county police officers in full battle gear trained sniper rifles on peaceful protesters in the suburb of Ferguson last week, and then proceeded to douse the streets in tear gas and round up journalists, a Russia analyst named Mark Adomanis observed that images of a crackdown on dissent in the United States would make life easier […]
Islamic State insurgents released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley, who had gone missing in Syria nearly two years ago, and images of another U.S. journalist whose life they said depended on U.S. action in Iraq. The video, titled “A Message To America,” was posted on social media sites. It was not immediately possible to verify its authenticity. Foley, who […]
Kuwait’s Americana owns the franchise for popular fast-food chains such as TGI Friday’s, KFC (pictured above) and Pizza Hut in the Middle East and North Africa region. Bloomberg Kuwait’s Americana is in demand. Several investors, both regional and international, are apparently interested in acquiring a stake in the company that owns the franchise for popular fast-food chains such as TGI Friday’s Inc, KFC and Pizza Hut in […]
People wait to buy Ooredoo SIM cards in Yangon, Myanmar. Zumapress Qatar-based Ooredoo on Friday became the first foreign telecommunications company to offer services in Myanmar, setting up the country to be one of the world’s first predominantly mobile-Web nations. Ooredoo’s rollout, more than a year after the company won one of two coveted licenses to operate in Myanmar, will be followed by service from Norway’s Telenor […]
German Rolf Buchholz, who holds the world record for having the most piercings, was refused entry into Dubai because of security concerns. He was due to perform at a Dubai nightclub. Associated Press The world’s most pierced man proved too much for Dubai authorities on Friday as they refused him entry amid allegations of “black magic”. Rolf Buchholz had just arrived in Dubai and passed through immigration […]
Suffering in silence: Robin Williams with wife Susan Schneider Photo: Getty Images I have learnt over the past few years that Parkinson’s disease knows no boundaries. It is a condition that can affect anybody, at any time. But even still, I was as shocked as everybody else to hear that Robin Williams was suffering from its early onset before he took his own life. It was the […]
A computer generated image shows the stadium to be built in Al-Khor for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Qatar since it started preparations to host the World Cup football in 2022. Ever since the wealthy Gulf state won the rights to host the tournament in 2010, it has been the subject of bribery allegations while at the same […]
Alex Salmond is taking refuge in scare stories about the NHS Down in the Salmond-bunker things are getting desperate. Assailed on all sides by, in no particular order, falling opinion poll ratings, senior colleagues who’ve lost confidence in him, a hammering at Alistair Darling’s hands in last week’s TV debate, the man in charge of the campaign to break up Britain is struggling to keep his head […]
PARIS–French nationals are likely fighting alongside the self-proclaimed jihadist group Islamic State which has captured large swaths of Iraq, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Wednesday. “There are probably some of them in Iraq since the Islamic State, which has recruited these young nationals, takes them to all the areas where fighting is happening,” Mr. Cazeneuve said in an interview with radio station France Info. Nationals […]
The number of pay-TV subscriptions in the Middle East and North Africa will increase from 10.6 million last year to 15.2 million by the end of 2019, according to research group Ovum. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images It’s no surprise a U.S. buyout firm bid for a large stake in Dubai-based pay-TV player OSN – the prospects for the sector in the Middle East and North Africa are bright, […]
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Egyptian security forces intentionally killed hundreds of protesters following the military’s ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi, Human Rights Watch, or HRW, said on Tuesday, urging a United Nations’ probe into what it described as “crimes against humanity”. In a 188-page report based on a year-long investigation, the New York-based advocacy group said systematic and widespread killing of at least 1,150 Morsi supporters by security forces at […]
Salwa Khalaf (right), 15 years old, was forced to flee her home and school in Sinjar after an advance by Islamic militants. Nour Malas/The Wall Street Journal Thousands of Yazidis have fled an Islamic insurgent attack on their hometowns in the Sinjar plain of northern Iraq. We spent a day meeting and interviewing families who escaped to the closest town over in the relative safety of the […]
DUBAI // An Asian man was arrested with almost 1,000 prescription pills after being told to sell them by his brother, who is serving time in Dubai’s central jail for drug dealing. Colonel Eid Mohammed Thani Hareb, director of the General Department of Anti-Narcotics at Dubai Police, said that the suspect, GAFH, 29, admitted dealing psychotropic substances. “The unemployed suspect, who is married, decided to follow in […]
AL AIN // Thirteen companies have been referred to prosecutors in Al Ain for allegedly breaking labour and residency rules. During two, three-day, inspection campaigns with Al Ain police, the Ministry of Labour arrested 24 people who were found, in most cases, to be working with an expired visa. Thirteen women from eight firms and 11 male workers from five companies were arrested over the Eid break. […]
SHARJAH // The bodies of Santosh Kumar, his wife and daughter were cremated in a quiet ceremony in Sharjah on Saturday attended by friends and family, nearly a month after they died at their home. Police had registered a case of suicide on July 15 after they found the bodies of the Indian film producer, his wife Manju Menon and nine-year-old daughter Gauri in their Dubai apartment. […]
Leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband Photo: PA To win in 2015, Ed Miliband not only has to set out a credible governing prospectus; he must demonstrate he fully understands Labour’s past mistakes. Mr Miliband has been coy about admissions of error on economic management, naturally preferring to castigate Britain’s Coalition government for overzealous austerity driving harsh cuts in the social fabric. Yet voters will only listen […]
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 […]
Is the debt fog over Dubai finally clearing or returning? Zuma Press Investment conglomerate Dubai World may resort to a familiar, but in recent times rarely used, legal mechanism set up at the height of the emirate’s financial crisis to obtain the backing from its creditors to postpone a crucial debt repayment deadline. The state-owned firm and advisor Blackstone are currently discussing with an increasing number of […]
Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters after his presidential election victory, in Ankara, Turkey on Sunday. Associated Press As Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to a landslide victory in Turkey’s first directly-elected presidential poll, he delivered his now familiar victory speech from the balcony of his party headquarters in Ankara. For the twelve years that Mr. Erdogan has governed Turkey, his balcony speeches have offered signals […]
By KAREEM FAHIM August 11, 2014 CAIRO — Security officials have refused to allow two senior staff members from the New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch to enter Egypt, where the two were due to release the findings of the group’s yearlong investigation into mass killings of protesters carried out by Egyptian government forces last summer. The group’s executive director, Kenneth Roth, and the director of the Middle […]
U.S. Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel An image of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, taken from a video of a sermon he gave in July in Mosul. By TIM ARANGO and ERIC SCHMITT August 10, 2014 BAGHDAD — When American forces raided a home near Falluja during the turbulent 2004 offensive against the Iraqi Sunni insurgency, they got the hard-core militants they had been looking for. They also picked up […]
As players stepped on the pitch of King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh to kick off the new Saudi football season, the sound of money came louder than the cheers of sports fans. A few minutes before the game started on Thursday, Middle East Broadcasting Center Group inked a deal with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation worth 3.6 billion riyals ($960 million) over 10 years to buy […]
A container ship in the Suez Canal near Ismailia port city, northeast of Cairo. Reuters The Suez Canal–one of the world’s vital trading routes–is set for the first major expansion in its 145-year history. Egypt’s ambitious multi-billion-dollar plan, which could nearly double the waterway’s capacity to 97 passing ships a day by 2023, has been largely welcomed by shipping industry executives and economists, albeit with some skepticism. […]
