BEIRUT, Lebanon — An international team sent to investigate allegations that chlorine gas had been used as a weapon in Syria’s civil war came under attack on Tuesday, forcing it to abort its mission to reach a village where numerous such attacks have been reported. In a statement, the United Nations-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all of its investigators were safe and had […]
At least 40 people, including two civilians, have been killed in the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk following a day of heavy fighting, in which the government forces used combat jets and helicopter gunships to reclaim the regional airport. “The airport is under our full control. The enemy suffered heavy losses. We have none,” Ukraine Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in a statement on Tuesday. He said […]
It’s every chief executive’s dream: make a potentially game-changing acquisition and your biggest shareholder gives you a massive no-strings-attached grant to help seal the deal. That’s the reality Etisalat enjoys after the Abu Dhabi government gave the telco a $500 million grant to complete the $5.65 billion purchase of Vivendi SA’s 53% stake in Maroc Telecom, according to a new bond prospectus. “In connection with the acquisition, the group […]
Low voter turnout has been reported on the second and final day of Egyptian presidential elections, as former army chief Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is expected to emerge as the country’s next president. While the Egyptian government declared a national holiday for Tuesday in an effort to get voters to cast their ballots, an official with international monitoring group Global Network for Rights and Development reported that voter turnout […]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Forget the endless obsession with assigning blame for the attack in 2012 on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The United States has another large problem on its hands right now in Libya. Khalifa Hifter, a former Libyan general who is now an American citizen, is mounting what could be a de facto coup, with far-reaching consequences for Libya and the United States. […]
‘No country demand anything like the same assurances as the USA immigration authorities’ Photo: GETTY Having recently returned from the US, I feel obliged to offer a few thoughts about American transport. Because – certainly at Los Angeles and New York – something has gone very badly wrong. A lot of people complain about Heathrow and Gatwick but the truth is that we British have quietly set about […]
FlyNas route map from Jeddah. FlyNas website Saudi Arabia’s FlyNas ended the domestic monopoly of the kingdom’s flag carrier Saudia in 2007, and it’s now aiming to break the stranglehold of the long-haul Gulf airlines too. The low-cost operator intends to launch flights from Riyadh to London Gatwick, continuing its plans to build a long-haul operation from the kingdom. The Saudi-based carrier has this year launched flights […]
Nigeria’s military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Boko Haram almost seven weeks ago, the country’s chief of defence said. Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, said on Monday that any potential armed rescue operation was fraught with danger as the 223 girls still held hostage could be caught in the crossfire. Boko Haram fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the remote northeastern town […]
Egypt’s election commission has extended the presidential poll by one day in an effort to increase voter turnout in an election that is widely expected to bring former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to power. The two-day vote was expected to end Tuesday, but polling Monday was reported to be moderate in a country with 54 million registers voters. The extension is widely seen as an effort to boost […]
Egyptians were urged to vote on Tuesday, the second and final day of the presidential election, amid signs of a lower-than-expected turnout on Monday. Election monitoring groups said the turnout on the first day of the vote was moderate and often thin or non-existent in towns and areas where Islamists dominate. Victory for former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, 59, is a foregone conclusion. However, el-Sissi and his supporters have been […]
Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty moved to the United Arab Emirates from India nearly 40 years ago and made his fortune by building a hospital chain and money exchange group from scratch. Last week, he bought Travelex, the foreign exchange operator, for an undisclosed sum but what is likely the biggest investment of his career. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Shetty said he plans to […]
French President Francois Hollande has called for the European Union to reduce its role “where it is not necessary” after Eurosceptic parties made sweeping electoral gains across the bloc. Reacting to the spectacular success of parties like France’s own National Front and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Sunday’s European Parliament elections, Hollande acknowledged that the EU had become “remote and incomprehensible” for many of its citizens. […]
A Turkish court has ordered the arrest of four former Israeli military chiefs over a deadly 2010 raid by Israeli commandos on a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship which killed nine unarmed human rights activists. The court in Istanbul will ask Interpol to issue international arrest warrants for the four commanders, Cihat Gokdemir, a lawyer working on the case, told AFP news agency. Turkish prosecutors are seeking life […]
DUBAI // A wish list of 21 requests from Indian expatriates in the UAE was delivered to Narendra Modi’s office on Monday as the Bharatiya Janata Party leader was sworn in as prime minister. It included long-standing demands such as voting rights for non-resident Indians, encouraging investment in infrastructure, joint-venture incentives and exemption from restrictive taxes. “These issues relate to NRIs all over the world, not just […]
Nigeria’s military has located nearly 300 school girls abducted by Boko Haram six weeks ago but fears using force to try to free them could get them killed, the country’s chief of defence said. Air Marshall Alex Barde told demonstrators supporting the much-criticised military on Monday that Nigerian troops could save the girls. But he added: “We can’t go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them […]
Alex Salmond’s miscalculation gave No voters a perfect excuse to vote Ukip Photo: Christopher Pledger/Telegraph Has Alex Salmond lost it? The question becomes especially pertinent in the light of the SNP leader’s extraordinary reaction to his party’s decidedly underwhelming result in the Euro-elections. It is one thing for party bosses to be disappointed when their charges perform less well than anticipated. However, it is entirely another when they […]
DUBAI // A shelter for women and children who have been have victims of abuse has already dealt with 187 cases so far this year. Most of the victims were women, half were Emirati and the majority applied in person for help. The Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC), the only shelter in Dubai for these types of cases, dealt with 414 cases last year. Of […]
FUJAIRAH // Free health testing for women will be available this week at malls in Fujairah and Ajman. It is part of an initiative to raise awareness about cardiovascular disease – the number one killer of women not only in the UAE but across the world. The tests will include blood pressure, blood sugar, body mass index and cholesterol level checks. The Go Red for Women campaign […]
ABU DHABI // Doctors will soon be able to issue repeat prescriptions for up to a year to save thousands of patients costly and time-consuming hospital visits. Patients with a long-term reliance on medication for conditions such as diabetes and hypertension have to visit a doctor every time they need a prescription. But health chiefs are now in the final stages of implementing a refill policy, so […]
JERUSALEM — Making history for the second day running, Pope Francis laid a wreath Monday on the grave of the founder of Zionism, becoming the first pope to do so, a gesture of support to Israel after several symbolic signals the day before that lent a spiritual lift to Palestinian aspirations for sovereignty. At the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Francis added to his marathon morning […]
A Dubai-based startup has raised $1.6 million in new funding to help launch its software that better connects social media users and the brands they follow. Brndstr Inc. (pronounced ‘brandster’) uses software that allows the brand’s Twitter accounts to automatically respond to #hashtags with offers and vouchers. For example, if a Twitter user retweets a brand’s tweet, then that user can automatically be sent a voucher giving […]
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Cameron. Photo: AFP Tory MPs may have agreed not to panic in the light of Ukip’s big win, but that doesn’t mean David Cameron isn’t going to come under a huge amount of pressure from them in the coming days and weeks to do something, anything, to show he’s got the message. One of their demands is bound to be that the […]
A full-size replica of the Great Sphinx of Giza is seen in Shijiazhuang, north China’s Hebei province on May 13, 2014. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Chinese tourists may have been thrilled about getting their very own Sphinx. Egypt, however, was less than pleased. The country said it planned to file a complaint to Unesco over an imitation Sphinx built in China earlier this year because it “harms the […]
CAIRO — Voters around the capital lined up Monday morning to cast ballots in an election universally expected to make Abdel Fattah el-Sisi the next president of Egypt, turning out to show their support in a contest where turnout is the biggest question. In an interview on a pro-Sisi talk show Sunday evening, Abdel Aziz Salman, the general secretary of the High Presidential Election Commission, said that […]
