BEIRUT, Lebanon — Waving to television cameras and assembled dignitaries, President Michel Suleiman departed the presidential palace on Saturday, the last day of his six-year term, leaving behind a political vacuum caused by the failure of the country’s political powers to agree on a successor. The vacancy in the president’s office is the most recent crisis in Lebanon’s fragile political system, which relies on agreements among the […]
Sour gripes: Gwyneth Paltrow’s lament has won little support from Angelina Jolie, above Photo: Getty Images Cat fight! Angelina Jolie has gone head to head with Gwyneth Paltrow; which would be pretty much every man’s brunette-on-blonde fantasy, were it not for the fact that one is so skeletal and the other so skinny that there’s a genuine risk their A-list bones might splinter into a million tiny […]
Two protesters were killed in clashes in Egypt between Islamist demonstrators and their opponents after midday prayers on Friday, the final day of campaigning ahead of next week’s presidential election, the authorities said. The Health Ministry said one person was killed in Cairo and another in the town of Fayoum, about 50 miles southwest of Cairo. At least 23 people were wounded, the ministry added. In the […]
The judicial authorities in Iran appeared to harden their clampdown on expression Friday, moving to block Instagram, imprisoning the director who made the now-famous Iranian version of the Pharrell Williams “Happy” video and warning women to comply with a police campaign on the proper wearing of mandatory headscarves. Taken together, the developments suggested that the country’s Islamic bureaucracy was alarmed over any perception of permissiveness that may […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Rebels in southern Syria killed more than 20 people in a mortar attack on a tent put up as part of presidential elections next month, antigovernment activists said on Friday. The overnight attack appeared to be the first by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad directly targeting the election and raised the specter of further rebel assaults on rallies and other events. The vote, scheduled […]
Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Facebook VP of growth for mobile and international, has criticized Apple’s strategies, saying the company is “screwed.” Palihapitiya, however, has a lot of praise for Facebook and Google.(Photo : Getty Images) Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says that Apple has lost its “mojo,” compared with the overall better jobs being carried out by tech rivals Facebook and Google. Palihapitiya, who describes himself […]
Western Sahara Viewed From International Space Station | NASA Western Sahara Viewed From International Space Station On May 23, 2014, Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson posted this photograph — taken from the International Space Station — to Instagram. Swanson noted, “Western Sahara – the contrast between the sand and the water is spectacular from here.” Swanson uploaded the first image from space to Instagram on April 7. […]
Let’s analyze what we should be careful about in the midst of the recent eBay hacking scandal. There are many lessons that can be learned from the incident about our privacy and security online.(Photo : Brian Cantoni I Flickr) As many of us have already found out, eBay was recently hacked while asking users to change their information and passwords. The question, however, is what we have […]
Orthodox Jews protested against the forthcoming visit of Pope Francis to Jerusalem. Josh Mitnick/Wall Street Journal Pope Francis wants to spur interfaith tolerance during a trip to the Holy Land, but a planned Papal mass at a Jerusalem holy site is stoking the embers of religious rivalry that have plagued the city for centuries. Just days before the Pope’s arrival, hundreds of religious Jews turned out at […]
Apple’s blockbuster acquisition of Beats Electronics isn’t for technology. It’s for the talent. Apple reportedly wants music industry heavyweights Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young a.k.a. Dr. Dre on its executive board.(Photo : Beats Music) Apple’s rumored $3.2 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics is still happening, even though sources say the deal almost did not pull through several times, because Apple wants Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre on […]
Daraa, Syria TEXT SIZE – + May 23, 2014 3:21 AM Syrian activists say rebels have killed at least 21 people at a campaign rally for President Bashar al-Assad in the southern city of Daraa. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the rebels shelled a tent where Assad’s supporters had gathered late Thursday. The Observatory’s Rami Abd al-Rahman told VOA the victims include both civilians and pro-Assad militiamen. “Twenty-one […]
Elaine Paige: ‘I do regret the fact that I never married and had a family of my own,’ she said. ‘But I’m of the belief that you can’t have it all’ Photo: David Rose When I heard what actress Elaine Paige said earlier this week, it struck a chord with me. “I do regret the fact that I never married and had a family of my own,” she […]
Suicide bombers and car bombs killed at least 35 Shiite pilgrims and wounded dozens more in attacks in Baghdad on Thursday, security officials said. The pilgrims were on their way to the shrine of a Shiite saint in Kadhimiya, in northern Baghdad, to commemorate the anniversary of his death. A day earlier, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki urged the security forces to protect pilgrims traveling to the […]
CAIRO — The former general who is universally expected to win a landslide victory in next week’s presidential election has the support of only a narrow majority of Egyptians, according to a poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. The poll is the most significant measurement of Egyptian public opinion since the former general, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, led the ouster last summer of President Mohamed Morsi […]
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Government forces broke through a protracted rebel siege of one of Syria’s largest prisons on Thursday, dealing yet another blow to their opponents and highlighting the suffering that the country’s war has brought to those caught between the warring parties. Islamist rebels, including members of the Nusra Front, Syria’s Qaeda affiliate, surrounded the Aleppo central prison more than a year ago and had repeatedly […]
On Feb. 10, 2001, the crews of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station successfully installed the U.S. Destiny Laboratory onto the station. In this photo, Destiny is moved by the shuttle’s remote manipulator system (RMS) robot arm from its stowage position in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Astronaut Marsha Ivins began the work, using Atlantis’ robotic arm to remove a station […]
The MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Startup Competition, one of the biggest startup events in the Middle East, will announce its winner on Thursday evening at an event in Cairo. Here’s the five startups that caught the Wall Street Journal’s eye from the shortlisted semi-finalists. Elwafeyat.com: The concept of Cairo-based Elwafeyat.com is dead easy to understand. The website is an online platform to honor deceased family members and […]
A severe shortfall in international support has left many Syrian refugees in Lebanon unable to access crucial medical care, according to a new report from Amnesty International. “In some cases, refugees have preferred to return to Syria, to receive the needed treatment” in spite of the dangerous security situation there, the report, entitled Agonizing Choices: Syrian refugees in need of health care in Lebanon, said. The situation […]
Uber San Francisco-based Uber — a smartphone app that connects passengers with cars for hire — officially launches in the Saudi capital Riyadh today after three months of beta testing, entering a new market with some unique opportunities. Saudi Arabia is a country with virtually no public transport and where half of the population — women — is not allowed to drive. Many of the regular cabs available […]
The Tories are the only party offering a realistic prospect of the referendum that Ukip longs for – and David Cameron needs all the allies in Brussels that he can get Photo: Eddie Mulholland It is a political truism that the European and local elections are an irrelevance, certainly compared with the serious business of a general election. Yet even if that were true, we are still on […]
Attacks on Nigel Farage, Ukip’s leader, by other politicians have not damaged his standing with voters Photo: EPA Nick Clegg was at his most priggish this week as he sought desperately to persuade the public not to back Ukip in the European elections. Indeed, he laid into not only Nigel Farage, but all those who back him – which, by my reckoning, could be some five million voters. […]
Six young Iranians who were arrested for posting a YouTube video of themselves dancing on Tehran rooftops to “Happy,” the globally infectious pop song, were released on bail on Wednesday as new details emerged of their possible mistreatment while incarcerated amid an outpouring of sympathy — including a subtly supportive Twitter post from Iran’s president. The arrests of the six, who were all under 25 and included […]
UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a resolution that would ask the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Syria. Russia is certain to veto the resolution. Its Western rivals are equally certain to seize on that veto in an attempt to isolate the Kremlin diplomatically. Supporters of the resolution, which was drafted by France, have spent days drumming up […]
Following a report this week about mistreatment of workers who built New York University’s new Abu Dhabi campus, N.Y.U. apologized and said it would work with its partner to investigate. The next day, the partner, the Abu Dhabi government, confirmed it would participate. N.Y.U. has declined to specify how such an investigation might proceed, or what remedies it might pursue. But experts on labor conditions in the […]
