By Parisa Hafezi | ANKARA ANKARA President Hassan Rouhani will defend his efforts to open up Iran to the world on Friday in a final televised debate against the hardline challengers who aim to topple him in an increasingly acrimonious election next week. Rouhani, swept into office in a landslide four years ago on promises to reduce Iran’s international isolation, is seeking a second term after negotiating […]
May 12, 2017 IMPHAL, India – Fifteen seconds into the opening match of the 10th Manipur International Polo Tournament, after a long and feverish drumming performance, after the Manipur state chief minister had been properly honored with gifts and praise, after mounted players had paraded around the Mapal Kangjeibung polo ground with country flags held high, the home team scored on the Australians. It was a bright […]
Balikatan 2017 highlights humanitarian assistance & disaster response as well as counter-terrorism operations. Photo by Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN News. Troops from the Philippine and United States Army conducted urban search and rescue exercises in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija Friday, as part of humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) training for Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises 2017. Simulating a disaster in the city, the two armies practiced search and extraction […]
The recently published study disproving the generally accepted notion that high-fat dairy products — such as cheese, butter and milk — are harmful to the heart has sparked a heated debate over the health benefits and disadvantages of saturated fat. The research, conducted by the Reading University in Great Britain in collaboration with Copenhagen University in Denmark and Wageningen University in the Netherlands, documents that full-fat dairy […]
GENEVA An attack on Yemen’s Hodeidah port would displace more than 400,000 people, the U.N. International Organization for Migration said on Friday, doubling its previous minimum estimate. “A minimum of 400,000 people will flee the city eastwards, once Al Hudaydah is under attack,” IOM’s Director of Operations and Emergencies Mohammed Abdiker said in a statement, using a different English spelling for the port’s name. The U.N. has previously warned […]
SEOUL North Korea demanded on Friday the extradition of South Korea’s spy chief, accusing him of being a mastermind of a plot to assassinate its leader, Kim Jong Un, with a biochemical weapon. The North’s KCNA state news agency last week accused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) of a plot to assassinate its “supreme leadership” with a biochemical weapon. The […]
SYDNEY Turkey has agreed to a request from the Australian government to extradite a citizen it believes to be a top recruiter for the Islamic State militant group, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Friday. Melbourne-born Neil Prakash has been linked to several Australia-based attack plans and has appeared in Islamic State videos and magazines. Australia alleges that Prakash actively recruited Australian men, women and children and […]
The scene at the Rouhani campaign rally in Tehran on Tuesday has been replicated in other cities in recent days. In what appeared to be a warning that they not get out of hand, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that anyone who disrupted the elections would get a “slap in the face.” Continue reading the main story Mr. Rouhani’s supporters did not care […]
By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at strengthening federal government cyber security and protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, a senior administration official said. A copy of the signed order was not immediately available. (Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = (relatedItemsTotal / 2); var $relatedContentGroupOne = […]
The developer of an easy-to-use form of customisable ransomware has massively expanded their activities, expanding their arsenal of cybercriminal tools and making it even easier for would-be cyber crooks to set up operations. First spotted in September last year, Philadelphia ransomware is simple to deploy and at $400, is a relatively low-cost investment for entry-level cybercriminals, who also get support and updates as part of a ‘ransomware-as-a-service’ […]
DUBAI // Two men are accused of beheading their compatriot in revenge for the victim’s brother killing one of their brothers back in Pakistan. Prosecutors said that they used axes on the morning of December 31 last year to attack the man, who was on his bicycle in The Springs area in Dubai. A passing jogger saw the dead body and called police. “It was about 9.30am […]
A shake-up of the overarching Israel Broadcasting Authority — widely considered an outdated and wasteful enterprise — has been decades in the making. At one point it was said to have had up to 18 unions for about 1,800 employees. Israeli officials and experts across the political spectrum said that reform was essential. Continue reading the main story But the way it is unfolding appears chaotic and […]
YANGON The International Committee of the Red Cross has asked Myanmar to let aid workers get access to people caught up in conflicts that have displaced tens of thousands despite a transition that brought Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power. Authorities have blocked the ICRC from areas under the control of ethnic minority forces and from visiting some prisoners, the organisation’s president, Peter Maurer, told […]
On Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan’s prime minister added another warning: that arming the Kurds could have “consequences” for the United States and a “negative result.” He did not go into detail, promising only that Mr. Erdogan would elaborate when he meets President Trump at the White House next week. Continue reading the main story Mr. Erdogan also sharply criticized the Trump administration’s decision in remarks quoted by Turkish […]
By Dustin Volz | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A U.S. far-right online activist credited with initially sharing on Twitter hacked emails from the French presidential campaign of centrist Emmanuel Macron is the latest conservative media figure to receive White House access from the Trump administration. Jack Posobiec, a Washington-based writer at the Rebel Media, a Canadian online political and social news commentary platform, attended the daily press briefing on […]
PARIS Several French news companies, including Le Monde and Le Figaro, said their websites went temporarily offline on Wednesday because a company that helps speed delivery of their content was hit by a cyber attack. The company, Cedexis, said it had come under a “unique and sophisticated” distributed denial of service attack, which is when hijacked and virus-infected computers target networks with data requests until they can […]
Three women from London, including a mother and daughter, were charged on Wednesday with preparation of a terrorist act and conspiracy to murder, police said. Khawla Barghouthi, 20, of northwest London, Rizlaine Boular, 21, of central London, and her mother Mina Dich, 43, of southwest London, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, the Metropolitan Police said. The three were arrested last month. Britain […]
10 May 2017 BP today announced that it has started gas production from the first two fields, Taurus and Libra, of the West Nile Delta development in Egypt. The project was delivered eight months ahead of start-up schedule and under budget. First gas was exported to Egypt’s national grid on 24 March 2017 and the commissioning of all nine wells of the development’s first two fields and […]
BEIRUT: A top Syrian Kurdish official on Wednesday welcomed the US decision to arm Kurdish fighters with heavier weapons, saying it would “legitimize” the force as it prepares to march on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Daesh group.But Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said the decision, announced by the Trump administration Tuesday, was “unacceptable.”The US said it would provide heavier arms to the Kurdish-led […]
As we reported last night, pretty much no one within the FBI had the slightest idea that Comey’s firing was coming. Even Comey himself, according to the New York Times, learned of his dismissal on the news and thought it was just a prank. Not surprisingly, this sudden and shocking ouster of an FBI director that has led an agency of 56 U.S. field offices and 30,000 […]
MOSCOW Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has undergone an eye operation in Spain after an attack in Moscow that left him almost blind in one eye, the opposition politician said late on Tuesday on social media. Navalny hopes to run for president next year against Vladimir Putin, who is expected to run for what would be his fourth term, and organised the biggest anti-government protests in years in […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Sean Hannity, the eight-figure archetype of selective moral outrage, last night charged the press with going “completely insane” over the James Comey firing. Hannity accused it of “selective moral outrage,” proving it takes one to know one amid wall-to-wall Comey […]
Air Arabia has renewed plans that were put on hold after a dip in demand to expand its fleet, with the biggest discount carrier in the Gulf and North Africa encouraged by rebounding sales at its Moroccan unit. The airline, an Airbus SE A320 operator, could reach a decision on new jets as early as this year or into 2018, Chief Executive Officer Adel Ali said in […]
DUBAI // A drunk worker celebrating on Christmas Eve last year stabbed his compatriot to death when he arrived shouting and bawling, Dubai Criminal Court heard on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan defendant, 36, was in festive mood, drinking and singing with his wife, brothers and a number of others from his homeland at his home in Al Muraqqabat when the man arrived at about 11pm yelling. The […]
