CAIRO: Pope Francis landed in the Egyptian capital on Friday to promote “unity and fraternity” with Muslims and Christians, who have suffered a series of jihadist attacks.The visit is a “voyage of unity and fraternity,” the pontiff told reporters before he disembarked in Cairo airport to be greeted by Catholic priests and Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif Ismail.It is “less than two days but very intense,” he said.He […]
‘Demagogic’ populism does not help cause of peace. The pope invoked Egypt’s “glorious history” as an ancient cradle of civilization to argue on Friday that the delivery of a more peaceful future required a new civility that appreciated differences, resisted the violent path of close-minded absolutism and condemned extremists who camouflage terror in religious language. Continue reading the main story “An education in respectful openness and sincere […]
New day, new leak. A US online pet store has exposed the details of more than 110,400 credit cards used to make purchases through its website, researchers have found. In a stunning show of poor security, the Austin, TX-based company FuturePets.com exposed its entire customer database, including names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, credit card information, and plain-text passwords. Several customers that we reached out to […]
Violence erupted in Macedonia’s parliament as tensions between ethnic Albanian minorities and nationalists boiled over, prompting sharp rebukes from Western governments. Protesters supportive of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, as well as individuals clad in identity-concealing hoods, stormed parliament on Thursday night local time, violently accosting at least lawmakers and journalists. Police say the violence left 102 inside and outside parliament injured. Parliament had just managed to break […]
CAIRO // The recent Palm Sunday attacks in Egypt that left dozens dead had no basis in faith and stood against the principles of all religions, Muslim and Christian leaders at a conference in Cairo said. Religious and political figures from across the globe were speaking on the first day of an international peace conference on Thursday co-organised by the UAE Muslim Council of Elders and Al […]
That small drama points to the bigger issue confronting Francis as he lands in Cairo against a backdrop of swirling anxiety and turmoil. Christians across the Middle East are under intense pressure. After years of persecution by Islamist militants, half of Iraq’s Christian population has fled, and a lonely beach in Libya was the setting for the 2015 beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians in orange jumpsuits. Continue […]
Drone maker DJI has issued a software update intended to frustrate Isis terrorists who have been using low-cost “quadcopters” to drop improvised bombs in Syria and Iraq. The move to create new “no fly zones” for its products across Iraq and Syria is DJI’s first admission, albeit a tacit one, that its products have been commandeered by terrorists. It is also the latest sign of tension between […]
By Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON As President Donald Trump’s administration drafts an Afghanistan policy, U.S. officials are seeking a way to reverse gains by militant groups without wading deeper into a 15-year-long war that has no end in sight. In the past month, three U.S. service members have been killed in operations against Islamic State militants near Afghanistan’s porous border with Pakistan, where armed groups still […]
By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States issued about 40 percent fewer temporary visas in March to citizens of seven countries covered by President Donald Trump’s temporary travel bans than it did in an average month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of preliminary government data released on Thursday. At the same time, the data showed that the total of U.S. non-immigrant visas issued […]
Macedonia’s opposition leader was left bloodied and trapped in parliament on Thursday evening after masked men stormed the building and attacked MPs in a bid to halt steps towards forming a new government. Zoran Zaev, leader of the leftwing opposition SDSM party, was pictured bleeding from the head and standing behind supporters in the corner of a parliament conference room shortly after 8pm local time. An adviser […]
The frailty of the DNS system became all too evident last year, when DNS host Dyn was hit by a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that brought down large swaths of the internet. With the threat of DDoS attacks only expected to grow, experts urge organizations to build redundancy into their DNS services. GitHub, the online code sharing and development platform, is introducing a new […]
Would you like an always-ready smart speaker with a camera and a microphone in your bedroom? That’s what Amazon’s new Echo Look is all about. The original Amazon Echo was already always-listening so it wouldn’t miss any voice command, but adding a camera too is a whole different matter, especially since the new Echo Look is designed for the bedroom. Amazon Echo Look Purpose First things first: for […]
The malware code contains references to Felis and Mus — Latin for ‘cat’ and ‘mouse’. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto A sophisticated form of Trojan malware allows its highly-skilled creators to secretly take over an infected system — and it comes with self-updating capabilities that enable it to strengthen itself, fix bugs, or change what it looks like in order evade detection. Once it has infected a system, the […]
Saudi Arabia has imposed limits on the ownership of prepaid SIM cards for citizens and foreigners, restrictions that the regulator said aim to prevent the use of cards in carrying out militant attacks in the kingdom. Foreign residents, who make up more than a third of the population, are now limited to two prepaid SIM cards across all operators, according to two people familiar with the matter. […]
Ransomware incidents have surged 50 percent from a year ago, educational institutions are becoming a playground for cyber espionage and 68 percent of healthcare security threats are internal, according to Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Incident Report (DBIR). The DBIR is based on data from 65 organizations, 42,068 incidents and 1,935 breaches in 84 countries. At a high level, Verizon’s DBIR isn’t that surprising. One of the recent […]
ROME The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, already Italy’s most popular party, is stealing a march on its divided rivals by drawing up its policy programme a year ahead of elections. With the ruling centre-left Democratic Party embroiled in a bruising leadership battle and centre-right parties unable to agree on a leader, opinion polls give 5-Star a growing lead, which one pollster last week put as high as 8 […]
By Syed Raza Hassan | KARACHI, Pakistan KARACHI, Pakistan Afghan and Indian intelligence agencies gave funds and other assistance to Pakistani Taliban militants to fight Islamabad, the group’s former spokesman, who surrendered last week, said in a video released by Pakistan’s military on Wednesday. Afghanistan strongly refuted the claim, while India’s Ministry of External Affairs said it was not yet able to comment on the video. Both […]
86 percent of the total attacks experienced by Australia during a 12-month period originated from within the country’s borders, a report from NTT Security has found. The United States was the source of 9 percent of the total attacks, while Germany accounted for 1 percent. According to the NTT Security Global Threat Intelligence Report 2017, remote administration was the top service used in attacks against Australia, with […]
American officials said Turkey had informed the United States less than an hour in advance that it intended to carry out the bombing raids in the crowded airspace over northern Syria and Iraq. American officials said that they had asked Turkey not to proceed without proper coordination, but that the request was ignored. Continue reading the main story Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said the United […]
Billionaire Bernard Arnault and his family are shunning big external acquisitions and opting to tighten their grip on LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group by revenues, where they’re already the largest shareholder. The Arnault family is simplifying the complex corporate structure between its family holding company Groupe Arnault, Christian Dior and LVMH — in a move that will see it sell out completely of rival Hermès. “We’re […]
By Ahmed Aboulenein | MOSUL, Iraq, MOSUL, Iraq, Iraqi forces are using siege and stealth tactics to drive Islamic State militants out of Mosul’s Old City, an Iraqi general said, as his forces sought to minimise casualties among hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the cramped, historic neighbourhood. Explosions from two car bombs could be heard nearby as Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi spoke to Reuters […]
PARACHINAR, Pakistan A remote-controlled roadside bomb targeting a minibus killed at least 10 people and wounded several others on Tuesday in Pakistan’s remote northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official in the region said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but Shahid Ali Khan, a senior regional Pakistani official, told Reuters militants planted a roadside bomb in the Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal […]
ISTANBUL The Turkish military said on Tuesday that it has carried out air strikes against Kurdish militant PKK targets near Iraq’s Sinjar mountains and northeastern Syria to prevent the group from sending weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey. PKK has frequently been using the two regions to channel militants, weapons and bombs and the materials have been used in attacks against Turkish military outposts and most […]
DUBAI // A top celebrity cardiologist has urged people to ditch “white death” diets of bread, pasta, sugar and salt if the UAE is to tackle its rampant levels of diabetes. Bestselling Australian author Ross Walker, credited with changing attitudes to eating with his no-nonsense advice, on Monday told of the key health messages that could improve the lives of millions in the UAE. Health can be […]
