PARIS — The three young Frenchmen were arrested as they tried to make their way to Syria to wage jihad. They had not harmed anyone in France or made plans to do so, according to the evidence at their trial in January, but in France these days, seeking to fight in Syria is enough to bring a charge of plotting terrorism — and in this case sentences […]
Qatar’s sizzling growth would slow if it lost the right to host the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament, but the tiny country is so rich that the impact on its economy and financial markets would be much smaller than the blow to its reputation. The Qatari stock market sank 1.1 percent on Monday, underperforming the region, after a British newspaper published what it said was evidence of […]
A controversy over cutting down centennial trees to pave the way for building a military academy in one of Jordan’s shrinking forests is taking center stage once again. Environmental NGOs and activists held an emergency meeting Saturday to halt what they called an illegal chopping of trees by the Jordan Armed Forces in Bergesh forest, near the city of Ajloun – some 90kms north west of Amman. […]
‘As a scientist, all I can do is tell the truth based on the evidence,’ says Dr Jane Plant Photo: MARTIN POPE In 1993, the breast cancer that had plagued Jane Plant since 1987 returned for the fifth time. It came in the shape of a secondary tumour – a lump in her neck the size of half a boiled egg. Doctors told her that she had only […]
|By TAP Staff|Investors are paying a premium to buy highly rated MENA sovereign assets, indicating tighter spreads on them, Citibank said in a report. In the case of the mid-rated sovereigns of Bahrain and Dubai, spreads are still marginally higher than the BBB average, implying these sovereigns trade at a discount. But the report suggests that the recent rally in Bahraini and Dubai sovereign debt has meant […]
A Syrian activist group said government air raids have killed nearly 2,000 civilians this year in and around Aleppo, the country’s largest city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday 567 children and 283 women were among those killed in the northern city, which is a stronghold for opposition fighters. The figure, which relies on the Britain-based group’s contacts with activists and others on the ground, amounts to […]
The husband of a woman stoned to death in Pakistan killed his first wife four years ago, police and relatives said. Zulfiqar Hameed, a deputy inspector general for Punjab police, told the Associated Press on Thursday that authorities arrested Mohammed Iqbal for the October 2009 killing of his first wife, Ayesha Bibi. Hameed could not offer details about the killing, but said the case was withdrawn after […]
Ford Motor Co said on Thursday it is recalling 1.39 million SUVs and sedans in North America, most for the possible loss of power steering. About 1.186 million of the vehicles Ford said it is recalling are in the United States. That figure is only 2,200 shy of the total number of vehicles that Ford recalled in the United States during all of last year. Automakers are […]
Asian shares edged higher on Friday, catching a lift from another record close on Wall Street, while the dollar groaned under the pressure of slumping U.S. yields. The S&P 500 index .SPX posted its third record closing high in four sessions, as investors shrugged off the first quarterly contraction of the U.S. economy in three years and focused on signs of a strengthening labor market. MSCI’s broadest […]
WASHINGTON — During the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States military often carried out dozens of daily operations against Al Qaeda and other extremist targets with heavily armed commandos and helicopter gunships. But even before President Obama’s speech on Wednesday sought to underscore a shift in counterterrorism strategy — away from the Qaeda strongholds in and near those countries — American forces […]
The hotel was honoured at the MENA Travel Awards 2014 and Sharjah Tourism Excellence Award events DUBAI (May 28, 2014) – Ramada Sharjah received two separate accolades honouring its service quality and facilities at the MENA Travel Awards 2014 and Sharjah Tourism Excellence Award this spring. The hotel won its first Silver Award in the ‘Best 4-Star Business/Corporate Hotel’ category at the MENA Travel Awards 2014 on […]
David Cameron could place himself at the head of a movement to halt the European Union steam-roller and turn it around Photo: EPA Earthquake or not, British politics has certainly undergone a seismic change over the past few weeks. Familiar landmarks have vanished, fresh features emerged, and the outlook has fundamentally changed. Let’s start with an intrusion into private grief, and take a long look at the […]
WASHINGTON — A United States citizen working in Syria with a militant group backed by Al Qaeda conducted a suicide bombing there Sunday, in what is believed to be the first time an American has been involved in such an attack, American officials said Wednesday. The suicide attack first surfaced on Tuesday in Twitter messages from the Nusra Front, an Islamist extremist group in Syria aligned with […]
ABU DHABI // More than 1,000 cases of employers accused of breaking labour laws by ill-treating their workers were referred to prosecutors in the past year, a new report reveals. The prosecutions came amid a massive enforcement campaign by the Ministry of Labour, whose staff conducted 138,801 general inspections, 11,807 visits to workers’ accommodation and 80,571 visits to construction sites to ensure labourers were not working during […]
Google Inc is building cars that don’t have steering wheels, accelerator pedals or brake pedals, in an ambitious expansion of the Internet company’s efforts to develop self-driving cars. The small electric cars, which seat two passengers, are currently prototypes that Google has been building through partnerships with automotive suppliers and manufacturers, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said at the Code conference in Southern California on Tuesday. Google aims […]
Although the world’s largest democracy has been hobbled by inflation, a declining currency and difficult business environment, the pro-business Bharatiya Janata Party that just won an epic election in India has engendered optimism that the country can turn around its sagging economic scenario. It’s time to increase your exposure to India’s stock market. The timing is good with equities in India perking up of late, something that […]
ABU DHABI // Hundreds of tenants have been defrauded by bogus landlords and property agents who rent one home to several families and then disappear before the scam is uncovered. Police in Abu Dhabi have investigated 211 cases of property fraud in the past 15 months, 66 of them in the first three months of this year. One victim, Salwa, an Arab resident, paid a year’s rent […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Millions of Egyptians are due to elect their third president in as many years, in a race largely expected to be won by the country’s former army chief. The two-day vote, which began on Monday, pits retired field marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi , who enjoys widespread popularity in the country of 90 million, against left-wing candidate Hamdeen Sabahi . A former legislator and long-term Nasserist activist, Sabahi […]
