KUWAIT. On Aug. 14, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services affirmed its ‘AA/A-1+’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kuwait. The outlook is stable. RATIONALEPrices for crude oil have fallen by around 50% in the last year. We now forecast an average Brent oil price of $55/bbl in 2015 and $67.5/bbl in 2015-2018. The sharp fall in oil prices over the past […]
INTERNATIONAL. In the last quarter of 2014, in the face of possible oversupply, Saudi Arabia abandoned its traditional role as the global oil market’s swing producer and therefore it role as unofficial guarantor of existing ($100+ per barrel) prices. In October, Saudi sources first prepared the market with statements that the country would be comfortable with oil prices as low as $80 per barrel for “a year […]
ANTAKYA, Turkey — Government airstrikes on a rebel-held suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killed more than 80 people and wounded about 200 on Sunday, according to local activists and monitoring organizations. The attacks came one day after the area’s largest rebel group, the Islam Army, announced a new offensive against government forces in a neighboring suburb. While it was unclear if the two attacks were linked, the […]
BENGHAZI, Libya — Libya’s internationally recognized government has asked fellow Arab states to conduct airstrikes against the Libyan branch of the Islamic State in the coastal city of Surt, a cabinet statement said on Saturday. In the past few days, the Islamic State has crushed a revolt by a rival Salafist group and armed residents who tried to break its grip on the city. Dozens of people […]
GAZA CITY — A new training regimen for fighters in Hamas’s armed wing employs slide presentations and a whiteboard rather than Kalashnikov rifles and grenades. The young men wear polo shirts instead of fatigues and black masks. They do not chant anti-Israel slogans, but discuss how the Geneva Conventions governing armed conflict dovetail with Islamic principles. The three-day workshop, conducted last month by the International Committee of […]
INTERNATIONAL. The word tragic has often been used to describe the civil war in Syria, but it is a pale description of the raging madness on the ground. The bloodletting and massive destruction that has swept the nation is not a mere tragic event; the magnitude of the destruction and loss of lives is catastrophic by any measure unseen since the horror of World War II. The […]
SANA, Yemen — After five months of war in which more than 4,000 people have been killed, Yemen’s government, exiled in Saudi Arabia, faces a fateful decision: leverage recent battlefield gains to negotiate a cease-fire with a weakened Houthi rebel movement, or try to rout the rebels once and for all. Backed by air support and ground troops from Persian Gulf nations, fighters allied with the government […]
ABU DHABI // Residents of Khalifa City are eagerly awaiting the opening of a 250-bed hospital that will create 800 jobs by the end of the year. The US$200 million (Dh734.6m) NMC Royal Hospital will specialise in 25 fields and will be a first for the area, on the outskirts of the capital. “According to the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030, the city is planning to grow outwards […]
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday named a hawkish political rival who opposes a Palestinian state as his next ambassador to the United Nations. The naming of Danny Danon as the new ambassador is the latest in a string of appointments by Mr. Netanyahu that indicate he will not bow to mounting international criticism and efforts to isolate Israel. Mr. Danon is an […]
Business users already had the option of Chromebooks aimed specifically at them — in particular, the high-end, $999-and-up Pixel — but now they have a more affordable option from Dell and Google: the Chromebook 13, which starts at the far more affordable price of $399. Launched yesterday, the Chromebook 13 is being described as the “first premium professional Chromebook.” Introduced by Google in 2011, the Chrome OS-based […]
An employee works near screens in the virus lab at the headquarters of Russian cyber security company Kaspersky Labs in Moscow July 29, 2013. RUSSIA-CYBERCRIME/ Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin/Files SAN FRANCISCO Beginning more than a decade ago, one of the largest security companies in the world, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, tried to damage rivals in the marketplace by tricking their antivirus software programs into classifying benign files as malicious, according […]
QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted. He bound her hands and gagged […]
BAGHDAD — A devastating truck bomb struck a food market early Thursday morning in the teeming Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing about 60 people and wounding more than 100 others, according to security officials. The blast, which was almost immediately claimed by the Islamic State, came just after dawn, when the market was already crowded with shoppers stocking up on fruit and vegetables for the weekend. […]
WASHINGTON — The State Department said Wednesday that a recent visit to Moscow by the head of Iran’s paramilitary Quds force had violated a United Nations travel ban that has been imposed because of concerns about Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. “We’ve raised this travel with senior Russian Foreign Ministry officials,” said Mark Toner, the deputy State Department spokesman. He added that Russia had not responded […]
ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday held talks with Yemen’s visiting leader on the future of his country and plans to help rebuild it. Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi arrived on Wednesday for a two-day visit including talks with Sheikh Mohammed, also Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The two discussed progress made by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, […]
CAIRO — The Egyptian affiliate of the Islamic State said on Wednesday that it had beheaded Tomislav Salopek, a 30-year-old Croatian expatriate worker who was taken from his car on the outskirts of Cairo last month. The claim, if confirmed, would represent the first time that the militant group, Sinai Province, had abducted and killed a foreigner during two years of attacks against the government. A photograph […]
This 360º degree camera is designed for keeping an eye on your home when you’re away. It can be controlled remotely to pan the room as it sends streaming HD video to your Apple or Android phone, tablet, etc. Night-vision functionality plus motion and sound detectors provide home security & linked to smart home devices, it can remotely control lights, thermostat, & more. This entry passed through […]
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — The Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda has announced its withdrawal from front-line positions against the Islamic State extremist group in northern Syria, saying that it disagrees with plans by Turkey and the United States to clear the extremists from an area along the Turkish border. In a statement on Monday, the Qaeda group, the Nusra Front, said that the proposed plan was designed primarily […]
A Tunisian police officer stood guard at the scene of a shooting attack in June at the Imperial Marhaba hotel in the Mediterranean resort of Sousse. By CARLOTTA GALL August 9, 2015 MONASTIR, Tunisia — A dozen police officers, one with an assault rifle across his knees, guard the presidential mausoleum in this sleepy seaside resort, easily outnumbering the foreign visitors on a recent morning. It was here, the […]
A demonstration on Sunday in Baghdad to show support for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi after he proposed government reforms. By OMAR AL-JAWOSHY and TIM ARANGO August 9, 2015 BAGHDAD — Facing widespread protests against government corruption and poor services as well as a crucial call for change from the country’s top Shiite cleric, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday proposed to radically reshape the dysfunctional political system of Iraq that has […]
By WILLIAM J. BROAD August 8, 2015 Twenty-nine of the nation’s top scientists — including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms and former White House science advisers — wrote to President Obama on Saturday to praise the Iran deal, calling it innovative and stringent. The letter, from some of the world’s most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons and arms control, arrives as Mr. Obama is lobbying […]
People are silhouetted as they pose with mobile devices in front of a screen projected with a Samsung logo, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica October 29, 2014. Reuters/Dado Ruvic LAS VEGAS Google Inc (GOOGL.O) and Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) will release monthly security fixes for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack the world’s most popular […]
Government overreach is the primary culprit that keeps the Internet from being the free and open source of information and ideas that it could be, according to a leading computer crime defense attorney. Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, addressed the subject of Internet freedom yesterday in her keynote address at the annual Black Hat computer security conference in […]
DUBAI // An estate agent and property management company that went out of business last month was given a series of warnings and fines before regulators finally revoked its licence and ordered it to close. S&K, also known as Smith & Ken, continued operating for more than a month in defiance of the closure order. It eventually ceased trading on July 21 and filed for bankruptcy. More […]
