LONDON — Last week, the State Department announced the resumption of “security assistance” to Bahrain. This ended a four-year ban on the transfer of arms that the United States put into effect in 2011, after the Bahraini government’s harsh crackdown on Arab Spring protests. In a statement, the State Department argued that Bahrain had made enough progress in human rights reform to be rewarded by ending the […]
Mohammad Javad Zarif, center, the foreign minister of Iran, sat next to Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief as they meet with other foreign ministers in Vienna on Tuesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 6, 2015 VIENNA — With foreign ministers from around the world arriving here in hopes that the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are entering their final hours, a senior Iranian official said on […]
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and THOMAS ERDBRINK July 5, 2015 VIENNA — Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran on Sunday that hard choices were still needed to seal a landmark nuclear accord, and that the United States was prepared to walk away if a sound agreement could not be reached. “We are not yet where we need to be on several of the most difficult issues,” Mr. Kerry said in a […]
DUBAI // Staff should not be forced into making up “lost hours” because of the reduced working day during Ramadan, recruitment experts and the Ministry of Labour have warned. The ministry has ordered that the working day be cut by two hours during the holy month, for Muslim and non-Muslim staff. Companies that do not comply face punishments including having employees’ visas cancelled, which would be a […]
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, during a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry as part of nuclear negotiations in Vienna on Friday. By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID E. SANGER July 4, 2015 VIENNA — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Saturday that, with Iranian cooperation, his agency could complete an assessment on Iran’s suspected past nuclear work by December, potentially removing a major obstacle to a […]
Founded in California in 2013, Weiss Watch Company is working to bring back the lost art of American watchmaking. Their mechanical timepieces are handmade by the company’s 27-year old, Swiss-trained founder, Cameron Weiss who sharpened his skills with Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read […]
By CARLOTTA GALL July 2, 2015 TUNIS — The Tunisian authorities said on Thursday that eight people had been arrested in connection with the massacre of 38 foreign tourists at the beachside resort of Sousse last Friday. Kamel Jendoubi, the minister responsible for coordinating the response to the attack, said that 12 people had been interrogated by the police, and that eight of them had been detained, pending charges. […]
Wireless carrier Sprint is backpedaling on the video streaming limits on its new All-In program. The company apparently underestimated the customer backlash that would haunt it for putting a 600 kbps maximum on the new plan. Here’s the backstory: On Tuesday, Sprint announced the All-In wireless plan for $80 a month. The plan includes a wireless device with unlimited talk, text and high-speed data. “If you went […]
Open Source By ROBERT MACKEY Apparently undeterred by the backlash over its last venture into cartoon diplomacy, Israel’s government released an animated video on Tuesday that equates the threat from Islamic State militants to that of a nuclear-armed Iran. The 28-second animation, uploaded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official accounts on social networks, attempts to erase the distinction between the Sunni Muslim extremists of the Islamic State […]
It looks like 2015 will be the remembered as the summer of dueling mobile offerings. Only days after T-Mobile said it would begin allowing users to upgrade their smartphones up to three times a year, Sprint promised to go “All-In” with a new pricing structure that offers unlimited talk, text, and data for $80 a month. The company, which is the third-largest wireless carrier in the country […]
TEHRAN — Persian carpets were rolled out in the Beit-e Rahbar, the downtown Tehran offices of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday, a sign that important guests were on their way. One by one, members of Iran’s establishment, politicians, clerics and commanders filed in, many exchanging the perfunctory greetings of committed rivals. They sat cross-legged and waited anxiously, knowing a crucial week of nuclear negotiations […]
Sophisticated attacks by an Islamic State branch in Saudi Arabia show the jihadist group is better established there than previously suspected, and that fueled by anger over Arab civil wars, Riyadh’s militancy problem is not going away. A sustained militant campaign could undermine stability in the world’s top oil exporter and birthplace of Islam, one of the few major Arab states that has so far mostly avoided […]
ABU DHABI // Parents have expressed their concern at a decision to close school cafeterias during Ramadan. They say that an equal number of children are not fasting because they are not Muslim or are too young. The Abu Dhabi Education Council, which issued the ruling, said it “does not have a particular policy regarding serving food for students during the holy month of Ramadan, however schools […]
DUBAI // Mahra Mustafa has been surprised and delighted by the reaction from visitors to the UAE Pavilion at the Milan Expo. The Emirati actor, 9, who stars as Sara in The Family Tree – a short film on the UAE’s heritage being screened at the pavilion – has become an instantly recognisable face at the Expo. “At first I was scared because I didn’t know if […]
Few events will be as significant for the world in the next 15 years as China opening its capital borders, a shift that economists and regulators across the world are now starting to grapple with. With China’s leadership aiming to scale back the role of investment in the domestic economy, the nation’s surfeit of savings — deposits currently stand at $21 trillion — will increasingly need to […]
Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal. Several of the senior […]
As the civil war in Yemen continues, many families say they are living in constant fear. Parents say that their older children have been wetting their beds at night, and that younger ones are so traumatized that they are sent running for cover by the sound of a door slamming. The fighting between Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces has displaced a million people, destroyed cultural heritage […]
SANA, Yemen — For nearly three months, Saudi Arabia, along with its allies, has been bombing Yemen, its southern neighbor, hoping to force the retreat of Shiite rebels who have seized major cities and to return the country’s president from the Saudi guest mansion where he lives to the presidential palace. So far, it has not worked. The rebels, known as the Houthis, have gained ground, more […]
Are you ready for another PC on a stick? Lenovo this week joined a handful of companies that have come out with this concept by releasing the Ideacentre Stick 300. The portable gadget works with any HDMI-compatible device, which means it can be plugged it into a flat-screen TV — or provide ultra-portable computing power to road warriors in hotel rooms or any location where there’s a […]
By THOMAS ERDBRINK and RICK GLADSTONE June 23, 2015 TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader appeared to stiffen his hard line Tuesday on concessions in any nuclear agreement with foreign powers, one week before the deadline for completing an accord. In a speech broadcast live on Iranian state television, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he would not abide any freeze on Iran’s sensitive nuclear work for long periods, ruled out […]
A BlackBerry Passport smartphone is shown at its official launching event in Toronto, September 24, 2014. Reuters/Aaron Harris/Files WATERLOO, Ontario BlackBerry (BB.TO) shares fell on Tuesday as doubts surfaced about the sustainability of the sharp growth the former smartphone pioneer reported in crucial software revenues, an area BlackBerry’s CEO said he will augment via acquisitions. The company’s shares were down 3.5 percent in afternoon trading. They had […]
Saudi leaders, whose portraits are displayed at the stock exchange in Riyadh, have not confirmed the leak’s authenticity. By BEN HUBBARD June 20, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — It seems that everyone wants something from Saudi Arabia. Before becoming the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi wanted visas to take his family on a religious pilgrimage. A Lebanese politician begged for cash to pay his bodyguards. Even the state news agency […]
A map of China is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen showing binary digits in Singapore in this January 2, 2014 photo illustration. Reuters/Edgar Su/Files SINGAPORE Security researchers have many names for the hacking group that is one of the suspects for the cyberattack on the U.S. government’s Office of Personnel Management: PinkPanther, KungFu Kittens, Group 72 and, most famously, Deep Panda. But to […]
WASHINGTON — Iran continued its “terrorist-related” activity last year and also continued to provide broad military support to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the State Department said Friday in its annual report on terrorism. The assessment suggests that neither the election of President Hassan Rouhani nor the prospect of a nuclear accord with the United States and its negotiating partners has had a moderating effect on Iran’s […]
