Beirut / AP A shaky cease-fire in Syria brokered by Moscow and Washington has survived its first week, outlasting skeptics’ expectations and providing some hope that a diplomatic solution to the five-year-old war might be possible. With daily incidents of artillery shelling, airstrikes and clashes, it would be easy to dismiss the “cessation of hostilities” as a charade. But the ...

Istanbul / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested building a new city in northern Syria to house some of the millions of refugees escaping the country’s civil war, reports said on Saturday. Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul that the new city would be located near the Turkish border and said he had even discussed the idea ...

Beirut / AP Lebanon’s trash collection crisis, which sent thousands protesting into the streets last summer, is now in its eight month with still no resolution in sight. Though it has prompted political debates and occasional heated discussions, Lebanese doctors and medical professionals are increasingly alarmed by its effect on health. At the emergency room at the Sacre Coeur hospital ...

Istanbul / AFP Turkish authorities were on Saturday in control of a newspaper staunchly opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after using tear gas and water cannon to seize its headquarters in a dramatic raid that raised fresh alarm over declining media freedoms. Police fired the tear gas and water cannon just before midnight on Friday at a hundreds-strong crowd ...

AL ISSAWIYAH / AP In this Syrian mountain village perched above the Mediterranean, residents say they have enjoyed a measure of peace, even though they live near a border that has seen escalating tensions in recent months between Turkey and Russia. The villagers, most of whom are members of Syria’s Turkmen ethnic minority, have formed their own militia, but they ...

It is here in the industrial Midwest, not in the South, where Ted Cruz’s audacious theory of the 2016 race was supposed to be put to one of its most important tests. Michigan’s primary on Tuesday — and especially what happens that day in the Detroit suburbs that in 1980 were ground zero for a new political species, “Reagan Democrats” ...

A Greek scenario which saw furious masses unseating their government through ballots, accusing it of conceding too much to harsh austerity measures that had left them struggling to make ends meet, is being played out in more European countries: Spain, Portugal and Ireland…The list could grow further. The angry voters in these countries are venting their wrath on established political ...

Franz-Stefan Gady SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS A Japan-India defense deal over the procurement of 12 ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious search-and-rescue aircraft for the Indian Navy is facing additional delays and an uncertain future, according to Japanese diplomatic sources interviewed by The Hindu newspaper. Japan has no plan for “selling or delivering” the US-2 maritime surveillance aircraft in the immediate future and ...

Time for your weekly China links… China’s “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – are in full swing. The main event, the NPC meeting, begins tomorrow, and will see China’s 13th Five Year Plan officially approved. But one big announcement has already been made: NPC spokesperson Fu Ying ...

Gradually, America and the rest of the world are coming to terms with Donald Trump’s political ambitions. Even the Huffington Post, which initially dismissed the New York billionaire’s bid for office as a clownish “sideshow,” is now openly warning about a supposedly disturbing political development that has “curdled and congealed into something repellent and threatening.” The real estate mogul has ...