April, 2016

• 24 April

  Sending troops to Syria would be ‘mistake’, warns Obama

    London / AFP US President Barack Obama warned on Sunday that it would be a “mistake” to send Western troops into Syria to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Al Assad. In an interview with the BBC, he said the United States would continue strikes against the IS group while continuing efforts to broker a transition deal between the ...

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• 24 April

  Yemen troops, Saudi-led coalition attack Al Qaida militants in south

  

  SANAA / AP Hundreds of Yemeni troops loyal to the internationally recognized president have launched an operation to drive Al Qaida and IS fighters out of southern coastal areas the extremists have seized amid the country’s complex civil war, security officials said on Sunday. They said the forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi are receiving air support from ...

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• 24 April

  Nepal marks 1 year since quake as frustration mounts

  

    Kathmandu / AFP Nepal held memorial services on Sunday for the thousands killed in a massive earthquake one year ago, as victims still huddled in tents across the country accused the government of failing them. Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli laid flowers at a destroyed 19th-century tower in Kathmandu, where hundreds gathered to remember the devastating quake that ...

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• 24 April

  The ‘settled’ consensus du jour

  

  Authoritarianism, always latent in progressivism, is becoming explicit. Progressivism’s determination to regulate thought by regulating speech is apparent in the campaign by 16 states’ attorneys general and those of the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, none Republican, to criminalize scepticism about the supposedly “settled” conclusions of climate science. Four core tenets of progressivism are: First, history has a ...

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• 24 April

  Sustainable farming must for food security

    The 7th session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Food Security and Agricultural Development and the inaugural General Assembly of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security (IOFS) to be held in Astana will throw spotlight on food security. Starting Tuesday, the conference will delve into the current state of agriculture and food security in the ...

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• 24 April

  China’s steel glut still a problem

    Sara Hsu SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS China has faced a steel glut since 2014, when a real estate and debt shock forced demand for construction materials into a nosedive. China has been trying to cope with excess inventories both by cutting capacity in the sector and by reducing existing stocks of steel. China’s leadership is now encouraging steel overcapacity ...

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• 24 April

  Singapore wants new rules to defuse Asia’s tensions

    Asia needs to craft regional rules and norms to defuse lingering tensions and safeguard the stability which has undergirded its prosperity, Singapore’s defense minister stressed at a security conference in Malaysia this week. In his address at the 4th Putrajaya Forum in Kuala Lumpur – a biennial defense meeting – Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said that ASEAN must ...

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• 24 April

  Losing UK wouldn’t be so bad for Europe

  

    Discussions of a possible U.K. exit from the European Union often center on how the move would affect the U.K. itself. It’s only natural, since British voters are the ones who will make the decision, and they care mainly about their own country. There are two sides to any divorce, however, and the relatively passive partner — in this ...

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• 24 April

  Shaping northeast Asia’s future

  

    Why has a promising idea put forth by South Korean President Park Geun-hye – a five-party (U.S., China, ROK, Japan, Russia) diplomatic process for Northeast Asia – received so little regional support? After what appears an inflection point in the region (North Korea’s back-to-back nuclear and ICBM missile tests kicking off 2016) all seem to recognize the new level ...

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• 24 April

  Saudi leads Gulf stock gains on eve of post-oil vision

  

    BLOOMBERG Saudi Arabian stocks led an advance across most Gulf Arab equities as the kingdom prepared to announce a road map for the post-oil era. The Tadawul All Share Index added 1.7 percent, the most in more than a month and extending gains after it entered a so-called bull market on Thursday. The kingdom is scheduled to set out ...

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