April, 2016

• 4 April

  Israel demolishes homes of 3 Palestinian attackers

  Jerusalem / AFP Israeli security forces demolished the West Bank homes of three Palestinians early Monday who killed an Israeli officer and seriously wounded another in Jerusalem in February, the military said. In February’s attack outside Jerusalem’s Old City, according to Israeli authorities, three Palestinian men in their early 20’s drew rifles and knives and attacked two female officers during ...

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• 4 April

  Gaza fishermen test waters after blockade eased

  Gaza City / AFP Gaza fishermen have begun working further off the coast after Israel relaxed restrictions for the first time in a decade but said on Monday that the measure was not nearly enough. Palestinian boats working in the southern part of Gaza Strip started to fish as far as nine nautical miles off the coast on Sunday, the ...

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• 4 April

  Wave of suicide attacks kill 29 people across Iraq

  

  BAGHDAD / AP Militants unleashed on Monday a wave of suicide attacks across Iraq, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens, officials said. The deadliest attack took place in the southern province of Dhi Qar when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a restaurant that is frequented by Shiite paramilitary militia fighters, killing at least 14 people. Another ...

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• 4 April

  Qaeda spokesman killed as Syria army pushes against IS

  

  Beirut / AFP Air strikes have killed several Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front members including its spokesman and regime forces have retaken a strategic town from the IS group in the latest setbacks for extremists in Syria. Abu Firas Al Suri, whose real name was Radwan Nammous, fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan where he met Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and ...

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• 4 April

  Italy’s Renzi to make landmark visit to Iran

  

  Rome / AFP Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will travel to Iran next week for a two-day trip that will make him the first major leader to visit since the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran. Renzi’s office said in a statement on Monday that the centre-left premier would be in the Islamic Republic on April 12 and 13, without ...

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• 4 April

  It’s high time to solve the productivity mystery

  

  A paradox of our time concerns productivity. We are awash in transformative technologies — smartphones, tablets, big data — and yet the growth in labour productivity, which should benefit from all the technology, is dismal. This matters. Productivity is economic lingo for efficiency, and it’s the wellspring of higher living standards. If productivity lags, so will wages and incomes. The ...

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• 4 April

  ‘Panama Papers’ calls for transparency

  The leaked documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) could smear Panama’s image as an offshore haven for money laundering, even after it had exerted efforts to clear its name. The documents, from around 214,000 offshore entities, came from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries. The leaked data, known as the ...

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• 4 April

  Is North Korea fed up with China?

  John Power SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS North Korea’s ruling party recently called on citizens to stand up to its patron China’s “hostile schemes” in a blistering attack that invoked nuclear war with Beijing, a report has claimed. In a document distributed to provincial committees, the Workers’ Party of Korea implored party members and workers to “soundly crush China’s pressuring schemes ...

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• 4 April

  The real victims of political bias in academia

  Every time I write about bias against conservatives in academia, I can count on a few professors writing me to politely suggest that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Sometimes they aren’t so polite, either. How would I know what goes on in their hiring meetings, their faculty gatherings, their tenure reviews? They’re right there, and they can ...

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• 4 April

  WikiLeaks bolsters Greek relief case

  

  The release this weekend by WikiLeaks of the purported transcript of discussions among International Monetary Fund officials about the best way to compel Greece’s creditors to accept debt restructuring led to much finger pointing and seeming indignation. Yet the economic case for forgiving that country’s debt is straightforward: Without relief within a comprehensive reform program, Greece will struggle to grow, ...

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