May, 2016

• 23 May

  ‘Business Continuity’: Need of the hour in Middle East

  

    ALKESH SHARMA/ Emirates Business Bad companies are destroyed by crisis, good companies survive them, great companies are improved by them’ — this golden saying of Hungarian-born American businessman Andrew Grove resounded during the 6th annual Business Continuity & Emergency Response Forum here in Abu Dhabi on Monday. “In case of any crisis, the company’s reputation, its revenues and the ...

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• 23 May

  Obama lifts Vietnam arms ban to blunt China’s Asia influence

  

    HANOI / AP US President Barack Obama on Monday lifted a half-century-old ban on selling arms to Vietnam, looking to bolster a government seen as a crucial, though flawed partner in a region that he has tried to place at the center of his foreign policy legacy. Obama announced the full removal of the embargo at a news conference ...

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• 23 May

  No apology for A-bomb on Hiroshima visit: US Prez

    Tokyo / AFP Barack Obama will not apologise for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when he this week becomes the first sitting US president to visit the city, he told Japanese television. The comments are the clearest yet from his administration over an issue that raises hackles in the United States and has been the subject of heated debate ...

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• 23 May

  Greece eyes evacuation of Idomeni border camp today

    Athens / AFP Greece is planning a police operation early Tuesday to evacuate the squalid migrant camp of Idomeni on its border with Macedonia, a report said on Monday. Citing police sources, Greek TV station Mega said police reinforcements had been dispatched from Athens to help relocate some 8,500 people from the camp where thousands of migrants and refugees ...

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• 23 May

  ‘Fate of humanity cannot depend on 5 veto-wielding UN members’

  

    Istanbul / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged on Monday that the burden of responding to the world’s crises be more evenly shared, as leaders and aid groups gathered in Istanbul seeking to transform the global humanitarian aid system. The over 60 heads of state and government gathered for the two-day summit convened by UN Secretary General Ban ...

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• 23 May

  17 girls killed in Thai school dormitory fire

    Bangkok/ AFP Seventeen girls died after a fire swept through the dormitory of a school for children of hill tribes in northern Thailand, officials said on Monday, with a survivor describing fleeing as flames engulfed the building. The fire started late Sunday night, meaning many of the children at the school run by a Christian charity were asleep as ...

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• 23 May

  Cyprus far right enters parliament as voters protest

  

    Nicosia/ AFP Cypriots disaffected by three years of economic downturn have protested at the polls, staying away in droves and electing two far-right lawmakers in an echo of the populist wave sweeping Europe. Final results released on Monday showed that 3.7 percent of voters backed the National Popular Front (ELAM), a party which defends the Athens-inspired coup of 1974 ...

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• 23 May

  S Korea rejects North’s military talks offer

    Seoul / AFP South Korea on Monday rejected the latest proposal by the North to hold military talks, saying Pyongyang first needed to take steps towards abandoning its nuclear arsenal. The North’s leader Kim Jong-Un offered the military dialogue during a speech to a recent congress of the ruling Workers’ Party—the first event of its kind for more than ...

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• 23 May

  IS-claimed twin bombings kill 41 army recruits in Yemen

  

    Aden / AFP Twin bombings claimed by the IS group hit Yemeni forces in Aden on Monday, killing at least 41 people in the latest of a spate of attacks in the southern city. The attacks in Aden—which is serving as the temporary government headquarters after rebels forced authorities from the capital—follow a major military operation against extremists in ...

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• 23 May

  Obama confirms Taliban leader’s death in US strike

    Hanoi / AFP President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. Saturday’s bombing raid, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, marks a major blow to the militant movement, ...

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