Dubai / Emirates Business Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated entity for culture, arts and heritage, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai Airports to provide reading opportunities for passengers in airport arrival and departure lounges. The project is due for completion by March 2017, to coincide with the UAE’s National Month of Reading. ...
Read More »Trump flays intelligence agencies for ‘unsubstantiated’ news leak
Bloomberg US intelligence officials have informed President-elect Donald Trump about unsubstantiated reports they’ve received that the Russian government had compiled potentially damaging personal and financial information on him, a person familiar with the situation said. CNN reported earlier on Tuesday that as part of a briefing on Russian attempts to meddle in the presidential election, US spy chiefs included ...
Read More »Opposition: Airstrikes in northern Syria kill 10 militants
Beirut / AP Airstrikes in the northern Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 10 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria on Wednesday, the latest in a spate of targeted attacks against the group, activists said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 were killed when missiles struck two vehicles and three motorcycles in the airstrike in Saraqib, ...
Read More »Israeli Arabs urge general strike after house demolitions
JERUSALEM / AP Israeli Arab leaders have called for a general strike in all their towns and villages in response to the demolition of 11 homes without proper permits by Israeli authorities. Lawmaker Yousef Jabareen on Wednesday called the demolition in the central city of Kalansua “unprecedented” and vowed to fight further measures. He said the source of the ...
Read More »Norway defends treatment of mass murderer in court plea
SKIEN / AP A government attorney says that Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting rampage, is in touch with fellow right-wing extremists from behind bars and must to be held in solitary confinement. During a government appeal against a court ruling last year that Breivik’s isolation in prison violates his human rights, ...
Read More »Ugandan leader seen preparing successor as son named adviser
Bloomberg Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s appointment of his son as a senior adviser may be a move to stem dissent in the governing party and prepare a successor to his 30-year rule. Museveni, who secured a fifth term in a 2016 vote, named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the 42-year-old head of an elite military group, as his adviser for special operations. ...
Read More »UN envoy: Cyprus unification talks ‘on track’
GENEVA / AP Talks to reunify long-divided Cyprus are on track to overcome major obstacles that have stood in the way of a peace accord for decades, the United Nations envoy for Cyprus said on Wednesday. But an immediate deal won’t be in the offing since important legal and technical details will have to be sorted out before an ...
Read More »Turkey arrests 60 businessmen for alleged Gulen links
ISTANBUL / AP Turkey’s state-run news agency says that 60 businessmen have been arrested for suspected ties to the movement allegedly responsible for the failed coup in July. Anadolu says that 110 businessmen were brought before an Istanbul court Wednesday to be formally arrested on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization.” Fifty of them were given conditional release, ...
Read More »China says committed to peace, stability in Asia
BEIJING / AP China said on Wednesday it was committed to promoting peace and stability in Asia, even as it sent an aircraft carrier battle group through the Taiwan Strait amid heightened tensions between Beijing and the self-ruled island. The statement in the preface to a Cabinet report on China’s policies on Asia-Pacific security cooperation follows heated criticism from ...
Read More »Adding jobs would be a steep climb for Trump
Donald Trump wants to be a great jobs president. But the forces that really affect employment are beyond his control — and they are working against him. Over the long run, when it comes to job growth, demographics is destiny. The Reagan and Clinton presidencies, so strong economically, coincided with the baby boomer generation being in its peak years. ...
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