JERUSALEM: Researchers in Israel said Monday they have pinpointed the site of an ancient Philistine town mentioned in the biblical tale of David seeking refuge from the Israelite king Saul.Ziklag was a town under the rule of a Philistine king in nearby Gath after the ancient “sea peoples” began arriving in the region in the…
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sacked the central bank governor for refusing the government's repeated demands for rate cuts, Hurriyet newspaper on Sunday quoted Erdogan as telling a meeting with his party's lawmakers.Governor Murat Cetinkaya, whose four-year term was due to run until 2020, was replaced by his deputy Murat Uysal, a presidential decree published…
ARSAL, LEBANON: Dima Al-Kanj's house is now a pile of rubble and twisted metal.It was just a concrete hut near the Lebanese border, but she had spent five years trying to make it cosy for her children after fleeing the war in Syria.Then, under army orders, she had to smash it."Every year, we fixed up…
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sacked the central bank governor for refusing the government's repeated demands for rate cuts, Hurriyet newspaper on Sunday quoted Erdogan as telling a meeting with his party's lawmakers.Governor Murat Cetinkaya, whose four-year term was due to run until 2020, was replaced by his deputy Murat Uysal, a presidential decree published…
ISTANBUL: Turkey’s president has met with the head of Libya’s “recognized” government, following heightened tensions between Turkey and forces loyal to a rival Libyan authority.In a statement from his office late Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his support for Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj’s forces.Libya is split between two warring governments. Sarraj leads the weakened…
BEIRUT: Dozens of international experts gathered in northeastern Syria on Saturday to discuss how to manage thousands of suspected Daesh members crammed into Kurdish-run prisons and camps.French lawyers and US-based analysts were among those attending the three-day conference on the challenges still facing the region after Daesh’s territorial defeat, organizers said.Officials of the autonomous Kurdish…
DUBAI: Qatar’s ruling emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on July 9 to exchange views on the latest regional and international developments, Qatar’s state news agency said on Saturday.The White House said in June the visit would deal with economic and security ties as well as counterrorism…
BAGHDAD: UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee voted on Friday to list the sprawling Mesopotamian metropolis of Babylon as a World Heritage Site after three decades of lobbying efforts by Iraq.Iraq had been trying since 1983 to have the site — a massive 10-square-kilometer complex of which just 18 percent has been excavated thus far — recognized by…
TUNIS: Tunisia's premier on Friday banned the niqab face covering for women in government offices, citing security concerns after attacks in the North African country.Prime Minister Youssef Chahed signed a government circular "banning access to public administrations and institutions to anyone with their face covered... for security reasons," his office said.The ban on the niqab,…
ALGIERS: Algeria’s former police chief Abdelghani Hamel has been placed in provisional detention over alleged “diversion of funds and illicit enrichment,” state television said Friday.Hamel, who was fired in June last year, appeared before an investigating magistrate in central Algiers, it said.Two of Hamel’s sons were also detained overnight, while his wife was provisionally released…
AMMAN: Palestinians welcomed the initiative made by Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono in the exclusive interview he gave to Arab News about his country’s interest playing the role of an “honest broker” in helping to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Saeb Erekat, the secretary of the executive committee of the PLO, told Arab News that Japan…
TUNIS: The death toll from twin suicide bombings that rocked the Tunisian capital last week has risen to two after a civilian died of his injuries, the interior ministry said Thursday.A policeman was killed on the spot when one of the bombers blew himself up as a police vehicle passed on the capital’s main throughfare.Among…
PARIS: The UN's special envoy on migration in the Mediterranean, Vincent Cochetel, has accused the EU of "blindness" on the plight of refugees and migrants in Libya and called for a rethink of the policy of returning migrants intercepted at sea to the war-torn country after Tuesday night's airstrike on a migrant detention center outside Tripoli…
CAIRO: The mass marches held in Sudan this week breathed new life into the uprising that toppled long ruling president, Omar Al-Bashir, but the protesters and the ruling military council remain at an impasse amid fears the country could slide into further chaos. Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of the capital, Khartoum,…
LONDON: Wars and turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are having a marked impact on youth unemployment, according to a former top UN official.And unless tensions are eased the outlook for many young Arabs remained bleak, said international diplomatic adviser, Christer Elfverson.His comments follow figures from the International Labor Organization (ILO),…
BEIRUT: Two hundred corpses, including those of people believed to have been executed by the Daesh, were found near the Syrian city of Raqqa, a local official and a war monitor said.The mass grave contained the bodies of five men in orange jumpsuits of the kind typically worn by Daesh hostages, Yasser Al-Khamees and the…
PARIS/DUBAI: France urged Iran on Tuesday to reverse its first major breach of a nuclear pact with world powers as European states signalled they would not seek to reimpose UN sanctions — for now. The UN nuclear watchdog confirmed on Monday Iran had amassed more low-enriched uranium than permitted under the 2015 deal, a move…
DUBAI: Sheikh Khalid bin Sultan Al-Qasimi, the son of the ruler of Sharjah, died in London on Monday, UAE state news agency WAM reported.Sharjah Media Office confirmed in a tweet that Al-Qasimi, who was 39, had died, without giving any further details.He served on a number of governing bodies including the Sharjah Urban Planning Council,…
DUBAI: Iranian prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for several suspects arrested last year for spying for the United States in military and nuclear bodies, state media reported on Tuesday, as tensions rise with Washington over Tehran’s nuclear program.Iran said in August it had arrested “tens of spies” in state bodies, many of whom were…
BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi issued on Monday a decree heavily curbing the powers of mostly Iran-backed Shiite armed groups and forcing them to further integrate into the country's formal armed forces. The groups, which helped Iraqi and US-led international coalition forces defeat Daesh militants, have a lot of influence in Iraqi politics. Abdul…
