Dubai Integrated Economic Zones posts record $91 billion trade in 2024
Dubai, UAE – The Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) recorded its highest-ever trade performance in 2024, with total trade...
Business
With cash and aid, Saudi Arabia pursues soft power push in Syria
Saudi Arabia has spent months courting Syria's new leaders, aiming to draw closer a country long dominated by Iran and...
Geostrategy
Geostrategy
Blast wounds four US troops in Syria, IS leader killed, says military
WASHINGTON, US - An explosion wounded four American military personnel during a raid that killed a senior Islamic State (IS) group...
- US leads an international coalition battling IS and conducts periodic raids and strikes targeting the group.
- The US troops and the dog are being treated at an American medical facility in Iraq.
Geostrategy
Tunisian footballer reaches Italy on migrant boat, says club
TUNIS, TUNISIA - A goalkeeper at a top-flight Tunisian football club has reached Italy as a clandestine migrant, his club said...
- Tunisia is struggling with a grinding economic crisis that has seen a growing wave of clandestine migration attempts in recent months.
- Rome says over 32,000 migrants, including 18,000 Tunisians, reached Italy from Tunisia last year.
Geostrategy
Building safety in focus as deadly quake renews alarm for Istanbul
Seismologists warn that a massive earthquake is likely to strike Turkey's biggest city -- officially home to 16 million people...
- Independent urban scholar Murat Guney said carnage can be avoided if the government has the political will to relocate people from shoddy buildings filling the city's shanty towns.
- Guney said Istanbul had around 1,166,000 residential buildings but 70 percent of these constructed before 1999 quake when no quake inspections were conducted.
Syria’s Assad thanks ‘Arab brothers’ for quake aid
The 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, leaving a combined death toll of nearly 40,000 people. Since...
- Some 120 planes laden with assistance have landed in the Syrian airports, about half of them from the United Arab Emirates
- At least 3,600 Syrians died in the quake, which came nearly 12 years into the country's civil war - that has devastated swathes of the country
Geostrategy
BBC tax raids put India press freedom in spotlight
Just weeks after the BBC aired a documentary examining Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in deadly 2002 sectarian riots,...
- India has fallen 10 spots to 150th on the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since Modi took office in 2014.
- Criminal complaints were issued against a record 67 journalists in 2020, the latest year for which figures are available, the local civil society group reported.
All hands on deck as UN meets to protect high seas
Another two weeks of negotiations ended with no agreement in August last year, but advocates and officials have expressed cautious...
- After more than 15 years of talks, the meeting is the third time in less than a year that negotiators are gathering for what is due to be the last round
- Ocean ecosystems produce half the planet's oxygen and limit global warming by absorbing a large part of the CO2 emitted by human activities
Geostrategy
Quality finance crucial to deal with climate change
"We cannot neglect any element of the climate crisis, including its clear implications for international peace and security,” he adds....
- Majid Al Suwaidi, Director-General and Special Representative of COP28, calls for catalyzing greater and higher quality climate finance for fragile and vulnerable communities
- The UAE will host COP28 in Dubai from 30th November to December 12, which will include the first Global Stocktake to assess progress toward implementation of the Paris Agreement
Geostrategy
White House says ‘deeply dismayed’ by Israeli settlements plans
The White House said Thursday it is "deeply dismayed" by Israeli plans for a major expansion of settlements in occupied...
- The UN Security Council is considering a draft resolution that would demand Israel immediately cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory
- The 15-member council is likely to vote on Monday on the text, drafted by the United Arab Emirates in coordination with the Palestinians, diplomats told Reuters
Geostrategy
UN appeals for $1 billion in aid for Turkey quake victims
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that the funds would provide humanitarian relief for three months to 5.2...
- Turkey's people have experienced "unspeakable heartache," the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a separate statement announcing the flash appeal.
- Some 47,000 buildings have been destroyed or damaged across Turkey, with thousands of people having sought refuge in temporary shelters.
Business
Iraq marshlands campaigner freed from kidnappers
Baghdad, Iraq---A leading campaigner for the preservation of Iraq's famed southern marshlands has been freed, two weeks after he was kidnapped...
- Jassim al-Assadi, 65, head of environmentalist group Nature Iraq, was seized on February 1 as he drove to the capital Baghdad on the main motorway from the south.
- A hydraulic engineer by profession, Assadi has been involved in numerous initiatives since 2006 to restore the marshlands where he was born.
Dubai Integrated Economic Zones posts record $91 billion trade in 2024
Dubai, UAE – The Dubai Integrated Economic Zones Authority (DIEZ) recorded its highest-ever trade performance in 2024, with total trade...
Business
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Hamas names Sinwar new chief as region braces for Iran retaliation against Israel
Iran blames Haniyeh's death on Israel and has vowed to avenge him, while Hamas's Lebanese ally Hizbollah has also pledged...
Geostrategy
Palestinian officials say 12 dead in Israel West Bank raids
Aqaba residents said Israeli troops arrived at dawn and surrounded the house of Amid Ghanam, leading to clashes between troops...
Geostrategy
US in ‘around-the-clock’ push against Mideast war
Biden called King Abdullah II of Jordan, which helped down Iranian drones and missiles in an earlier showdown in April,...
Geostrategy
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Geostrategy
Biden to meet national security chiefs as Mideast war fears grow
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told his counterparts from the G7 nations that any attack could happen within 24...
- The United States has deployed extra fighter jets and warplanes to the region to support Israel
- The tensions also appeared to have torpedoed US hopes of any immediate ceasefire
Jordan FM meets Iran president as Middle East tensions soar
The political head of Palestinian group Hamas was killed early on Wednesday in Tehran, where he had attended the inauguration...
- The Jordanian foreign ministry said Safadi would deliver a message from King Abdullah II to the Iranian president
- Iran has held talks with multiple Arab countries including Jordan, Egypt, Oman and Qatar among others since Haniyeh's killing
Geostrategy
46,223 structures destroyed, 18,478 severely damaged in Gaza: UNOSAT
Geneva, Switzerland - The United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has identified 46,223 destroyed structures, 18,478 severely damaged structures, 55,954 moderately...
- The governorates of North Gaza and Rafah have experienced the highest rise in damage compared to the May 3, 2024 analysis
- The map shown in the report illustrates a satellite imagery-based comprehensive assessment of damage and destruction to structures