By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: There has been a growing tendency among pilgrims who lack correct knowledge of Islamic faith to do things against the creed out of belief that this would cure them of diseases or bring blessings. Arab News has noted that a number of […]
By Omar Obeidat JORDAN TIMES AMMAN –– As the Arab Bank continues to face allegations in the US that it provided banking services to terrorist groups, cables by the US embassy in Amman, revealed recently by WikiLeaks, defended the financial institution’s reputation. A few years ago, hundreds of Israelis filed […]
PARIS (AFP) – Palestine won a first diplomatic victory in its quest for statehood on Wednesday when the UNESCO executive committee backed its bid to become a member of the cultural body with the rights of a state. Palestine’s Arab allies braved intense US and French diplomatic pressure to bring […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The General Presidency of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques has completed all arrangements for the execution of its Haj plan this year. The plan will come into effect on Oct. 13 and end on Nov. 25, Vice President of the […]
By ARAB NEWS RIYADH: Ministers of higher education and scientific research in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries began an extraordinary meeting here Tuesday to explore prospects of expanding cooperation among universities and research centers in the Muslim world. Opening the conference, Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari emphasized the […]
by JOHN FEFFER Foreign Policy in Focus. Institute of Policy Studies. It’s easy to make fun of Michele Bachmann: her history gaffes, her Christian extremism, her ludicrous political positions. Journalists, though, would be sad to see her leave the Republican primary race, since she can be reliably counted on to […]
By Paul R. Kopenkoskey, An estimated 275 Christian leaders are meeting in Indonesia this week (Oct. 4-7) to plot an ecumenical future in what one veteran of the ecumenical movement called a watershed gathering. Leaders of the fledgling Global Christian Forum will gather evangelical, Pentecostal, mainline Protestant, Roman Catholic and […]
LONDON, October 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Warning over Wahhabism, influence of internet and media focus on extremist groups at security and cohesion debate Politicians, think tanks, religious leaders and academics came together for a landmark conference at the European Parliament to highlight the threats posed by religious extremism and to […]
By ROBERTA FEDELE, LIFE.STYLE@ARABNEWS.COM Saudi Arabia is generally associated with the idea of a closed society, eager to preserve its own traditions from external cultural influences. For different reasons, Western countries too are starting to suffer from fear of cultural contamination. However, even in such peculiar context, it is possible to find […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The Al-Zamazima Office, which serves Zamzam water, has started the implementation of this year’s Haj plan. The plan aims to provide the blessed water to pilgrims from the moment of their arrival in Saudi Arabia until their departure, the office’s head Sulaiman […]
The Swiss government is hosting Indian President Pratibha Patil in the capital Bern for talks on boosting bilateral relations, including financial and research cooperation. During the two-day visit Patil will be received by the entire cabinet, including President and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, and will travel to the Lake Geneva […]
By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI | REUTERS ARABNEWS GAZA: Palestinian officials are going public with long-whispered complaints that international Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is biased toward Israel. Unofficial suggestions that Blair should now be replaced coincide with a Palestinian drive to secure membership of the […]
By WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS RIYADH: A group of Saudi businesswomen is campaigning for all government departments to scrap the requirement for a male legal representative when processing paperwork and other related business. The Commerce Ministry has already agreed to change its rules after the campaigners started their initiative […]
By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEW JEDDAH: The Labor Ministry intends to launch 30 new initiatives as part of its ongoing efforts to create jobs for the increasing number of Saudi university graduates, Labor Minister Adel Fakeih announced Saturday. Addressing prominent businessmen and executives in the city, he said […]
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Key US lawmakers are blocking about $200 million in Palestinian aid in response to their UN statehood bid, congressional aides said Saturday. Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have frozen the funding “until the Palestinian statehood issue is sorted out”, […]
By BASSEM MROUE | AP ARABNEWS BEIRUT: Syrian troops fought intense battles with hundreds of fellow soldiers who have turned their weapons against the regime of President Bashar Assad, revealing the increasingly militarized nature of an uprising started months ago by peaceful protesters. Also Friday, tens of thousands of demonstrators […]
RAMALLAH (AFP) – Jordan Times. The Palestinians have secured eight Security Council yes votes for their UN membership bid, just one short of the nine they need, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Thursday. Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, Riyad Al Malki said he had received assurances from two additional […]
ANTHONY SHADID and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK CAIRO — By force of this year’s Arab revolts and revolutions, activists marching under the banner of Islam are on the verge of a reckoning decades in the making: the prospect of achieving decisive power across the region has unleashed an unprecedented debate over […]
BOSTON — A team of Japanese scientists who invented a fire alarm that smells like wasabi were among the winners of this year’s Ig Nobel prizes that were handed out for head-scratching scientific discoveries Thursday at Harvard University. The Japanese team won the chemistry prize for the alarm that emits […]
By Qasim Yousafzai For CentralAsiaOnline.com Shehrbano Taseer, daughter of slain Pakistani Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, spoke at a panel discussion at UN European headquarters in Geneva WASHINGTON, D.C. – Islam’s greatest threat comes from those who claim to be serving it – extremist militants, Shehrbano Taseer, daughter of slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, said June […]