WASHINGTON — No American president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has won a second term in office when the unemployment rate on Election Day topped 7.2 percent. Seventeen months before the next election, it is increasingly clear that President Obama must defy that trend to keep his job. Roughly 9 percent […]
Patriarch calls for finding solutions to national problems Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said on Thursday that Lebanese parties should seek common goals and find solutions to national problems. “We are meeting here today and we are aware that in Lebanon we separate between religion and statehood,” Rai told the press […]
A new poll shows parents are split over whether their newborns should be screened for fragile X syndrome, the most common type of inherited mental disability. The findings fuel an ongoing debate over which conditions should be part of mandatory newborn screening programs in the US. Fragile X syndrome, or […]
By Elena CASAS In Friday’s papers, Liberation puts former minister Luc Ferry on the front cover as ‘Dirty Ferry’ after he alleged – without naming names – that a colleague had been arrested for paedophilia. Le Parisien asks if this is the end of the French macho, now that the […]
PESHAWAR: A daylong clash between militants from Afghanistan who crossed the border and attacked a Pakistani checkpoint left 23 troops and 35 insurgents dead, police said Thursday, underscoring the challenges facing Pakistan as it tries to stamp out insurgents in its northwest. The fighting came as a top […]
More and more Israelis apply for a foreign passport, not for easier travel but because something has gone terribly wrong here. The numbers are climbing rapidly and the phenomenon is intriguing: Many Israelis are longing for a second passport. If Shimon Peres (now president ) once promised “a car for […]
AFP – Russia banned European vegetable imports Thursday and Spain said it would seek compensation over being wrongly blamed for the mysterious lethal bacteria that has killed 17, mainly in Germany. German authorities have failed to pinpoint the origin of the outbreak, which has sickened hundreds in the last month […]
As a Palestinian who lives in the Old City of Jerusalem, I must admit, I am so glad I’m not going home today. Instead of making my usual journey back to Jerusalem via the miserable Qalandiya checkpoint, I will be staying on this side of the wall. Today, of all […]
Statistics show one in four Tel Aviv couples divorces, and 20 percent of the city’s families are single-parent households, a rate considerably higher than the national average. The Tel Aviv municipality is giving serious consideration to a proposal meant to facilitate divorces in the city. According to the Central Bureau […]
KLANG: The Sultan of Selangor hopes the newly-constructed Masjid Istana Diraja will be used to strengthen family ties among members of the state royalty. “I understand there are about 1,000 of my kin and Selangor royalty (kerabat). “I hope this mosque will be a suitable centre to unify them and […]
By ROBERTA FEDELE Considered an emblem of the Christian Middle Ages and a central author of the Western tradition, Italian writer Dante Alighieri unintentionally reveals a lot about the influence of Islamic thought and models on Christian Europe. This is especially true of his masterpiece, “The Divine Comedy”, regarded as a prodigy […]
DAMMAM/JEDDAH: Labor Minister Adel Fakeih on Tuesday urged expatriates in the Kingdom not to press the panic button regarding reports about the six-year visa limitation issue. Talking to Arab News at Asharqia Chamber, the minister said companies in the Kingdom will have until Sept. 7 to achieve a prescribed quota […]
Saudi Arabia is making another giant leap forward, pushing its art scene onto the global stage with its first ever pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia (the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair). The pavilion will feature sisters Shadia and Raja Alem from Makkah with their collaborative installation, “The Black Arch.” […]
By Rana Husseini AMMAN – Dozens of citizens demonstrated in front of the Prime Ministry on Wednesday, calling on the government to amend laws to allow Jordanian women married to foreigners to pass on their citizenship to their children. Under the slogan “We are full citizens and do not accept […]
A workshop held by the International Organisation for Migration and the Public Security Department reached the conclusion that the issue of human trafficking should be pursued and dealt with on regional basis. The theme of the meeting, “Regional dialogue to enhance the identification and protection of victims of trafficking”, is […]
The US is set to publish plans that will categorise cyber-attacks as acts of war, the Pentagon says. In future, a US president could consider economic sanctions, cyber-retaliation or a military strike if key US computer systems were attacked, officials have said recently. The planning was given added urgency by a […]
According to several media outlets, on May 24 Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad pointed out to him the need to engage in a dialogue with the circles as wide as possible. As pointed out by sources in the Arab countries, including […]
Moscow police Saturday detained three prominent foreign gay rights leaders and a number of local activists after religious hardliners attacked them. The gay group had planned to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall. A group of ultra-Orthodox Christians attacked the protesters, who […]
France’s finance minister Christine Lagarde held talks in with her Brazilian counterpart on Monday in a bid to enlist support for her candidacy for the post of next chief of the International Monetary Fund. Christine Lagarde told Guido Mantega and Brazil’s central bank chief Alexandre Tombini that the main priority […]
French daily Le Monde has reported that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s beefed-up domestic intelligence team helped him strategically leak incriminating information about Dominique Strauss-Kahn when the Socialist starting rising in the polls. The newspaper reported on Wednesday that thanks to a newly reinforced internal intelligence agency, the Sarkozy administration is privy […]