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 […]
By RFI France has called for “bolder” reforms from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as opposition members, meeting in Turkey, rejected his declaration of an amnesty as too little, too late. “I fear it may be too late,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Alain Juppé told France Culture radio Wednesday, calling for […]
Hackers in China have compromised personal e-mail accounts of hundreds of top US officials, military personnel and journalists, Google has said. Read More
China’s manufacturers have started to feel the effects of the government’s policy to reduce credit-fuelled growth in the country. Read More
The Chinese mainland announced on Wednesday that as of June 1, it will suspend imports of beverages, food products and food additives from Taiwan that are produced by companies suspected of using a cancer-causing plastic additive. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) said the mainland has […]
The president of the Republic (of The Gambia) has once again denounced the use of the noble Islamic religion by “extremists” as a coat to engage in violent activities that are catastrophic and done in the name of “so-called jihad” waged on innocent people, especially Muslims. He denounced these acts […]
The International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to keep four top Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, including its Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, detained until July 12 in connection with crimes against humanity in 1971. The three other leaders are: Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojahid and assistant secretaries general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla. The three-member […]
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — When the world didn’t end on May 21, many people who had given up their earthly possessions were left with nothing. But one believer never lived to see the day. She left nearly her entire estate — around $300,000 — to the group behind the failed […]
Readers of last Friday’s edition of The Australian may have been struck by the juxtaposition between an opinion piece by Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, in which he described Indonesia’s democracy as going ‘from strength to strength’, and the headline on the very next page: ‘SBY urged to back UN on […]
In Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris,” an American writer clambers into a yellow vintage Peugeot every night and is transported back to hobnob with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Picasso, Dali, Toulouse-Lautrec and Gertrude Stein in the shimmering movable feast. The star-struck aspiring novelist from Pasadena, played by Owen Wilson, […]
At the height of the housing boom, the 26th floor of Goldman Sachs’s former headquarters on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan was the nerve center of Goldman’s fast-growing mortgage trading business. Hundreds of employees worked closely in teams, devising mortgage-based securities — billions of dollars’ worth — that were examined […]