Turkish president seeks to ease Kurdish tensions
ANKARA: Turkey's president traveled to the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast Thursday, a day after the country's civilian and military leaders rejected the minority's demands for autonomy and recognition of their language.…
Emirate’s prince offers help for Egyptian sextuplet family
DUBAI: A crown prince in the United Arab Emirates is offering free housing and other aid to the impoverished parents of newborn sextuplets. The pledge by Sheikh Ammar Bin Humaid…
Annual box office down a bit from 2009 record
Domestic box-office revenues for 2010 won't quite hit last year's record-setting haul, but they'll be awfully close. Total movie-ticket sales will reach $10.556 billion, the tracking agency Hollywood.com said this…
Moroccan writer Taia challenges homosexual taboo
Novelist Abdellah Taia, who has won acclaim in France and readers abroad, has challenged a taboo in his native Morocco and won't back down: he is the first writer to…
‘Miramar’ opera marks Mahfouz centennial
The operatic adaptation of Naguib Mahfouz’s “Miramar” was met with no less enthusiasm when it played this month at the Cairo Opera House Main Hall than during its debut run…
Dubai’s global bourse hopes end but options remain
DUBAI: Dubai's ambition to become an international equity hub may have been put on ice by its need to repay debts, but the Gulf Arab state could still become a…
OPEC caution on output may help bring back $100 oil
LONDON: Oil has burst above top exporter Saudi Arabia's preferred $70-$80 range and yet OPEC is unlikely to stop the rally, helping to prepare the way for the market to…
Nakheel gets Dubai funding to repay $750 mln sukuk
DUBAI: Troubled property developer Nakheel said on Thursday that it would repay its $750 million Islamic bond that matures next month, following funds being made available by Dubai. The company…
Katsav: from Israeli president to convicted rapist
By Moshe Katsav JERUSALEM: Israel's former president Moshe Katsav, who was convicted of rape on Thursday, has long been hounded by unprecedented allegations of sexual assault and harassment that shocked the…
Indictment could be blow to Lebanon’s Hezbollah
By Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam/ AP BEIRUT: Hezbollah says looming indictments by a UN court for the assassination of a former prime minister are of no concern to the group.…