Oman Oil buys 30 pct stake in Vale Omani subsidiary
MUSCAT: Oman Oil Company, the state investment arm of the non-OPEC producer, signed an agreement to buy 30 percent of a subsidiary of Brazil's Vale in the Gulf Arab state,…
NPT meet agrees on steps on nuclear-free Mideast
UNITED NATIONS: In a breakthrough after a decade of deadlock, the Non-Proliferation Treaty's 189 nations proposed new steps Friday towards nuclear disarmament and making the Middle East free of atomic…
Six Palestinians killed in Gaza smuggling tunnel blast
GAZA CITY: Six Palestinians were killed and 12 others injured as a Gaza smuggling tunnel collapsed after contraband gas canisters exploded on Saturday, medics in the coastal enclave said. The…
Aid ships poised to defy Gaza blockade
GAZA CITY: convoy of ships containing pro-Palestinian activists and aid destined for the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday prepared to steam south from Cyprus towards Israeli naval vessels determined to…
Cairo and counting
WASHINGTON, D.C.: We are now approaching the first anniversary of President Barack Obama's June 4, 2009 speech in Cairo, which offered Arabs and Muslims around the world a new "engagement"…
The Earth Moves in Britain
LONDON: Volcanoes have consequences — and I’m not just thinking about the chaos caused to air travel by Iceland’s unpronounceable last eruption (known to the Pentagon as E-15). In 1783,…
Killing Justice in Russia
PRAGUE: The death of Eduard Chuvashov, a judge killed in cold blood on April 12 in Moscow, is another in a long and growing list of murders perpetrated on those…
The Ultra-Orthodox and the Arab-Israeli conflict
JERUSALEM: The latest polls show that in 20 years the Ultra-Orthodox minority will constitute at least 25 percent of the Jewish-Israeli population. What will the implications of this increase be…
Germany wins 2010 Eurovision Song Contest
Germany's Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with "Satellite," an upbeat, catchy pop song, edging out Turkey and Romania. Meyer-Landrut, who turned 19 during the competition…
Dennis Hopper, Hollywood icon and antihero, dies
Dennis Hopper, the high-flying Hollywood wild man whose memorable and erratic career included an early turn in "Rebel without a Cause," an improbable smash with "Easy Rider" and a classic…