Abdullah to lead three-way Beirut summit

DAMASCUS: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will lead a rare tripartite summit in Beirut on Friday to bring together President Bashar Assad of Syria and President Michel Suleiman of Lebanon in an effort to improve inter-Arab relations. The reconciliation summit is widely seen as the successful outcome of King Abdullah's diplomatic overtures to strengthen Arab unity and confront the challenges facing the Arab Ummah.

Arab ministers leave timing of direct talks to Abbas

CAIRO: The Arab League said Thursday it would back face-to-face peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel when the Palestinians believe the time is right.

Toyota recalls 412,000 cars in US, mostly Avalons

TOKYO: Toyota is recalling 412,000 passenger cars, mostly the Avalon model, in the US for steering problems in which three accidents have been reported, the automaker said Thursday.

cartoon

Editorial: Tactless diplomacy

With him is the largest delegation of British officials ever to visit the country — ministers, politicians, businessmen, scientists, academics and others — because Cameron wants to create a new special relationship between the two countries that is as much as economic as political. He has said all the wrong things to make it happen. In Bangalore on Wednesday, he accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism to India and Afghanistan and that it was intolerable that it should be allowed to “look both ways”.

0 comments

Israeli plan to attack Iran

He said: "If we do not do that the result would be our destruction." Israel has adopted pre-emptive strike as a strategic option in order to prevent hostile Arab and Middle Eastern countries from obtaining nuclear weapons without any opposition or questioning by the international community, which has been accepting all the demands of the Jewish state.

Hefty wedding costs force Saudis to look for foreign brides

RIYADH: The hefty wedding costs associated with marrying Saudi women prompted over 2,100 Saudi men to get hitched to non-Saudi women last year, according to a study conducted by the Ministry of Justice.

Tanker mystery deepens

DUBAI: The chief official at the port where a Japanese tanker was docked a day after it was damaged at the mouth of the Gulf said Thursday investigators now believe the ship was involved in a collision, backing away from an earlier theory that natural causes were to blame.

Online shopping catching on with Saudis

JEDDAH: Saudi consumers fed up with the low quality of products and seasonal price increases on items that are traditionally purchased before and during Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr are opting to buy earlier and online.

Are CIA and Google teaming up?

WASHINGTON: Hey, all you folks who like to plaster all the details of your daily lives on YouTube, did you know that your videos could soon be scanned and evaluated for terror threats? Yes, thanks to a new project funded by the US intelligence community, they soon hope to create a searchable warehouse of open-source clips.

Saudi mother says Indian cult brainwashed son

JEDDAH: Umm Ali talks about her son’s experience when he almost became a cult follower without knowing himself. The Saudi youth, who due to the nature of his work traveled frequently, was told by some colleagues about a center that teaches how to improve one’s health by natural healing.

Tobacco sale to children: Parents blast blame game

RIYADH: Sociologists and parents have criticized the “irresponsible attitude” of authorities allegedly failing to prevent grocery stores from selling cigarettes and tobacco to children.

Woman missing in Hail surfaces at Egyptian consulate

JEDDAH: An Arab woman who fled from her husband’s house in a Hail village on Saturday has been found.

Top police officials transferred in Maharashtra

MUMBAI: In a late night decision on Wednesday, the Maharashtra state government reshuffled 40 senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers.

Up to 138 killed in DR Congo boat accident

KINSHASA: As many as 138 people died when an overloaded boat carrying passengers and goods capsized in rough water in Democratic Republic of Congo, police said on Thursday.

BP spill cases head to court as Shell counts cost

LONDON/WILMINGTON, Delaware: The tide of lawsuits unleashed by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico breaks into an Idaho courtroom on Thursday, just as the company's rivals are counting the cost of a ban on offshore drilling.

Play focuses on life of Asir women

ABHA: The theater of Al-Miftaha Cultural Village in Abha will be the venue of a play for women on Friday evening performed by famous Arab actors at the Asir Summer Festival.

Traders work at their desks in front of the DAX board at the Frankfurt stock exchange on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Earnings boost stocks, dollar slips to 3-month low

LONDON: Robust quarterly earnings from Europe drove world stocks higher on Thursday, while the dollar hit a three-month low on the back of weak US data and a downbeat assessment of the economy from the Federal Reserve.

Pakistani business consultant Asif J. Mir gives a presentation at a workshop on strategic marketing organized by Engineers Welfare Forum (EWF) in Jeddah. Seated, from right, are Pakistani Consul General Abdul Salik Khan, and EWF’s President Aleem Khan and General Secretary Masroor Elahi. (AN photo)

Saudis urged to invest in Pakistan

JEDDAH: Pakistan Consul General Abdul Salik Khan has called on Saudi businessmen and fellow Pakistanis in the Kingdom to consider investing in areas like finance, economy and technology for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

French couple in court in case of 8 dead newborns

VILLERS-AU-TERTRE, France: A French prosecutor recommended Thursday that charges be leveled against a couple detained after eight dead babies were discovered on their property in northern France.

2 comments

Malaysia's former Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik, center, arrives at the courthouse in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur on Thursday. (Reuters)

Malaysian politician charged with graft

KUALA LUMPUR: A former Cabinet minister was charged on Thursday with “cheating” in a billion-dollar port scandal that embarrassed the government and sparked public criticism of a lack of transparency in state-linked initiatives.

Latest from

The Public Intelligence Chief

The Pakistani ISI is generally seen with a great degree of suspicion, particularly in the US. The current ISI head, in office since October 2008, is on a mission to renew ISI’s image in what is an effort to reposition his agency as a responsible stakeholder in Pakistan’s shaky democratization process.

In the Lead

Aid flows from Arab countries to the developing world are minimal, although for several decades there has been a major exception to this: Kuwait. A model which other Gulf States can draw on, the Kuwait Fund both expands economic political opportunities and influence for Kuwait through its development efforts while simultaneously improving welfare and capacity building of developing countries.

Clash of the Deficit Hogs

The resignation of White House budget director Peter Orszag is a telling sign of the fiscal tensions that grip Washington today. As much of Europe pursues budget-tightening agendas, the US has thus far resisted taking substantive steps to reduce its massive deficit--thanks, in large part, to the relative security of its currency and securities. Yet, while Europe recovers and as China gradually liberalizes, Washington's reluctance to rein in its debt may have serious, long-term consequences.

Challenging Dictators

The success of the ICC's June conference itself should not be assessed solely on the negotiations on whether to add the crime of aggression to the court's docket. The ICC members came into their own in Kampala as a community of states united to fight impunity. Debate planted the seeds for revitalizing discussion of cooperation, including when it comes to assisting the court in arrests. If the promise of Kampala to put a priority back on bringing to justice those responsible for the world’s worst crimes is realized, it will be a legacy well worth having.

> Read more news

Picture of the day

A fruit vendor takes shelter under his fruit cart during heavy rainfall in Jammu, India, Thursday, July 29, 2010. (AP

India's Tendulkar raises his bat to celebrate scoring his half century against Sri Lanka during the third day of their second test cricket match in Colombo. (Reuters)

Tendulkar double ton takes India to safety

COLOMBO: Sachin Tendulkar scored his fifth double-century in Test cricket to help India reach 669-9 at stumps on day four Thursday, as the second Test against Sri Lanka headed toward a draw. Tendulkar shared 256 runs for the fifth wicket with Suresh Raina, who scored a debut century in India's reply to Sri Lanka's first innings score of 642-4 declared.