Author: Numa al-Iqbal

Ali Qadi, identified as the Hamas commander who attacked Israeli civilians near the Gaza Strip last weekend, was reportedly killed in an airstrike. Israel announced this Saturday that it had targeted a Hamas leader identified as the mastermind behind the October 7 attacks. “Based on accurate information from the military and internal security services, IDF planes killed the company commander of the “Nukba” commando, Ali Qadi. [«élite» en arabe, ndlr] Hamas launched terrorist attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip last weekend.A military spokesman told reporters. According to this Israeli source, Ali al-Qadi, 37, is from Ramallah in the West Bank. He…

London (04/11 – 67) US district judge, Denise Cote yesterday granted Sri Lanka’s request for a six-month halt on a creditor lawsuit against the country. Hamilton Reserve Bank, an obscure and tiny St Kitt’s bank with interesting ties, says it has accumulated a big chunk of one of Sri Lanka’s now-defaulted bonds and had been suing it for immediate repayment. Sri Lanka had asked for a stay on these legal proceedings to let it restructure its overall pile of debt in some peace and quiet, and had gotten heavyweight support from the UK, France and the US government. Judge Cote ruled, “The Court recognizes that…

Paris, Frankfurt (27/10 – 20) Indonesian Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and Vice Presidential candidate Gibran Rakabuming Raka registered on Wednesday, Oct 25, the last open day, with the General Election Commission, the recently-forged Prabowo-Gibran team accompanied by millions of sympathizers; there were lengthy traffic jams. Prabowo-Gibran thus complements the two other teams of presidential and vice presidential candidates who registered on the first day: Anies Baswedan-Muhaimin Iskandar and Ganjar Pranowo-Mahfud MD. The three couples have undergone medical tests and the results will come out this afternoon (Oct 27). Since the advent of what is known as Reformasi, or a “reform…

The UAE’s retirement income system improved in the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, which ranked it 23rd among 47 countries with long-standing pension systems such as the US, Singapore and France. The overall ranking reflects the “sound structure” the country has put in place for a funded pension system for Emiratis, with both the public and private sectors setting aside mandatory contributions during an employee’s tenure, according to the survey, which includes the UAE for a third consecutive year. The UAE’s ranking also accounts for the progress being made to put in place a new retirement savings programme to support private sector employers and foreign employees as they…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday stressed the importance of opening the Zangezur corridor land route in southern Caucasus. “Hopefully, we will realize the Zangezur corridor as soon as possible and make our road and rail communication with friendly and brotherly Azerbaijan uninterrupted through Nakhchivan,” Erdogan said after a Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara. The remarks come a day after his visit to Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, where he met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to discuss bilateral relations, regional and international developments, particularly the recent situation in Karabakh. “We hope to turn our region into a basin…

SEOUL, Sept 7 (Reuters) – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol asked Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday if Beijing could do more as a U.N. Security Council member to address North Korea’s nuclear threat. Yoon told Li China should do more to “fulfil its responsibility and role as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council” and stressed that Seoul’s ties with Washington and Tokyo would only strengthen to counter North Korea, a statement from South Korea’s Presidential office showed. Yoon met Li on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit in Jakarta. Li, for his part, reiterated China’s support…

Saudi Arabia and China will hold their second-ever joint naval drill next month, China’s Ministry of National Defense announced on 28 September, as relations between the two countries grow closer. The special operations training exercise will take place in the southern Chinese city of Zhanjiang at an unspecified date in October. The exercise will focus on “overseas maritime counter-terrorism operations,” including sniping, boat driving, helicopter landing, and joint rescues, the ministry said in a statement. The training is to “deepen the pragmatic and friendly cooperation between the two militaries and improve the troops’ real-combat training level,” said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Colonel…

Copenhagen (17/08 – 78) Kidnapping, intimidation, and blackmail are just some of the means used to hit enlistment quotas in Tajikistan. When conscription season comes around in Tajikistan, military recruiters begin resorting to desperate measures. Scooping young men off the streets in actions tantamount to kidnapping is standard. But that is just for starters. To pressure communities into giving up their sons, recruiters will disconnect the electricity, detain relatives, and shut down mosques. Eligible levees draw lots to decide who will be the one to hand themselves over. The hunting season for men of draft age, which applies to people…

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s fiscal prospects are solid in the near term, primarily driven by Vision 2030 which has been steadily diversifying the Kingdom’s economy since its launch in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund. In a press statement, the IMF noted that Saudi Arabia was the fastest-growing economy among G20 countries, achieving an overall growth rate of 8.7 percent. According to the financial agency, the Kingdom has sufficient precautionary reserves and the peg of the exchange rate to the US dollar is serving the Saudi economy well.   While much of the world has suffered from inflationary pressures, Saudi Arabia succeeded in maintaining its average…

Ukraine over the weekend renewed threats to close its borders to Israeli pilgrims making their way to the city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah next month to retaliate for Israel deporting Ukrainian tourists. In a weekly address on Saturday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky urged that the “rights of Ukrainian citizens must be guaranteed,” after receiving a report on how nationals are treated in foreign countries, without explicitly naming Israel. On Sunday, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk made it clear in a statement that Zelensky’s message was directed at Israel. “The Ukrainian government will not tolerate the humiliation of its…