Middle East

India In Deeper Crisis Over Prophet Muhammad Row

India's diplomatic nightmare over controversial comments made by two senior officials of the country's ruling party about the Prophet Muhammad is showing no signs of ending.The UAE, Oman, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Jordan, Libya and Bahrain have joined the growing list of countries in the Islamic world that have condemned the remarks.

7 June 2022
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Ukraine: The Narrative The West Doesn't Hear

"Ukraine and its allies, including London, are threatening Russia for the last 1,000 years, to move NATO to our borders, to cancel our culture – they have bullied us for many, many years."That is what Yevgeny Popov, a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) and an influential TV host in Russia, told the BBC's Ukrainecast on 19 April.

30 April 2022
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The Security Costs Of America's China Focus

During the Cold War, Europe was America’s strategic priority. East Asia was largely a sideshow, even though the United States (US) fought bloody wars in Korea and Vietnam, and also provided security for Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. But in the unfolding new cold war between the US and China, America’s strategic priorities have flipped.

4 January 2022
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US 'Supercharges' COVID Fight With Huge Donation

The United States (US) will donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer nations, the White House said Thursday, to "supercharge" the pandemic fight as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned Europeans not to drop their guard because vaccination levels there remain too low to stop another wave of infections.Both moves signalled that while pockets of the rich world have scored successes against the virus, gains are fragile and billions of mostly poor people remain unprotect

11 June 2021
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WHO Worried COVID Rates Could Spike During Ramadan

The World Health Organisation (WHO) expressed concern Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen in the Middle East and North Africa during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.Detected cases of COVID infection in the region rose 22 percent last week, while deaths rose 17 percent, said Ahmed al-Mandhari, the Cairo-based chief of the WHO for the eastern Mediterranean.Mandhari said the situation in the vast region reflects a "worrying trend"."We are especially worried that

15 April 2021
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Over 50 Countries Launch Vaccination Campaigns

Around 50 countries around the world have already started vaccinating their people against COVID-19, barely a year after the first alert by China signalled the start of the epidemic.A snapshot:China Leads The Way China, where the pandemic first emerged, was also the first to start vaccinations over the summer, without waiting for a vaccine to be formally authorised but targeting the most vulnerable.To date nearly five million Chinese people have been vaccinated.

1 January 2021
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Israeli PM’s Address To 2020 UN General Assembly

This is the full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations General Assembly, on 29 September, 2020. Portions have been edited for flow and clarity. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,The Middle East is not exactly renowned for producing good news, and few expected this year to be any different.

30 September 2020
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Global Impact After Six Months Of Pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on 11 March that the outbreak of COVID-19 had become a pandemic. Six months on the virus has cost the lives of over 900,000 people.Back in March the death toll stood at 4,200 from 120,000 cases, with most of the fatalities in the Wuhan region of China where the virus first came to light last December.Those figures were enough to cause concern back then.

13 September 2020
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Coronavirus toll soars despite lockdowns

Coronavirus deaths soared across Europe and the United States (US) on Sunday despite heightened restrictions, as Germany banned gatherings of more than two people and Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine.In the US, President Donald Trump ordered emergency medical stations for hotspots, hospitals scrambled to find ventilators, and a trillion-dollar proposal to rescue America's reeling economy crashed to defeat.Germany and Greece became the latest countries to tighten curtailments

23 March 2020
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Singapore seizes tanker over alleged Shell oil theft

Singaporean authorities have arrested 17 men for allegedly stealing fuel from a major Shell refinery, and have also seized an oil tanker and millions of dollars in cash, police said.The suspects, aged between 30 and 63, were detained in raids across Singapore on Sunday after the Anglo-Dutch energy giant lodged a police report in August.

9 January 2018
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Is South Asia the new Middle East?

The Middle East is often viewed as a region waylaid by feelings of collective humiliation and violent rivalries, both between and within countries. But South Asia is beset by some of the same forces, reflected in a surge of Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar, where the Muslim Rohingya are being driven from the country, and Hindu nationalism in India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.The good news for South Asia is that a “Middle Eastern” future is not inevitable.

6 October 2017
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