Tag Archives: US

By Constanze Bayer – NOW. Banque du Liban’s initiative is aimed at keeping new business in Lebanon Banque du Liban Accelerate 2014, the first international start-up conference in Lebanon, took place last week. Visitors came away with the impression of a strong and developing start-up economy in Lebanon. More than 20 companies presented their ideas, most of them founded a …

The US on Monday ruled out plans to create a no-fly zone along the Syria-Turkey border, brushing aside rumors that it is in talks with Turkey about creating a safe haven for refugees. According to US President Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest, the US was “open to discussing a range of options with the Turks” but that a no-fly zone …

The United States on Wednesday said that it was “horrified” by Syrian regime airstrikes in Raqa that caused the death of at least 95 people, slamming the regime for its “continued slaughter”. The bombing on Tuesday was the most lethal attack conducted by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s air force since extremist group Islamic State (IS) captured the city last year …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his frustration at the US and its fellow member nations in the coalition fighting against extremist group Islamic State (IS), lamenting on Wednesday that they didn’t respond to conditions set for by Turkey that allows it to play a larger role in coalition. The timing of his complaint seems especially curious, since US special …

Syrian Kurds battling extremist group Islamic State (IS) in border town Kobane made new gains on Friday, expelling the extremists from many central buildings and capturing their weapons, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. According to the monitor, the advance came only hours after the international coalition launched four strikes against extremist positions in Kobane. The Kurdish People’s Protection …

A new report by the Norwegian Refugee Council and the International Rescue Committee released on Wednesday suggested that the plight of Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war has reached “a new level of hopelessness” as overstretched neighboring countries make it a lot more difficult to escape and developed nations like the US only resettle a small number of refugees. According …

Egyptian Internet startup ElWafeyat.com is part of a looming pan-Arab tech renaissance with incubators and start-up funders spanning from Abu Dhabi to Cairo. Cairo-based ElWafeyat.com, which roughly translates to “deaths” in Arabic, is an online alternative to traditional paid newspaper obituaries, is creating a social-network-type website with pictures, posts and pages for friends and family to memorialize their deceased loved …

 Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most violent militant group, on Monday pledged it allegiance to extremist group Islamic State’s self-declared “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, amid reports that Baghdadi had either been wounded or killed in a US air raid. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has executed several lethal attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, traditionally considered its stronghold. Iraqi authorities are investigating reports …

Thousands of supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Shi’ite rebels on Friday took to the streets to protests the threatened UN sanctions against insurgent chiefs and Saleh. The ex-strongman, who stepped down in 2012 due to Arab Spring-inspired protests, is considered as the chief backer of the Huthi rebels that have seized capital city Sana’a, among other …

US-led airstrikes in Syria hit al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and rebel brigade Ahrar al-Sham in a rare expansion of weeks of targeted raids at extremist group Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said on Thursday. Additionally, American media have reported that 24-year-old French bomb-maker David Drugeon, a converted Muslim who had joined al-Qaeda offshoot the Khorasan group, was …