Financial markets experts are well aware that psychological factors can sometimes play a marked role in the movements of the markets, whether positive or negative. Such factors are usually characterized by how much confidence there is among traders and fund managers with respect to a particular mark
Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraqi President Fuad Masoum and Parliament Speaker Salim Al-Jabouri met on Tuesday in Baghdad to discuss a comprehensive national unity and reconciliation plan to bring together Iraq’s disparate ethnic and confessional communities. Presidential spokesman Khaled Shuwani told
Kiev, Reuters—Shelling hit a passenger bus in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people, and fighting intensified around the international airport in the city of Donetsk as separatists tried to oust government forces. The bus attack near the town of Volnovakha south of Donetsk, which is
Sana’a, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Shi’ite Houthi movement has set free a senior Yemeni intelligence official it had been holding hostage, after mediation efforts by Oman, Yemeni security officials said on Monday. Maj. Gen. Yehya Al-Marani, head of internal security at Yemen’s intelligence service, was abd
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—One of the four men who carried out a fatal suicide bomb attack on Saudi border guards last Monday recruited some of his family members to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), informed sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat. The sources said Salim Mohammed Al-Shammari,
Cairo, Reuters—Egypt’s high court on Tuesday overturned the only remaining conviction against Hosni Mubarak, ordering a retrial in the embezzlement case and opening the way for the ousted former president’s possible release. Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to three years in prison in May for
Al-Khobar, Asharq Al-Awsat—Iraq has offered discounts to European purchasers of its oil in February, similar to those offered by Saudi Arabia, amid signs of intense competition between OPEC’s two largest producers. In a statement released on Sunday, Iraq’s state-owned oil company SOMO said it would
Paris, AP—The surviving staff of Charlie Hebdo plans an unprecedented run of 3 million copies of the next issue Wednesday, with the Prophet Muhammad on the cover, as France hunts for other members of the terrorist cell involved in the attacks on the satirical weekly newspaper. Late Monday, the websi
Was the reaction among the majority in the Arab and Muslim world to the massacre that occurred at the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo one of condemnation, or would it be more aptly characterized as one of justification, or even approval? Maybe this question has been posed too sim
It is not surprising that a merchant of death like Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, has attempted to use the terrorist attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo to burnish the public image of his group. Nasrallah claimed Sunni takfirist gr
Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat—With battles against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continuing to rage in both countries, Baghdad has welcomed the assistance of the air forces of the US and several of its European and Middle Eastern allies, equipped as they are with some of the world’s most adv
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was behind the suicide bombing which took place in northern Lebanon on Saturday, the country’s interior minister has told Asharq Al-Awsat. Nihad Mashnouq said on Sunday that Lebanese authorities had obtained evidence that the operati
Cairo, Reuters—The successful roll-out so far of a new “smart card” system to distribute subsidized bread has been a major achievement for Egypt’s government, saving money while earning praise from families who no longer have to wake early to fight for loaves. President Abdel Fatta
[inset_left]SoumissionBy Michel HouellebecqFlammarion, 330 pagesParis, 2015[/inset_left] For more than a decade novelist Michel Houellebecq has been the bete-noire of politically correct elites in France. With provocation woven into his DNA, he has angered almost everyone across the board, from left
Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz met with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday, to discuss boosting bilateral relations and mutual cooperation between the two countries. During the one-day visit Maduro enquired as to the
Paris, Reuters—France will have more than 10,000 soldiers mobilized on home soil by Tuesday after 17 were killed in attacks carried out by Islamist militants in Paris last week, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday. Speaking a day after the biggest French public demonstration ever regi
Jakarta and Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Reuters—Indonesian navy divers retrieved the black box flight data recorder from the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet on Monday, a major step towards investigators unraveling the cause of the crash that killed all 162 people on board. Flight QZ8501 lost contact
Ahmed Merabet was one of the French police officers killed at the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and whose death the whole world saw in pictures beamed across the globe. He was lying on the side of the road injured after being shot by the men who carried out the attack as they
The brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who carried out the attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and claimed to be directed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have a lot in common with other terrorists who joined extremist groups. What they share is a similar path through s
Paris, Reuters—World leaders including Muslim and Jewish statesmen linked arms to lead an estimated million-plus French citizens through Paris in an unprecedented march under high security to pay tribute to victims of Islamist militant attacks. Paris police said the turnout was “without preced
