News

Britain’s Prime Minister is staring political disaster in the face as polls suggest that voters are set to defy his advice and vote to crash out of the EU in the historic “in-out” vote on June 23.

With less than ten days to go before the referendum - whose result is binding, not advisory, on the UK government - there is growing panic in the “Remain” camp that their message is not getting through.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Monday called for “solidarity” with Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, the baking sector and “all the heroes who are defiant in the face of terrorism,” a day after a blast rocked the Beirut headquarters of Lebanon's second largest bank.

“Yesterday, Lebanon and its economy and banking sector were subjected to a clear terrorist message,” said Hariri at an iftar banquet he held at the Center House for students from several Lebanese universities and children from the Khaled Foundations.

A Hamas delegation is to visit Cairo in the coming days to hold meetings with Egyptian officials to resume reconciliation talks regarding the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s shared border, an Egyptian security source told Ma’an.

Kyrgyzstan has arrested yet another once-powerful politician on charges of plotting a coup — and in a surprising twist, authorities have linked their fight to quash a purported surge of political instability with alleged corruption at an economically crucial gold mine.
 
No fewer than seven politicians from two equally marginal opposition factions are currently facing trial on charges of seeking to violently overthrow the government after arrests in March and May that coincided with planned protests.
 

The Arab Spring that swept across the Middle East and succeeded in overthrowing three dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in 2011 was a pivotal point in the history of nations.

Despite the subsequent descent into the "Arab Winter", the peaceful protests of young people were heroic. The movement demonstrated the power of the people against the status quo and the grip of repressive regimes.

Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has denied providing armed military training to gang members and mass organizations as part of Bali's state defense program.

The state defense training curriculum did not include an introduction to using firearms, he said, adding that he knew nothing about the involvement of groups known for violence and causing unease among citizens.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called on the Albanian political forces to pass a judicial reform package, considered fundamental to convince the European Union launch membership negotiations.

Steinmeier, who is to visit Tirana Tuesday, was quoted by the Albanian Mapo daily newspaper as calling on all political forces "to take over overall state responsibility and approve the reform at the parliament without delay."