Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Israeli firefighters extinguish a fire that broke out after a rocket hit a petrol station in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod July 11, 2014. (Reuters/Avi Roccah)

Lebanese rockets hit Israel in offensive’s fourth day

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jul 11, 2014 | Middle East

Jerusalem, AP—Gaza rocket fire struck a gas station and set it ablaze Friday in southern Israel, seriously wounding one person as rocket fire also came from Lebanon for the first time in the four-day offensive. The attack on the gas station in Ashdod looked to be the...

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US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Afghanistan’s presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani (L) before a meeting at the US embassy in Kabul on July 11, 2014. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)

Kerry, other diplomats focus on audit to resolve disputed Afghan vote

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jul 11, 2014 | World

Kabul, Reuters—US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday Afghanistan’s transition to a self-reliant state hung in the balance after a contested presidential election and urged Afghan officials to focus on auditing the vote count to underpin its legitimacy....

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An investor monitors a screen displaying stock information at the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on June 25, 2014. (Reuters/Stringer)

UAE bourses merger shelved as terms not agreed—sources

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jul 11, 2014 | Business

Abu Dhabi, Reuters—A planned merger of the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has been shelved for the foreseeable future as terms for the politically sensitive move could not be agreed, sources told Reuters on Thursday. Having...

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Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) who have taken over Mosul and other northern provinces wave from a truck in Baghdad, on June 18, 2014. (Reuters/Ahmed Saad)

Opinion: The Storming of Baghdad

by Wafiq Al-Samarrai | Jul 11, 2014 | Opinion

They must be either mad or ignorant, those who think that what has happened in Mosul and Tikrit can be repeated in Samarra and Baghdad. They have been told from the outset that these two cities will be difficult to take over for both military and security reasons. Any...

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President of the Kurdistan region Massoud Barzani speaks during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague (unseen) in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan, on June 27, 2014. (AFP Photo/Safin Hamed)

Opinion: Barzani Flying a Kite

by Amir Taheri | Jul 11, 2014 | Opinion

What do you do when you have walked your cat the wrong way? The reasonable answer is that you walk it right back. This is what Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani should do regarding his talk of a referendum on independence for Iraqi Kurds. Unless...