DOHA, QATAR – Sheika Moza bint Nasser, wife of the emir of Qatar, has created a program that seeks to educate the 61 million children worldwide who have no access to formal schooling. The Educate a Child initiative, which was announced at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha on Wednesday, has partnerships with five [...]
read moreKABUL — It was only by chance that a 10-year-old Rohullah Nikpah found taekwondo. Unlike most Olympic athletes, Nikpah was not groomed from an early age to compete. Rather, he grew up in a refugee camp in Iran, and one day he accompanied his brother to a makeshift gym for a taekwondo sparring session. The [...]
read moreDUBAI — In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Mohamed al-Roken drove toward his local police station here to report that his son and son-in-law were missing. Along the way, he found himself surrounded by plainclothes security officers and detained, according to his family. Mr. Roken, along with his son, Rashid, and son-in-law, Abdulla al-Hajeri, [...]
read moreABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates have intensified their effort to quell political dissent, with 15 men now being detained by the security forces, according to human rights groups and family members. All but two are members of Al Islah Reform and Social Guidance Association, which holds beliefs similar to those of the Muslim Brotherhood, the [...]
read moreBy ANGELA SHAH and STANLEY REED … DUBAI — When Christy Lee, a South Korean investment banker, was dispatched to the Gulf four years ago to drum up business, her friends in Seoul had a hard time taking the assignment seriously. “They would say, Did you enjoy riding the camels?” she recalled. Then the Gulf [...]
read moreABU DHABI — Governments in the Gulf Arab states may not have been overthrown by revolutionary forces, but there are signs that leaders are concerned about the power of the Arab Spring movement. The latest indication of unease is the abrupt expulsion from the United Arab Emirates of foreign-sponsored groups that promote political reform. In March, the [...]
read moreSHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — More than a year after the Arab Spring first convulsed the ruling order of the Arab world, its effects have come home to roost for Shaheen al-Hosani. He and six other men were stripped of Emirati citizenship in December after being deemed threats to national security. “There has been no [...]
read moreDUBAI — Sanjeev Kumar’s face lights up when he speaks about days playing cricket with friends in his native Punjab in India before moving to Dubai in 2009 to work in a glass factory. “I so much love cricket,” he said, shyly, in halting English. Last Friday, in an indoor sports facility in an industrial quarter [...]
read moreDUBAI — For the clients of the investment adviser Manoj Prasad, “distressed property” in this Gulf emirate has an unlikely new address: the world’s tallest tower. “They have money and want a place here to entertain clients and guests, and have a holiday home for when they transit through,” Mr. Prasad said — but they [...]
read moreDUBAI — Fatma al-Falasi’s excitement about her new job with a global chemical company evaporated by the end of her first day. “I was underestimated and unappreciated,” she said. “I was there to fill a quota and I could see it in everyone’s faces.” Ms. Falasi wanted to work in the private sector because the [...]
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