Western Asia

Lurking in the background of the world football body, FIFA’s talks with Qatar Airways to replace its Dubai rival Emirates as a sponsor is escalating hostility between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates as a result of their divergent attitudes toward political Islam.

Saudi Arabia and France sealed an agreement Tuesday for Riyadh to finance the delivery of $3 billion worth of French weapons to the Lebanese army, which has come under mounting jihadist attack.
      

An amateur rower has arrived in Istanbul after completing an epic three month journey along the Black Sea coast, which he undertook to draw attention to the danger of nuclear plants in a region hit by a manic spree of ecology-damaging energy investments.

A deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has suggested that a canton model using self-rule administration, such as in the Kurdish populated northern Syria, could also be applied for Turkmens living in Iraq.

The Jihadist International is a growing phenomenon. Like the Communist International of the early 20th Century, this movement feeds on domestic inequality, and contrary to popular perception, its breeding ground is also in the West. The front-lines of the Jihadist International are made up of fighters foreign to our region.

The governments of Egypt, Greece and Cyprus urged Turkey on Wednesday to stop trying to chart gas deposits in areas of the east Mediterranean claimed by Cyprus, saying the work was illegal.

Cyprus, a member of the European Union, is anxious to develop the gas reserves in its so-called exclusive economic zone -- an offshore region lying south of the island.

Regardless of how firmly the neo-Ottomanists believe they have consolidated themselves at the helm of the Turkish Republic, on the 91st anniversary of its establishment, the Republic is as firmly embraced by the republican, secular and progressive segments of society as ever.

The Turkish ceramic sector’s exports to the Middle East and North Africa decreased by around 30 percent in the first nine months of the year from the same period of 2013, mainly due to rising instability in its key markets of Syria, Iraq and Libya.

FOOTBALL & POLITICS - The struggle for women’s right to engage in sports and attend sporting events has drawn more attention recently with a hunger strike in Tehran and the rare appearance of Saudi women in an all-male stadium in Abu Dhabi The struggle for women’s right to engage in sports and attend sporting events is commanding increased attention with the hunger strike of a British-

Turkey disagrees with the United States, Russia and Iran separately over their stances on Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told media representatives onboard his presidential jet returning to Turkey from Estonia on Oct. 25.