by Fred Imbert, Silvia Amaro and Saheli Roy Choudhury cnbc — Stocks rose on Wednesday after President Donald Trump spoke about an attack by Iran on an Iraqi airbase that houses American troops, which had led to a massive sell-off in overnight trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 213 points, or 0.8%. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% and hit an all-time high. The S&P 500 also climbed 0.7% and hit a record high as well. Trump said Iran appeared to be “standing down” after that nation attacked the Ain al-Asad airbase overnight. However, he added the U.S. will “immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime.” “Now, as the president has to some degree defused some of the anxiety, so you’re getting … a little bit of a sigh of relief rally here,” Art Cashin, director of floor operations at the NYSE for UBS, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.” The president’s comments pressured safe havens such as gold as investors flocked back into riskier assets. Gold futures for February delivery dropped 0.9% to $1,560 per ounce. Overnight, the precious metal jumped to its highest level in about seven years. Investors around the globe had been bracing themselves for a bigger conflict between Iran and the U.S. after last week’s killing of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, a top-ranking Iranian military official. But so far there have been no reports of casualties from Tuesday night’s airstrikes. The attacks did not target oil infrastructure, boosting investor sentiment as well.

by AP — Iran says it has launched “tens” of surface-to-surface missiles at Iraq’s Ain Assad air base housing U.S. troops over America’s killing of a top Iranian general. State TV described it early Wednesday as Tehran’s revenge operation over the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard then warned the U.S. […]

by cnbc.com — Japanese prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for the wife of fugitive ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn. Her husband fled Japan in late December, using the bullet train and two private jets to travel to Lebanon. The former executive was first arrested in Japan in 2018 and charged with financial crimes while serving as the boss of Nissan. He denied any wrongdoing in January 2019 and has also claimed that Japan’s justice system is “rigged.” According to several media reports on Tuesday, investigators believe that n April last year his spouse Carole Ghosn may have made false statements about the case to a Tokyo court. A spokeswoman for Carole Ghosn told Reuters that the issuance of a warrant was “pathetic,” noting that Ms Ghosn had traveled to Japan last year to answer questions and had left without any charges at the time.

Carole Ghosn is an American passport holder and, unlike her husband, could potentially be made subject to an extradition request between Japan and the United States. The spokesperson added that the timing of the warrant is designed to undermine a press conference by the former Nissan boss which is due this week. “Last time Carlos Ghosn announced a press conference and got re-arrested. This time, the day before he is announced to speak out freely for the first time, they issued an arrest warrant for his wife Carole Ghosn,” the spokesperson said.

by reuters — Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the United States has made “no decision” about withdrawing troops from Iraq amid heightened tensions with neighboring Iran. Esper spoke to reporters Monday after a letter from a U.S. Army general circulated that seemed to suggest a withdrawal had been ordered in response to a vote by […]

Lauren Graham, Rose Leslie and Annabelle Wallis wore gowns from Lebanese designers. AFP

DUBAI: The awards season kicked off Sunday night with the 77th Annual Golden Globes at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel. Hosted by Ricky Gervais, the ceremony awarded the year’s best and brightest in television and film, as decided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Honored actors included Egyptian-American Ramy Youssef, who took home the award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series, making him the second consecutive actor of Arab descent to win the prestigious accolade.

But it wasn’t just Arab actors that got us talking; the elegant and glamorous dresses on the red carpet that were created by our region’s talent were worthy of their very own awards too. “Game of Thrones” actress Rose Leslie arrived on the red-carpet arm-in-arm with her co-star and real-life husband Kit Harrington wearing an emerald beaded long-sleeved evening gown with a sheer skirt from Lebanese couturier Elie Saab — whom she tasked with creating her wedding dress in 2018.

by thenational.ae — The husband of Lebanese popstar Nancy Ajram, who was detained for shooting a burglar who died of 16 bullet wounds on Sunday, has been transferred to hospital. Celebrity dentist Dr Fadi Al Hashem surprised an alleged bugler, Syrian national Mohammed Hassan Al Moussa, 30, as he broke into his family home at around dawn in the Keserwan district, north of the capital Beirut, reported the state-run National News Agency. Security camera footage broadcast by local television network MTV allegedly shows Al Moussa, who is wearing a mask, threatening Dr Al Hashem with appears to be a gun. He told MTV that the burglar was carrying one of Ajram’s handbags and asking for money. Dr Al Hachem complied and gave him cash from his jacket, but Al Moussa then asked: “Where is the gold? Don’t make me hurt you. Call your wife.” Images show several other men arriving on the scene, who Dr Al Hashem says in the video are his security guards. In the meantime, he picked up a gun and later said that he “lost his mind” when he realised that Al Moussa had entered his young daughters’ bedroom. “I ran to him like a kamikaze. I wanted to cut him into pieces. Even if he shot me,” he told MTV.

The security footage cuts as the gun is fired. Al Moussa died at the scene and a judicial source told MTV that the cause was 16 gunshot wounds. MTV also reported that the gun Al Moussa had been carrying had been fake. It remains unclear whether the other men who were present also shot Al Moussa. “The guests were inside and before they turned on the alarm, he climbed over the fence and hid,” Ajram’s manager Jiji Lamara said of the intruder on Egyptian talk show Kul Youm. “Once the guests left he did what he did.”

by foxbusiness.com — Following his escape from Japan, former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo this weekend that he has “actual evidence” and documents that will prove that this was a coup to take him down. Ghosn told Bartiromo that at a press conference this week he plans to name names, including some people behind the Japanese government which he believes, are behind his 2018 arrest over financial misconduct allegations. Ghosn believes “they wanted to take him out” because he was going to merge with Nissan and Renault. But Ghosn said giving up his position as CEO put him in a “dangerous position” and he believes he should have left Japan, instead of being a support system for his successor Hiroto Sakawa.

Ghosn also told Bartiromo that he was “really unnerved and upset” that he failed to understand the unfairness of the Japanese judicial system and that the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was the fact that he was unable to speak to his wife. Ghosn said he refused to sit in his apartment under surveillance when he would not get a fair trial but is willing to have his case heard in front of any court aside from Japan. Ghosn’s wife told FOX Business in April that her husband was in poor health and enduring harsh conditions while being incarcerated.

by cnn — Ghosn’s public attacks will bruise ‘brand Japan’

“Brand Japan is going to suffer a great deal,” said Jeffrey Kingston, director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan. “His case is certainly a major black eye for the Japanese judicial system.” Ghosn is already using his newfound freedom to rail on the country’s criminal court system, which boasts an incredibly high conviction rate, and which he claims had held him “hostage.” He has promised to communicate “freely” with journalists about his plight. The former Nissan chief may be guilty of various financial crimes, Kingston said, “but that has all been over shadowed” by Ghosn’s treatment and his arguments that the judicial system is rigged.

by newsmax.com —Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday the U.S. strategy in countering Iran is to target the country’s “actual decision-makers” rather than to focus on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Pompeo was explaining U.S. strategy in the aftermath of the U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, who was mastermind of the country’s military operations outside Iran. That killing has sent shock waves across the Middle East, with expectations that Iran will make good on its threat to strike back, with unpredictable consequences for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Pompeo spoke on ABC’s “This Week” amid rising uncertainty about next steps in the U.S.-Iran crisis and the breadth of its ramifications. The U.S. acknowledged an attack Sunday by an al-Qaida affiliate on a Kenyan airfield used by American military forces. It was not immediately clear whether there were U.S. casualties.

In Beirut, Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, said the U.S. military in the region, including bases and warships, were fair targets after the killing of Soleimani. Hezbollah is a primary ally of Iran with broad influence. The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops throughout the region, including in Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar — all within range of Iran or its proxy militias. Iraq’s parliament on Sunday called for the expulsion of U.S. troops from the country in the wake of the attack in Baghdad that killed Soleimani. There are 5,200 American forces in Iraq. At issue is the fate of the agreement under which Washington sent troops to Iraq more than four years ago to help in the fight against the Islamic State group.

by alkhaleejtoday.co — Aden – Yasmine El Tohamy – Syrian national Mohammad Al-Mousa approached the superstar’s luxury villa, perched on a hilly region of Keserwan, in the central Mount Lebanon Governate, armed with a handgun. Three private security guards assigned to the home of one of the most popular performers in the Arab world were powerless as the invader brandished his weapon, securing entry into the property, according to officials now leading the investigation. With the black-clad thief walking freely inside, Ajram’s husband Dr Fadi El Hachem was forced to negotiate. Dr Hachem pleaded that he leave the family home and offered him large sums of money in exchange, An-Nahar reported. Yet Al-Mousa paid no attention his appeals, threatening to kill anyone who dared obstruct him. He then advanced toward the bedroom where the couple’s young daughters slept. At this point, Dr Hachem resolved to take matters in his own hands. A brief exchange of gunfire between the two resulted in the death of Al-Mousa and injured Ajram, one of the most famous female performers in the Middle East

A picture circulating on social media shows her face hidden by her hair, while she is comforted on a couch in the couples’ home, in the aftermath of the shooting. Police were immediately called to the scene, according to Al-Quds. Ghada Oun, public prosecutor of the Mount Lebanon governate, issued an arrest warrant for Dr Hachem. Security officials investigating the incident are likely to consider Dr Hachem’s actions as a use of reasonable force to defend his wife and their children. In 2010, Ajram was announced as the bestselling Middle Eastern female singer of the 21st Century’s first decade, and in 2019 she was declared the region’s most popular celebrity figure, with nearly 18 million followers on Instagram. In June last year, Ajram made headlines with her first concert in Saudi Arabia, where the kingdom ended a decades-long ban on live music.

by AFP — Banks in a region of northern Lebanon were closed until further notice on Saturday, the National News Agency said, after lenders balked at customer anger over a liquidity crisis. Since September banks have arbitrarily capped the amount of dollars that can be withdrawn or transferred abroad, sparking fury among customers who accuse […]