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ARABIAN POST SPECIAL

Trump Continues U.S. Use of Special Forces, Keeping Wars at Arm’s Length

That concern gives weight to arguments for greater reliance on special operators as the Trump administration for now eschews larger deployments of conventional troops and proposes deep cuts in foreign aid and State Department budgets. Continue reading the main story The global reach of special operators is widening. During the peak of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 13,000 Special Operations forces were deployed on missions [...]

Bank Loan Creation Crashes At Fastest Pace Since The Financial Crisis

Last weekend, after looking at the latest H.8 statement by the Fed, we noted something concerning: total loans and leases by U.S. commercial banks were rising at an annual pace of about 4.6%, based on weekly Fed data. That is down from a 6.4% pace for all of last year and peak rates of around 8% in mid-2016. This is the slowest pace of debt creation since [...]

Experts weigh in on cheat meals and explain when it's alright to have a cheat day

Cheat days have become a modern ­phenomenon.A quick scan of social media hashtags such as #cheatday and #cheatmeal, yields over a million photos of freakshakes, ­oozing cheese burgers and deep fried chicken wings. A few ­hundred more are posted each weekend in a ­declaration of freedom from the dieting drudgery ­suffered during the week. Celebrities, who know a thing or two about ­restrictive diets, have also embraced the [...]

Secrets from smart devices find path to US legal system

A surgeon implants a pacemaker to a patient An Ohio man claimed he was forced into a hasty window escape when his house caught fire last year. His pacemaker data obtained by police showed otherwise, and he was charged with arson and insurance fraud. In Pennsylvania, authorities dismissed rape charges after data from a woman's Fitbit contradicted her version of her whereabouts during the 2015 alleged assault. [...]

Making this one change could eliminate spam, says police tech chief

Spam emails are often used to distribute malware. Image: Symantec Cybercrimes like phishing and malware distribution could almost be eradicated if organisations took one simple step to actively fight against it, a senior member of the UK's organised crime fighting operation has claimed.That step, says Paul Edmunds, Head of Technology at the National Crime Agency (NCA) National CyberCrime Unit, is the adoption of an "active defence" technique [...]

When it comes to Bahrain's SMEs, less is more

With GCC governments placing so much emphasis on start-ups as the backbone of a stronger, non-oil based economy, people would be forgiven for thinking it was all about quantity over quality. In fact, in an interview two years ago, a senior official at Abu Dhabi government leading on the UAE’s ‘Takamul’ patenting initative, came right out and said it. He told Arabian Business that the quality of [...]

Wagyu is in its prime, but is it the best cut?

There are more than 100 places to get steak in the UAE and more steakhouses are opening all the time, which is testament to the fact that beef is one of the world’s most popular dishes. If there’s one thing the UAE likes to eat it’s beef, and the country’s connoisseurs have long enjoyed a love affair with one particular type – Wagyu. This intensely marbled beef [...]

How VR will drive storage — or the reverse

VR headsets are storage hogs. Who knew?The key to an immersive and non-sickening VR experience are graphics that are detailed and smooth. Today's 1080p systems are OK, but far from ideal. For ideal we have to go to 4k since the displays are so close to our eyes, with none of the frame dropouts or tearing that make people sick. While 4k content requires 4x the storage [...]

'Broadchurch' is the best British crime show you're not watching

If you like your crime shows bleak, British and full of David Tennant snapping grumpily at people, then you need to start watching Broadchurch. The ITV drama — which was insanely popular in Britain when the first season was broadcast back in 2013 — has just gotten stuck into its third season. At the time of writing, we're three episodes in. Every time a new season of [...]

These Are The Most Dangerous Countries For American Tourists

By Priceonomics Data Studio Each year, the State Department issues dozens of advisories with the intent of keeping Americans safe as they travel abroad. What countries are targeted by these advisories, and what risks do Americans face by visiting them? Are State Department advisories effective in keeping American travelers safe? We decided to investigate what are the most dangerous countries for American to visit as measured by [...]

Santa Fe enlists Rubicon Global to curb waste and ramp up recycling

Humans, especially Americans, are kind of slobs. We mess up the Earth by throwing out about 4.5 pounds of garbage per person on average every day. Two-thirds of that waste could be composted, but isn’t. And half of the rest of it could be recycled, according to research from the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment, corroborated by studies from the Global Footprint Network and others. Now, [...]

Emirati citizen of the globe on his BBC Proms premiere

Composer Mohammed Fairouz is somewhat of a rarity. Not only is he an Emirati working in the western classical tradition, but he also moonlights as a foreign-­policy commentator for the likes of The ­Independent and The National. It’s perhaps unsurprising, considering he’s the son of an Emirati diplomat and grew up living on several different continents. These days, the 31-year-old may be based in New York, but [...]

Netflix is replacing five-star ratings with thumbs up or down

Netflix announced today that it would ditch its standard five-star rating scheme in favor of a much more simple thumbs up or down option. The streaming service said it had been testing thumbs up and down ratings “with hundreds of thousands of members” in 2016 – and it led to 200% more ratings being given. This makes sense – giving a five-star rating takes some thought, especially [...]

Tobacco and fizzy drinks to be taxed in the UAE

ABU DHABI // Tobacco as well as fizzy and energy drinks are expected to be taxed this year, the Minister of State for Financial Affairs announced.Obaid Al Tayer was speaking on Wednesday as the Federal National Council approved a draft law that paves the way for value-added tax (VAT) and excise duties on selected items, by setting up a legal framework for taxation.While the GCC countries have [...]

Chronicling the life and work of Egyptian artist Mahmoud Said

Mahmoud Said was born into high society. His family were rich landowners from Alexandria in Egypt and his father, Mohammed Said Pasha, served as Egyptian prime minister from 1910 to 1914, and again briefly in 1919. His sister’s daughter, Safinaz Zulficar, became Queen Farida of Egypt, and her reign lasted almost 11 years. Even then, in the early 20th century, as Said simultaneously worked as a top [...]

​Machine learning can also aid the cyber enemy: NSA research head

Machine learning is one of the biggest buzzwords in cybersecurity in 2017. But a sufficiently smart adversary can exploit what the machine learning algorithm does, and reduce the quality of decision-making. special feature Cyberwar and the Future of Cybersecurity Today's security threats have expanded in scope and seriousness. There can now be millions -- or even billions -- of dollars at risk when information security isn't handled [...]

Book review: Fighting the Nazis with surrealist weapons in The Last Days of New Paris

Towards the end of British writer China Mieville’s latest fantasy novella, his young protagonist, Thibaut, muses: "Something doesn’t make sense." "Really?" replies Sam, his mysterious sidekick. "Just one thing?"It’s not an altogether unexpected line: after all, Thibaut has just destroyed a centaur that is part giant, part Second World War German panzer tank. In a world in which the Nazis are still in power in the 1950s [...]

The internet of botnets and ransomware on your TV: Here come your next big security headaches

Hackers can exploit the insecurity of IoT devices for the purposes of espionage or DDoS attacks Image: iStock Cyberattacks exploiting the insecurity of the Internet of Things and hackers increasingly attempting to compromise industrial connected devices represent some of the biggest threats to the UK, those responsible for ensuring national security have warned.Citing incidents including the internet crippling Mirai botnet cyberattack and vulnerabilities in a children's doll [...]

Exposing The Clinton/Obama System To Discredit Donald Trump

Authored by Thierry Meyssan via VoltaireNet.org, This article is a warning - in November 2016, a vast system of agitation and propaganda was set up in order to destroy the reputation and the authority of President Donald Trump as soon as he arrived in the White House. It is the first time that such a campaign has been scientifically organised against a President of the United States, [...]

The key highlights and attractions of the 11th edition of Art Dubai

From the geometric work of Tunisian artist Nicène Kossentini – who spent time in Córdoba’s Great Mosque while on a residency in Andalusia and produced abstracted drawings based on Tawq Al Hamamah (The Ring of the Dove), a 11th-century treatise of love written by Ibn Hazm – to the paintings of Ahmed Morsi, the pieces displayed as part of the 11th edition of Art Dubai hold fascinating [...]

The great instant-messaging foul-up

Recently, the open-source multi-instant messaging (IM) program Pidgin was updated to version 2.12.0. That's the good news. It's a very useful program if you work with people using multiple IM services. The bad news is that its developers couldn't add support to newer IM platforms, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack. Additionally, it will no longer support the deprecated Facebook XMPP, MSN, MySpace, Mxit, and Yahoo.If [...]

Phishing: Would you fall for one of these scam emails?

Phishing scams continue to be an effective method. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto Staff are still falling for phishing scams, with social media friend requests and emails pretending to come from the HR department among the ones most likely to fool workers into handing over usernames and passwords. Phishing scams aim to trick staff into handing over data -- normally usernames and passwords -- by posing as legitimate email. [...]

My Kind of Place: Tavira, Portugal

Why Tavira?At the eastern end of southern Portugal’s perma-sunny Algarve region, Tavira has none of the brashness and concrete overdose that afflicts many of the resort towns in the centre. With a proud heritage dating back through Islamic Al-Andalus, the Roman era and Phoenician traders, Tavira has an authenticity that lends historical weight to its good looks.And boy does it have good looks. Built on either side [...]

50 Million Americans Brace For "Crippling Blizzard" In Northeast

A major Nor'easter threatens to shut down travel due to heavy snow and strong winds from Washington, D.C., to New York City and Boston early this week, as weather forecasters on Sunday put the U.S. East Coast on a blizzard watch, warning some 50 million people of potential snowfall from 12 to 18 inches, coupled with wind blasts in some areas from Monday night into Wednesday. New [...]