Florence Foster Jenkins was a real-life American socialite who billed herself as being a great opera star – but is seemingly the only person who does not realise she is a horrible singer. Nonetheless, she never let small details like the lack of tone and having no descernable musical talent stop her from performing, and became a prominent cult figure in the New York musical scene of […]
Britain’s ambassador to the EU has unexpectedly and abruptly resigned, just a few months before the UK is expected to start formal Brexit negotiations in which he would have played a crucial role. Sir Ivan Rogers told staff on Tuesday that he would be stepping down from his post early, leaving officials in shock at the loss of one of Britain’s most experienced EU negotiators. He did […]
LONDON Upbeat data from China helped lift global markets as 2017 trading started in earnest on Tuesday, with the dollar notching its biggest gain in three weeks, oil on a tear and European stocks setting a one-year high. Base metal prices and bond yields also advanced, as the better-than-expected factory growth in China dovetailed with higher inflation data in Europe to give investors a solid start to […]
LONDON Euro zone stocks opened 2017 by climbing to their highest in more than a year on Monday after data showed manufacturers in the currency bloc ramped up activity at the fastest pace in more than five years. With all of Asia’s major markets closed for the New Year holiday – along with Britain and Switzerland in Europe – trade was thin, which could cause some volatility. […]
Last Updated On 01 January,2017 12:58 am As we are saying pip pip to the year 2016, let’s scroll through the most significant happenings of soon-to-be previous year. While doing so, we will get to know that some of the events and happenings can truly be termed as defining moments in history. One of such phenomenon was Panama Leaks that for a moment not only shook the […]
Tucked away in an inconspicuous building in Al Mamzar, some of the UAE’s most acclaimed thespians sit, drinking tea, writing and talking. The building is split in two – one half, the Dubai Folklore Society, composed of traditional dance troupes, and the other, the Dubai Folklore Society Theatre, devoted to Emirati drama. In a large, quiet room adorned with framed photographs and awards, Abdullah Saleh sits on […]
British Ash trees are now safe, in terms of resistance, from the deadly Ash Dieback — a fungal disesase that has already ravaged millions of Ash trees across Europe. The findings from a latest study follow the successful decoding of the tree’s genome by researchers at the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). The team is hoping that the unraveled genetic sequence of the Ash tree will help in […]
Tucked away in an inconspicuous building in Al Mamzar, some of the UAE’s most acclaimed thespians sit, drinking tea, writing and talking. The building is split in two – one half, the Dubai Folklore Society, composed of traditional dance troupes, and the other, the Dubai Folklore Society Theatre, devoted to Emirati drama. In a large, quiet room adorned with framed photographs and awards, Abdullah Saleh sits on […]
LONDON Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will miss a New Year’s Day church service on Sunday due to a heavy cold, Buckingham Palace said, a week after the 90-year-old monarch missed a Christmas Day service for the first time in decades. Elizabeth, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, became unwell before Christmas and has been staying indoors at her Sandringham country estate in Norfolk, eastern England. “Her Majesty The Queen will […]
Globalization, the path that the world economy has largely followed for decades, took some hefty blows in 2016. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union have raised questions over the future of tariff-free trade and companies’ freedom to move production to lower-cost countries. Borders are back in vogue. Economic nationalism is paying political dividends. “We […]
A bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, upset with President Obama’s decision last week to allow the passage of a United Nations resolution condemning Israel’s construction of settlements in disputed territory, made clear that they were looking past the departing administration. Continue reading the main story Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he shared Mr. Kerry’s concerns “with the lack […]
BEIRUT: Russia urged the UN Security Council on Friday to give its blessing to a fragile cease-fire in Syria, the third truce this year seeking to end the nearly six-year-old war.The Security Council met behind closed doors for an hour to consider a proposed resolution endorsing the cease-fire that Russia and Turkey announced on Thursday.A vote is possible as early as Saturday, although Security Council members recommended […]
BERLIN Islamist terrorism is the biggest test facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday in a New Year’s address to the nation, and she vowed to introduce laws that improve security after a deadly attack before Christmas in Berlin. Describing 2016 as a year that gave many the impression that the world had “turned upside down,” Merkel urged Germans to forsake populism and said Germany had […]
While you were doing your Christmas shopping, an old-fashioned takeover contest was being fought out in an obscure corner of the stock market. The target was MP Evans Group, one of the very few plantation companies left listed in London. The outcome shows that there are bargains to be found and that some institutional shareholders, at least, will take the long view over the quick buck. Evans […]
By Sam Forgione | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. dollar slipped on Friday but notched its fourth straight year of gains against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained about 3.7 percent for the year. The index rose about 7.1 percent during the fourth quarter, more than half that gain coming since […]
Photo Ruined buildings in Douma, Syria, a rebel-held area near Damascus, on Friday. Credit Bassam Khabieh/Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — A cease-fire between the Syrian government and rebel groups tentatively took hold across the country on Friday, with only scattered reports of clashes, shelling and airstrikes. The truce, brokered primarily by Russia and Turkey, who pledged to guarantee the compliance of the government and the opposition, was announced […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan Wall Street aimed to end 2016 on a positive note, setting up the Dow for its best annual performance since 2013 amid increasing optimism about the outlook for the economy. The markets have shown surprising resilience to major political events, such as Britain’s vote in June to leave the European Union and the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president in November. U.S. stocks, […]
As we live through it, every year seems packed with significant events and key players who, for better or worse, seize our attention on the world stage. But as 2016 draws to a close and the white noise of 24-hour news cycles and transient Twitter storms fades into the background, it is already clear that history will remember only a handful of those people, each of whom […]
Since the economic crisis of 2008, Spain has seen a steady trend of increasingly fewer births. In the first half of 2016, 12,998 more people died than were born in Spain and the number of newborns fell by 4.6%. Put simply, as El Pais reports, Spain’s population is shrinking at a rate of 72 people per day, essentially due to a historically low birthrate, according to a […]
On October 17, every employee at Dentsu — Japan’s biggest advertising agency and arguably the country’s most influential company — received the same, catastrophic-sounding message from the company’s president, Tadashi Ishii. “The approved way of working at our company cannot be accepted by stakeholders, including the authorities,” said the memo, according to media reports. Coming a month after Dentsu was caught overbilling hundreds of clients, and just […]
By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON European shares, the dollar and bond yields fell on Thursday, with traders using the quiet holiday period to book some profit on the rise that had lifted all three to multi-year and in some cases record highs recently. Weakness in European financial stocks helped push broader indices into the red, extending the slippage after soft U.S. housing data the previous day. […]
LONDON European Union voters in France, Germany, Italy and Greece think their countries are heading in the wrong direction but there is not yet any Europe-wide inclination to follow Britain towards exiting the bloc, according to a poll published on Thursday. Britain’s shock June 23 Brexit vote, which was praised at the time by then U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump as a “miracle”, has raised questions about […]
The FTSE 100 was within touching distance of a closing high on Wednesday, as optimism about the outlook for metal prices lifted the shares of the heavyweight miners on Britain’s blue-chip index. On the market’s first day back after the Christmas holiday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.6 per cent at 7107.56 in early afternoon trading, putting it on track to surpass its closing high of 7103.98 […]
By Andrew Osborn and Orhan Coskun | MOSCOW/ANKARA MOSCOW/ANKARA Syria would be divided into informal zones of regional power influence and Bashar al-Assad would remain president for at least a few years under an outline deal between Russia, Turkey and Iran, sources say. Such a deal, which would allow regional autonomy within a federal structure controlled by Assad’s Alawite sect, is in its infancy, subject to change […]
