By Marius Zaharia and Fathin Ungku | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Singapore’s defence minister said on Monday that the nine armoured vehicles seized in Hong Kong could not be detained or confiscated but that he welcomed Hong Kong’s pledge that the dispute would be handled in line with its laws. Hong Kong customs seized the troop carriers in November as they were being shipped from Taiwan to Singapore after […]
Hugh Laurie wasn’t afraid to throw some shade at the Golden Globes. During his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in a TV Miniseries or Movie on Sunday, the actor joked this may be the last Golden Globes. “I don’t mean to be gloomy but it has the words ‘Hollywood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in it,” he said, referencing the coming Donald Trump administration. That was the first […]
This is the first piece I have published since my official retirement from Poynter on New Year’s Eve. I have lots of work ahead of me, but it has been fun and instructive to look back. If you reach your destination in decent shape, it’s easy to forget the bumps in the road behind you. Better to look at the odometer and celebrate the distance you’ve traveled. […]
LONDON Londoners face transport chaos at the start of the working week after two unions representing workers on the London Underground said they would go ahead with a 24-hour strike from Sunday evening. Metro operator Transport for London (TfL) said most stations in central London would be closed due to the action by the RMT and TSSA unions in a dispute over staffing levels after the closure […]
MADRID Spain sees just a slim chance of joint sovereignty over Gibraltar if Britain opposes it, its foreign minister said in an interview with the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais. “I think you have to be realistic, if the United Kingdom does not want to negotiate it will be difficult to carry it forward,” Alfonso Dasits, said in his first interview with a Spanish newspaper since he […]
LONDON — In a deeply embarrassing episode revealed on Sunday, a senior employee of the Israeli Embassy in Britain was recorded plotting to “take down” senior British politicians critical of Israel and calling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson “an idiot” who “ has become minister of foreign affairs without any responsibilities.” The Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, offered a formal apology on Friday, according to a statement from the […]
BERLIN A people smuggler left 19 migrants, including five children, at a motorway parking area in freezing temperatures in southern Germany and fled the scene, police said on Sunday. Police said the temperature was -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday when they found the migrants, one of whom had approached two other people at the parking area to raise the alarm after their driver left […]
Photo A Marine patrol in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2011. A new deployment of Marines will replace an Army unit stationed there. Credit Peter Parks/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images KABUL, Afghanistan — Approximately 300 United States Marines will return this spring to help fight a resurgent Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, the site of a yearslong bloody campaign, American officials in Afghanistan said on […]
LONDON Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said on Sunday she knew little of Britain’s plan to leave the European Union, a situation that was “unacceptable” six months after the Brexit vote. Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish National Party which campaigned to remain in the bloc, told the BBC that the British government needed to compromise in negotiations with the EU to keep Scotland on side, rather […]
Uncover some of the cool new features hidden in iOS 10. It’s been nearly 10 years since I camped out in the rain to purchase the original Apple iPhone. We’ve seen the iPhone go from a MP3 player feature phone to a full blown handheld computer that is finding its way throughout the enterprise market. At my engineering consulting firm, we have a BYOD policy with IT […]
Britain’s three quoted major supermarkets are expected to report this week that they enjoyed solid Christmas trading, though investor concern about a potential squeeze on consumer spending in 2017 means the focus is on their outlooks. Shares in market leader Tesco (TSCO.L) and Morrisons (MRW.L), the UK’s fourth biggest grocer, soared 38 percent and 55 percent respectively in 2016, reflecting a recovery in trading. That coincided with […]
This year will doubtless throw up even more global-scale curveballs than the tumultuous previous 12 months. But whatever happens, at least there’s solace to seek from some tantalising fresh metal due to roll out between now and the end of December. Here are seven debutants we’re keenly anticipating. newslide Alfa Romeo Stelvio The Italian serpent brand is the latest to join the SUV horde, but its new […]
NEW DELHI // Noted Indian character actor Om Puri has died in the western city of Mumbai. He was 66. Indian prime pinister Narendra Modi and a host of leading movie stars tweeted condolence messages shortly after Puri’s death Friday morning. In a career spanning more than three decades, Puri won a slew of national awards and international fame for his work in several critically acclaimed films. […]
Om Puri, one of India’s most critically acclaimed actors, who appeared in Hollywood, Bollywood and British movies, has died. The 66-year-old actor died of a heart attack at his residence in Mumbai, friends and actors in the Indian film industry said Friday. Born in the northern state of Haryana, Mr. Puri began his acting career in 1976 with a Marathi film “Ghashiram Kotwal.” By the 1980s, he […]
What with the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the Baftas and the host of other award ceremonies jamming up their calendars, it’s a wonder that the stars of stage, screen and television ever have time to act. Plus, as British comedian Ricky Gervais liked to point out on each of the four occasions he presented the annual Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles, watching the impossibly wealthy and […]
Former world number one Tiger Woods said he would compete in the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic next month as he charts his comeback from injury. “I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown phenomenally from when I first started playing there,” Woods said on the event website on Thursday. Woods, sidelined by back pain for the past 15 […]
By James Pearson | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s newest celebrity took an unusual route to the nation’s TV screens – years spent working his way up through the ranks of North Korea’s diplomatic corps, followed by months secluded in the custody of the rival South’s spy agency. Since his release Thae Yong Ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to London, has spent the first week of […]
The opening of Quincy Jones’s first jazz club would be big news anywhere in the world, but in Dubai – a city without a discernible jazz scene or dedicated purist-pleasing venue – it is at once a massive vote of confidence and a brave stab in the dark from a man notoriously unafraid of risk. On the basis of my midweek visit to Q’s, the man is […]
ISLAMABAD – One day before the hearing of the Panama leaks, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf yeserday filed fresh evidence before the Supreme Court. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children also filed applications for changing their counsels. In place of Salman Aslam Butt now Makhdoom Ali Khan would represent the PM, while Salman Akram Raja would appear instead of Akram Sheikh on behalf of Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz. […]
BEIRUT Air strikes on a building in northern Syria used by an insurgent group formerly known as the Nusra Front had killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The British-based Observatory said it was unclear whether the strikes had been carried out by aircraft belonging to Russia or to the U.S.-led coalition. Tuesday is the fifth […]
|By Matein Khalid|“Few individuals alter the course of history. Fewer still change the map of the world. Hardly anyone creates a nation state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three”. Dr. Stanley Wolpert’s words still give me goose pimples two decades after I first read his book. Mr. Jinnah founded Pakistan and was also my ancestral kinsman. I too was born in Karachi, the city by the sea, […]
PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to [email protected]. Western Economist Fingers Russia as “Panama Papers” Source (Gerry) The hackers who released the huge cache of files known as the Panama Papers […]
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 […]
But Trump has also ventured beyond mere name-calling, turning the 2016 election into a competition between knowledge systems: the tell-it-like-it-is “people” versus the know-it-all “elites.” His campaign insisted for months that pollsters and technocrats and media would be proven wrong by his electoral success. The fact that he did win dealt a blow to an entire worldview, one in which empirical inquiry and truth-telling were supposed to […]
