MOSCOW — The Russian government announced Wednesday that it will sell nearly 20 percent of its state oil company, Rosneft, to the Swiss commodity trading firm Glencore and the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar. The deal defies expectations that no investor would dare buy a share in the Russian asset, given Western sanctions against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. But the emergence of foreign money […]
By Hamid Shalizi and Josh Smith | KABUL KABUL Afghan and American officials are increasingly worried that any deepening of ties between Russia and Taliban militants fighting to topple the government in Kabul could complicate an already precarious security situation. Russian officials have denied they provide aid to the insurgents, who are contesting large swathes of territory and inflicting heavy casualties, and say their limited contacts are […]
PARIS American and British spies have since 2005 been working on intercepting phone calls and data transfers made from aircraft, France’s Le Monde newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing documents from former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. According to the report, also carried by the investigative website The Intercept, Air France (AIRF.PA) was targeted early on in the projects undertaken by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) […]
DUBAI: Britain will help Gulf states “push back” against aggressive regional actions by Iran, Prime Minister Theresa May told the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Bahrain on Wednesday in a televised address.“We must… continue to confront state actors whose influence fuels instability in the region,” May told Gulf leaders at their annual summit.“So I want to assure you that I am clear-eyed about the threat that Iran […]
Expansion will help ensure Abu Dhabi’s rising demand for gas is met sustainably and economically 07 December 2016 Abu Dhabi, UAE – Plans to expand the Al Hosn Shah Gas plant’s capacity by 50 per cent have come one step closer today, with the awarding of the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) Services contract, to Britain’s Amec Foster Wheeler. One of the key players in the GCC […]
Abu Dhabi // Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid led the UAE delegation to the two-day GCC Summit on Tuesday, which is also being attended by UK prime minister Theresa May as she looks to expand trade ties ahead of Britain’s exit from the European Union. The 37th annual talks among the six Gulf member states in Manama were expected to focus on security within the GCC, economic integration […]
GFH Financial Group hopes to largely complete the acquisition of Bahrain’s Bank Al Khair in the first quarter of next year and is at an advanced stage of exploring a merger with another Bahraini bank, its chief executive said on Tuesday. “The recent merger we announced was Bank Al Khair – we hope during the first quarter of 2017 to finish most of our acquisition,” Hisham al-Rayes […]
Hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand has returned almost 15 per cent this year by betting on a recovery in oil prices and he forecasts the rally has further to run after Opec’s agreement last week to cut supplies. The French founder of Andurand Capital, which has grown to be one of the world’s largest oil funds, returned 6.1 per cent in November as he positioned for crude’s […]
By Crispian Balmer | ROME ROME When former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano tapped Matteo Renzi as prime minister in February 2014, he urged his younger colleague to change the constitution in order to make it easier to govern Italy. Early this year, Napolitano fretted that Renzi was taking the wrong approach in doing so. A referendum on the constitutional changes had been called. But instead of focusing […]
By Angus McDowall , John Davison and Stephanie Nebehay | BEIRUT/GENEVA BEIRUT/GENEVA Syria’s army and allies closed in on areas near Aleppo’s Old City on Tuesday, looking closer than ever to achieving their most important victory of the five year civil war by driving rebels out of their last urban stronghold. Rebels said on Tuesday they would never abandon Aleppo, after reports that U.S. and Russian diplomats […]
Pouncer: Next year the compay plans to demonstrate the drones being launched from a C130 Hercules cargo aircraft.” Illustration:Windhorse Aerospace A UK company is developing lightweight and edible food drones to bring supplies to hard-to-reach areas in times of disaster. The Somerset-based Windhorse Aerospace last week presented its Pouncer design to Priti Patel, the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development. The drone is nine feet wide, […]
Brussels’ lead Brexit negotiator has called for an “orderly withdrawal” of the UK from the EU but warned the government will have less than two years to agree its exit in a tough negotiating timetable set by the bloc. In his first press conference after being appointed as head of the EU’s Article 50 Taskforce, Michel Barnier said it was “too soon to talk about the details” […]
By Kylie MacLellan | LONDON LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a rebellion among her own lawmakers when parliament debates whether the government should set out its Brexit plan before triggering formal divorce talks with the European Union. May, who plans to kick off the exit process by the end of March next year, has said the government will not give a running commentary on its […]
Lego is undertaking the biggest organisational shake-up in its 84-year history, in a move aimed at exploiting its toy brand more broadly after a decade of strong growth for the maker of plastic bricks. Under the Danish toymaker’s new structure, its current chief executive, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp — who rescued the brand from near financial collapse in 2004 — will become chairman, taking over from Niels Jacobsen. […]
By Swati Pandey | WELLINGTON WELLINGTON In what can only be described as a space oddity, former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is being cared for in a New Zealand hospital by Dr David Bowie after being evacuated from the South Pole. In a truly remarkable coincidence, Aldrin’s doctor shares the name of the late British singer whose greatest hits included songs such as “Starman” and others about space […]
Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter on Monday announced they had joined forces in an attempt to curb explicit terrorist imagery online. The move follows criticism from Brussels that big US social media groups have made insufficient effort to clamp down on hate speech. In a statement, the technology groups said they were building new technology that would identify extremist content, including terrorist recruitment videos and images of […]
By Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS Russia and China on Monday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have demanded a seven-day truce in Syria’s Aleppo, with Russia arguing it would allow rebels to regroup and that time was needed for talks between Washington and Moscow. It was the sixth time Russia has vetoed a Security Council resolution on Syria since the conflict started […]
By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON The British government’s appeal against a legal ruling that it needs parliamentary approval to trigger the formal process of leaving the European Union is being heard in the country’s top court this week. Prime Minister Theresa May has announced that she will invoke “Article 50” of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty by the end of March and begin the formal Brexit negotiations […]
The Amazon Go concept store in Seattle. Amazon on Monday unveiled Amazon Go, a new brick-and-mortar concept store that replaces cashiers and checkout lines with computer vision and artificial intelligence. In a video describing the project, Amazon said Amazon Go relies on technology similar to that of a self-driving car: computer vision, deep learning algorithms and sensor fusion. To make the technology more palatable for non-technical folk, […]
In the United States, too, I found resistance to the idea that Brexit was a harbinger of a Trump victory. I was assured over and over by liberal friends that Trump would never be president. American voters were too sensible to fall for his hateful demagogy. Trump, I was told, was a product of peculiarly American strains of populism that flare up periodically, like the anti-immigrant nativism […]
The 19th-century Soham House was purpose-built for entertaining race-day guests of the Johnstone family in 1892. It was designed by CJ Harold Cooper, a prominent architect of the Arts and Crafts movement, which married traditional craftsmanship with medieval, romantic and folk styles of decoration. Despite changing hands several times, the house retains Cooper’s original carved-oak staircase and vast fireplaces. A stained-glass window featuring illustrations of The Brownies […]
Frank Land and Dame Stephanie Shirley unveil a plaque to mark the site of the world’s first business computer, installed 65 years ago. Photo: LEO Computers Society A plaque has been installed in Hammersmith, west London, where Lyons, the tea-shop company, ran the world’s first electronic business computer 65 years ago. Nothing remains of Cadby Hall, the two-acre site where Lyons had its head office, several bakeries, […]
PANAMA CITY: Getting rid of tax havens depends on the United States and Europe, but is unlikely to happen anytime soon, journalists behind the publication of the Panama Papers said Friday. “The biggest tax haven in the world today is probably in the United States,” Jake Bernstein, a US investigative reporter with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), told a conference in Panama hosted by anti-corruption […]
LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May is cracking down on unauthorised leaks by ministers and civil servants on her Brexit plans, a leaked memo to the Mail on Sunday newspaper said. Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood has written to senior officials to tell them that May wants to “urgently tighten security processes” and that anyone found to have leaked sensitive information will be dismissed, according to the memo. […]
