For a planetary surface to boast extensive areas of both land and water, a delicate balance must be struck between the volume of water it retains and the capacity of its oceanic basins. Each of these two quantities may vary substantially across the full spectrum of water-bearing worlds. Why the Earth’s values are so well balanced is an unresolved and long-standing conundrum. Source
VATICAN CITY During his trip to Fatima, Portugal in May, Pope Francis will make two of the three shepherd children believed to have seen a vision of the Madonna 100 years ago there saints, the Vatican said on Thursday. Millions of faithful each year visit the Fatima shrine, one of the most famous in Christianity. The canonisation of Francisco Marto and his sister Jacinta Marto will take […]
“We lost everything,” said Hiba Beidak, 34, whose husband ran a pharmacy in the Syrian city of Aleppo. He had thyroid surgery before the war and needs medical care now, as does their 10-year-old daughter, who is unable to walk. Ms. Beidak brought her 6-year-old daughter on the tour. Ms. Taki’s older sister, Ghosoom Taki, 38, left the city of Homs for Jordan in 2011. She arrived […]
A few months ago, staff at The Minneapolis Star Tribune did something journalists don’t always have the time to do: think way ahead. One year in advance, staff photographers shot images of the Minnesota winter for next winter’s StarTribune Magazine. The quarterly magazine debuted Sunday, marking a new product for a newsroom that’s worked hard over the last year to become more digital. But that new product […]
By Mubasher Bukhari | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Three women dressed in burqas killed a man who had been accused of blasphemy in 2004 in a northeastern Pakistani town, police said on Thursday, the second brutal killing over alleged insults to Islam in a week. Blasphemy is a highly charged topic in Pakistan where there have been at least 66 murders over unproven allegations since 1990 according to figures […]
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) has announced a contribution of AED330 million ($89.8 million) to implement development projects and programmes in key sectors in Somalia, particularly infrastructure and transport. The funding underpins efforts to improve public services, create new job opportunities and ensure stability and social development, state news agency WAM reported on Wednesday. It said the contribution aims to help Somalia overcome the economic challenges […]
By Jon Herskovitz | AUSTIN, Texas AUSTIN, Texas Hundreds of condoms that clogged a city sewer pipe led police to raid a massage parlor in Texas and arrest two people for prostitution and other crimes, police documents released on Tuesday showed. A real estate agent who had just taken over the property notified police of the blockage at Jade Massage Therapy in the Texas capital of Austin. […]
The interiors of Inked at Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz are reworked and sectioned off into 10 tiny roofless rooms. Behind each door is a different narrative, complete with vivid scenery and at least one actor or dancer. In one, a girl writes down her dreams and hangs each note on an apple tree; in another, a baker describes the secret ingredients in his pastel-coloured, ornately iced […]
Editor’s note: This article was previously published on Medium. The author is the executive director of LION Publishers, a national network of independent news sites. Margaret Sullivan is right to sound the alarm about what steep newspaper cuts are doing to local journalism across the country, but her April 16 Washington Post column misses the story of what is replacing, and has the potential to replace, the […]
The UAE on Wednesday denounced an attack that took place on a convoy of the Emirates Red Crescent in the Somali capital city of Mogadishu. No human casualties were reported in the attack which local media described as a “landmine explosion” which hit a vehicle ferrying representatives from the charity. The blast happened in Garasbaaley area west of Mogadishu city. In a statement, the UAE Ministry of […]
DUBAI // Drones are being tested to lift firefighting equipment on to burning high-rises and locate people trapped inside. The remote-controlled devices would use thermal-imaging cameras to find people and fire flashpoints, and could be used to carry gear to battle blazes from next year, civil defence officials revealed on Wednesday. Tests are being carried out on 15 drones in a special civil defence unit and more […]
Fast and the Furious actor Tyrese Gibson’s love for UAE has now made him set up a custom jeep assembly business in the Emirates. The star’s Voltron Motors company has partnered with Souq Al Haraj of the Sharjah Asset Management, the investment body of the Government of Sharjah to open a branch there. Gibson, who has made several trips to the UAE, more recently for the premiere […]
In a lab deep within Tata Consultancy Services’ landscaped campus in the western Indian city of Pune, 16 recent graduates are experimenting with new technologies that are shaking up a flagship national industry. TCS, the largest of India’s powerful IT services companies, set up the lab 18 months ago to enable new starters to work on the “internet of things”, the field of connected machines and appliances that […]
Last Friday, New York legislators agreed on a budget that includes funding for tuition-free education at public colleges and universities. That plan, the Excelsior Scholarship, maintains most of the features of a proposal Governor Andrew Cuomo introduced earlier this year, including tuition-free enrollment at the City University of New York and State University of New York systems to students of families earning up to $125,000 per year. […]
The Samsung Galaxy S8, top, and S8 Plus are displayed, Monday, April 17, 2017, in New York. The 5.8-inch S8 and the 6.2-inch S8 Plus both have nearly 15 percent more display space than last year’s comparable models. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) Samsung’s new Galaxy S8 phone is stunning. But its $100 price hike is hard to swallow. That’s how much extra you’ll shell out for the S8, […]
DOHA, 20 April, 2017 The annual Middle East Forum supports the worldwide movement to improve quality and safety in healthcare and will host healthcare improvement experts and innovators from around the globe during the three day conference from May 5 to 7 2017. The Ministry of Public Health, Primary Health Care Corporation, Sidra Medical and Research Center, World Innovation Summit for Health, and Qatar Biobank will be participating in […]
By Eyanir Chinea and Anggy Polanco | CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela Two Venezuelan students died on Wednesday after being shot during protests against unpopular leftist President Nicolas Maduro, increasing turmoil in the volatile nation amid a crippling economic crisis. Opposition supporters protested in Caracas and other cities in what they called “the mother of all marches,” denouncing Maduro for eroding democracy and plunging the oil-rich […]
The defense secretary said Iranian support for the Houthis was destabilizing Yemen, and he talked up the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Relations are enjoying salad days in the Trump administration after years of friction between the Obama administration and the Saudi leadership, which thought Obama officials were too friendly with Iran. Continue reading the main story Mr. Mattis’s two-day visit, the start of […]
A former Indonesian education minister yesterday won the race for Jakarta governor yesterday after a polarising campaign that cast a shadow over Indonesia’s reputation for practising a tolerant form of Islam.Anies Baswedan won with 58% of the votes versus 42% for Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known by his Chinese nickname as “Ahok”, based on 100% of the votes in an unofficial “quick count” by Indikator Politik.Other pollsters showed […]
Emirates will cut flights to five of US cities as demand deteriorated after US restrictions on travel and on-board electronics affecting Middle East carriers and passengers. The world’s biggest international airline will reduce capacity to Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in the coming weeks, the Dubai-based company said in a statement. Emirates will re-deploy the capacity to serve demand on other routes across its […]
Bill O’Reilly, the biggest star at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, is leaving the cable news network after an independent investigation into claims that he sexually harassed several women. “After a thorough and careful review of allegations against him, the company and Bill O’Reilly have agreed that Bill O’Reilly will not return to the Fox News Channel,” 21st Century Fox, Fox News’ parent company, said in a […]
By Jose Cabezas and Nelson Renteria EL MOZOTE, El Salvador Survivors of 1981’s El Mozote massacre are closer than ever to justice after the reopening of an investigation begun more than a quarter-century ago into the army-led killing of about 1,000 people, casting light on a horrific symbol of the unaccountability for atrocities in El Salvador’s civil war. The killings went unpunished because of an amnesty law that […]
19 April 2017 Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Federal Republic of Nigeria have discussed potential collaboration in Science & Technology, innovation and food security. The discussion took place at the IsDB headquaters led by Mr. Sayed Aqa, IsDB Vice President, Cooperation and Country Programming, with Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, Nigeria’s Minister of Science & Technology. “IsDB is scaling up in the […]
A giant jail ship with thousands of pods similar to the ‘sky cells’ that kept Tyrion Lannister prisoner in Game of Thrones has been designed by architects. Designers have drawn up plans for a giant boat that could hold 3,300 prisoners in its paper sails. They say the ship is designed to be a prison for the tax-avoiders named and shamed in the Panama Papers. A giant […]
