DUBAI // Dubai has topped the rankings as the most expensive city to see in the new year for the second year in a row. According to the annual survey of seven of the most popular cities by the currency exchange firm Travelex, celebrating New Year’s Eve in the city costs Dh2,240 per person on average. New York ranked second at Dh1,850, followed by London at Dh1,435, […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 23, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Festive fun Visit Al Maryah Island for the Winter Wonderland, featuring cosy winter cottages hosting activities including bauble-decorating, cracker-making and gingerbread-house-decorating. A skating rink and snow park offer a wintry feel, while […]
Mr. Trump, who last week nominated as ambassador to Israel a bankruptcy lawyer who heads a fund-raising effort for a West Bank settlement, made clear on Thursday that he would not wait for his inauguration to weigh in. In a statement, he said bluntly that the resolution should be vetoed. Continue reading the main story “As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and […]
PANAMA CITY: From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of the presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals, and by rising public outrage over graft. The question is, will that translate into a lasting demand for cleaner politics? “A new phenomenon” is being seen, said Jose Ugaz, a renowned Peruvian lawyer and the chairman of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption […]
Sales of a new Dubai real estate project, which will feature an amphitheatre and a gourmet market, will be launched in early 2017, it has been announced. T.ZED Architects have been appointed as the design leads for Canvas, KOA’s first mixed-use development which is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year. Canvas will include 70 apartments and will also feature a co-working space, a […]
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Thursday called for the strengthening of their countries’ nuclear capabilities. Speaking at a meeting of defence chiefs in Moscow, Mr Putin said Russia needed to “strengthen the strategic nuclear forces, for that we should develop missiles capable of penetrating any current and prospective missile defence systems”, according to the Tass news agency. Mr Putin claimed Russia’s military was able to repel […]
The seizure of all of Aleppo by Mr. Assad and his allies signals a turning point in the nearly six-year conflict. Continue reading the main story Mr. Assad’s army relied heavily on foreign military support from Russia, Iran and Shiite militias like Lebanon’s Hezbollah to surround the rebel-held area. Months of shelling and airstrikes that killed hundreds of people and reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble finally routed […]
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com, In the late 1400s, the city-states of Italy were among most dominant powers in the world. Most of the city-states had abandoned the feudal system that persisted across Europe. So Italy was one of the only places on the continent where anyone, including foreigners, could work hard, take risks, and become wealthy. People could start businesses and own private property– revolutionary […]
By Ellen Francis and Stephanie Nebehay | BEIRUT/GENEVA BEIRUT/GENEVA The Syrian army said on Thursday that it had retaken complete control of Aleppo after the last rebel fighters were evacuated from the city, handing President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory of the war. The army said it had brought “security and safety” to Aleppo, ending four years of rebel resistance in parts of the northern Syrian city. […]
Segolene Royal and other officials walk on a solar panel road at its inauguration in Tourouvre, on December 22, 2016 France on Thursday inaugurated the world’s first “solar highway”, a road paved with solar panels providing enough energy to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre. The one-kilometre (half-mile) “Wattway” covered with 2,800 square metres (30,000 square feet) of resin-coated solar panels was […]
Sombero (center) with his lawyer and a paper bag full of money Alleged illegal gambling middleman Wenceslao Sombero Jr. has turned over to the Office of the Ombudsman his purported P2-million share of the P50 million supposedly extorted from gambling tycoon Jack Lam by two former immigration officials. Sombero surrendered the plastic-wrapped cash on Thursday afternoon as part of his evidence in the graft case he filed […]
Abu Dhabi, December 22, 2016 H.E. Eng. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, UAE Minister of Economy (MOE), recently met with Suren Karayan, Minister of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia to discuss key ways to further expand economic and trade relations between the two countries–building investment partnerships in sectors that would bring mutual benefits to both countries based on their respective capabilities. The discussion took place during […]
By Mohamed Argouby, Joseph Nasr and Steve Scherer | OUESLATIA, Tunisia/BERLIN/ROME OUESLATIA, Tunisia/BERLIN/ROME In his impoverished Tunisian hometown, Anis Amri drank alcohol and never prayed, his brothers say. Then after joining the wave of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, he ended up in an Italian jail, only to emerge an utterly changed man. Now he is prime suspect in this week’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market and […]
NAND flash memory SK Hynix will invest 2.2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) to build a new fabrication facility that produces NAND flash memory in its factory in Cheongju, South Korea, the company announced. The world’s second largest memory chip maker will also put additional investment into its counterpart in Wuxi, China, which mostly produces dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), to meet rising demand from local customers there. The […]
It began on September 24, with a three-word plea: “I need peace.” That day, 18 more tweets were sent from a newly opened Twitter account attributed to Bana Alabed, a seven-year-old girl trapped with her family in eastern Aleppo. Within days, the mainstream western media was carrying stories about “the little girl who shames world over Aleppo”, as the UK’s Daily Mail headlined a front-page picture of […]
In the summer of 2015, I left Washington, D.C. and moved to Carrboro, population 19,582, in the middle of North Carolina. I had never lived in the South before, or in a small town. Most of my life had been spent along the Acela corridor, in Philadelphia and New York and Boston and Hartford, Connecticut. I thought we would stay a year, maybe two. This summer, we […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Repeal rejected: A bipartisan agreement to repeal North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law fell apart Wednesday, after Republican legislative leaders required a late addendum of a six-month “cooling-off” period for local policies that Democrats said was a violation of a hard-fought deal. [WSJ, Charlotte Observer] Goldman and 1MDB: Investigators are trying to determine whether Goldman Sachs had reason to suspect […]
BAGHDAD Islamic State claimed three suicide car bombs that killed at least 15 civilians and eight Iraqi policemen on Thursday in an eastern suburb of Mosul, according to a military statement. The attacks targeted Kokjali, a suburb that the authorities said they had retaken from the jihadists almost two months ago. A military spokesman said the car bombs went off in a market. The U.S.-backed assault on […]
In this Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, file photo, Devin Greene sits in the front seat of an Uber driverless car during a test drive in San Francisco. Uber has pulled its self-driving cars from California roads. The ride-sharing company said Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, California transportation regulators revoke registrations for the vehicles. The DMV confirmed that it had moved to revoke the registrations of 16 cars, saying […]
PANAMA CITY: From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of the presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals and by rising public outrage over graft. The question is will that translate into a lasting demand for cleaner politics? “A new phenomenon” is being seen, said Jose Ugaz, a renowned Peruvian lawyer and the chairman of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption […]
By Michelle Martin and Michael Nienaber | BERLIN BERLIN Investigators found fingerprints of a Tunisian suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack on the door of the truck that ploughed through the crowds, killing 12, German media said on Thursday, as a nationwide manhunt for the migrant was underway. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in which a truck smashed through wooden huts selling gifts, […]
Gulf stock markets barely moved in quiet, early trade on Thursday before the announcement of Saudi Arabia’s 2017 state budget, expected in the afternoon. The Saudi stock index edged up 0.1 percent in the first 40 minutes. Much activity focused on second-tier stocks such as Saudi Printing and Packaging, up 4.9 percent, although Saudi Electricity rose 0.9 percent. Saudi Electricity’s profits rose in the wake of the […]
A study by RMIT University has found that around 2 million Australians are often risking data breaches by logging into internet banking and conducting other financial transactions on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks. In compiling its report [PDF] Practicing safe public Wi-Fi: Assessing and managing data-security risks, RMIT surveyed 1,200 adult Australians, asking explicitly what they do on public Wi-Fi networks, as well as what they know about […]
AMMAN Thousands of rebels and fighters were still waiting on Thursday to be evacuated from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo city but difficulties including harsh weather were complicating the final phase of the operation, a rebel spokesman said. Ahmed Kara Ali, the spokesman for the rebel group Ahrar al Sham, which is involved in the negotiations, told Reuters “large numbers” were left but that it was […]
