Trump officials — as well as Beach and Hicks — initially stayed silent, ignoring repeated requests for comment. But on Tuesday, the Trump transition team issued a statement. It read: “The Opening Day event and details that have been reported are merely initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are avid outdoorsmen and supporters of […]
2016 was fact-checking’s finest year [1]. No it wasn’t, it was the year of “post-truth” [2] — some preferred “post-fact” [3] — and fact-checking is a fool’s errand. The discussion about facts in journalism worldwide has rarely been as fractured and animated as it has been in 2016, so we collected 366 links, one for each day of the year, to try and make sense of what […]
Iceland Of all the world leaders shamed over hidden wealth stashed offshore, none was more unfortunate than Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson. The hapless prime minister of Iceland was caught on camera desperately trying to work out how to explain the presence of his signature on the documents of Wintris Inc, a company in the British Virgin Islands that held shares in one of the country’s failed banks. As […]
Infrastructure of Berth 5 and Berth 6 at final stages of this year’s strategic expansion 21 December 2016 King Abdullah Economic City, The infrastructure works for Berth 5 and Berth 6 are about to be finished in a few weeks, King Abdullah Port announced on Wednesday. The two berths are part of the port’s strategic expansion plan, which aims to significantly uprate the port’s capacity, thus boosting […]
A group of lawyers has filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government for failing to prevent the severe smog that has covered the north over the past week, underlining the discontent voiced by tens of millions of citizens online. Beijing and many other cities in north China are entering their sixth day running of pollution “red alerts”, which have closed down schools, roads and factories. More than 350 […]
Oman’s Electricity Holding Company (EHC) has signed an agreement for a $325 million working capital loan, the state-owned company’s finance chief said on Tuesday. The company, which holds the Omani government’s stake in nine electricity firms, has raised the funds to support four of its distribution subsidiaries, Hussain Al Balushi told Reuters. Bahrain’s Bank ABC coordinated the facility, which has a one-year maturity extendable for an additional […]
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is reviewing its strategy of investing in European airlines and is seeking an exit in a shake-up that could lead to the departure of CEO James Hogan, company and industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Etihad saw a strategy to take equity stakes in carriers like Air Berlin, Alitalia and Air Serbia as a way to expand its European network but losses have mounted with Air […]
SHANGHAI Northern China was shrouded in smog for a fifth straight day on Wednesday as citizens complained that the state’s emergency measures were still not being implemented properly. Residents in Shijiazhuang, the capital of heavily industrialised Hebei province that surrounds Beijing, complained that schools were still open even though the city remained on red alert with air pollution levels close to record highs. Media reports in central […]
By Sue-Lin Wong | YANJI, China YANJI, China The brightly coloured packages advertising “Walleye Pollock” at the West Market in Yanji, a Chinese city near the border with North Korea, say the fish came from China. But 15 vendors interviewed at the market say the fish came in from North Korea to be processed, packaged and mostly sold in China. They say they buy the […]
By David Alire Garcia and Lizbeth Diaz | MEXICO CITY MEXICO CITY At least 27 people died and at least 70 were injured in an explosion at a fireworks market outside the Mexican capital on Tuesday, local authorities said. The blast was the third to strike the popular San Pablito marketplace in Tultepec, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Mexico City, in just over a decade. […]
BUENOS AIRES Argentina and Britain agreed on a framework to identify the bodies of dozens of unknown Argentine soldiers buried on the disputed Falkland Islands, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said in on Tuesday. The two countries, which went to war over the islands in 1982 and have had strained relations for decades, also agreed to try to increase the number of flights to the remote islands. Britain has […]
It’s still hard to believe Orlando is home to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Even six months later, it’s surreal to think 49 people were killed at a club I pass every day on my way to work. The shooting changed Central Florida forever and with it, transformed our newsroom and reporters. The news was unbelievable. It made no sense. Even veteran journalists were in […]
VATICAN CITY The Vatican said on Tuesday it hoped China’s communist government would give Catholics there “positive signs” that would help them have faith in a push by Pope Francis to heal a decades-old rift with Beijing. Chinese Catholics are divided between those who are loyal to the pope and those who are members of a government-controlled official church. The Vatican has been seeking a compromise with […]
Short takes and quick hits for the week of December 19-25, 2016. EFF launches “In defense of users” initiative with strong anti-Trump message Posted Dec 20, 2016, 12:30 PST The EFF isn’t pulling any punches in its new campaign The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t waiting for the Presidential inauguration on January 20, 2017, to express their opposition to incomping President Donald J. Trump. In a full-page ad […]
ABU DHABI // A Canadian teacher working at a private school in the capital was one of the 34 people injured in Sunday’s attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that left 10 people dead. Christopher Vatcher, a teacher at Abu Dhabi Grammar School (Canada), sustained a bullet wound to the shoulder and is expected to make a full recovery, a family friend told CBC News. […]
Photo The funeral on Monday of a high-ranking security officer killed in an assault in Karak, Jordan. Credit Muhammad Hamed/Reuters AMMAN, Jordan — The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a terrorist attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed 10 people, including the head of the military’s special forces, according to an organization that monitors militant groups. As the authorities continued their investigation […]
Top government leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia have expressed wishes to cement and develop bilateral ties in the spirit of “good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, all-faceted and long-lasting cooperation”. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (L) and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc During talks with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi on December 20, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen said his visit […]
BLOOVO.COM identifies key areas of regulatory focus to help SMEs take on job creation and national economic expansion role Dubai December 20th, 2016 With the oil price slump creating a USD 275 billion export shortfall for GCC countries, regional governments are prioritising economic diversification. Accelerating SME sector growth is an integral element of this economic strategy, says a new report by WWW.BLOOVO.COM . www.BLOOVO.COM’s research shows that SMEs […]
By Angus McDowall and Maria Tsvetkova | BEIRUT/MOSCOW BEIRUT/MOSCOW As President Bashar al-Assad’s army closed in on the last rebel enclave in Aleppo on Tuesday, Russia, Iran and Turkey said they were ready to help broker a Syrian peace deal. The Syrian army used loudspeakers to broadcast warnings to insurgents that it was poised to enter their rapidly diminishing area during the day and told them to […]
By Patricia Reaney | NEW YORK NEW YORK The United States lost some literal and figurative pioneers in 2016 with the deaths of famed sons and daughters from John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, to Gwen Ifill, the first black woman to co-anchor a major U.S. television newscast. The year also saw the deaths of stars of sports, the arts and politics, including former heavyweight […]
Photo Petra Kvitova, shown serving in the 2016 French Open, is a two-time Wimbledon champion. Credit Michel Euler/Associated Press Petra Kvitova, the two-time Wimbledon tennis champion, was attacked by a man with a knife on Tuesday morning in her apartment in Prostejov, Czech Republic. “In my attempt to defend myself, I was badly injured on my left hand,” Kvitova wrote in a statement posted to her Facebook […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Authorities allege $1 billion fraud at Platinum Partners: Top executives at the hedge-fund firm, including founder Mark Nordlicht, were arrested and charged with defrauding investors in one of the biggest such cases since Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. [WSJ, Bloomberg] Judge Persky cleared: A California judicial disciplinary panel found no grounds to sanction Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky over the six-month sentence […]
Submitted by Jayant Bhandari via Acting-Man.com, India’s Currency Ban – Part VI India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, announced on 8th November 2016 that Rs 500 (~$7.50) and Rs 1,000 (~$15) banknotes would no longer be legal tender. Linked are Part-I, Part-II, Part-III, Part-IV, and Part-V, which provide updates on the demonetization saga and how Modi is acting as a catalyst to hasten the rapid degradation of […]
It started off as one of those typical conversations you have when you’re in a foreign country and the taxi driver recognizes you to be a foreigner. “Where are you from?,” he asks, soon after I get into the bright yellow taxi cab, to which I reply “Sri Lanka.”“Beautiful country,” he responds.“Have you been there?” I ask him politely.“No, but my friend went there for a holiday. He […]
