By Laila Bassam and Lisa Barrington | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT The Syrian army pressed an offensive in Aleppo on Friday with ground fighting and air strikes in an operation to retake all of the city’s rebel-held east that would bring victory in the civil war closer for President Bashar al-Assad. “The advance is going according to plan and is sometimes faster than expected,” a Syrian military […]
Barack Obama has ordered US intelligence agencies to conduct a “full review” of alleged Russian hacking into this year’s election and to issue a report before he leaves office next month. Lisa Monaco, White House counter-terrorism adviser, said that the review, which would be sent to Congress but which might not be made public, would look at both what happened during the election and would consider “some […]
An upcoming deadline for a major derivatives market reform is “unrealistic” and authorities should consider whether the asset managers and banks most affected are ready, a top US regulator has warned. Christopher Giancarlo, the sole Republican of the three commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on Friday called on counterparts to prevent new rules due on March 1 from disrupting the global swaps market. His remarks, […]
BEIRUT Lebanese Hezbollah said on Friday a “promised” victory was imminent for Syrian government forces and their allies in the city of Aleppo. “There are great events taking place now in our region … (such as) what is happening in Aleppo, and the ramifications of the promised and coming victory for the whole battle in Syria and the region,” Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a […]
Video Deadly Blast in Cairo A bomb exploded on Friday at a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Cairo, killing six police officers and wounding three others. By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS on Publish Date December 9, 2016. Photo by Khaled Elfiqi/European Pressphoto Agency. Watch in Times Video » CAIRO — A bomb ripped through a security checkpoint on the outskirts of Cairo on Friday, killing […]
Japanese electronic parts maker TDK Corp is in talks to acquire InvenSense Inc, a U.S. chip maker that produces motion sensors for Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The deal would allow TDK, already a major smartphone components supplier, to boost its sensor technology offerings. InvenSense designs gyroscopes which help smartphones calculate motion, enabling augmented reality games such as […]
Pulp Fiction and Star Wars star Samuel L Jackson, who picked up his lifetime achievement award at the Dubai International Film Festival on Wednesday, is renowned for speaking honestly on issues from race relations to gender equality and American politics, so when The National sat down with him Friday morning, we couldn’t avoid checking whether his yearning for Diff was heartfelt or the result of an unexpected […]
Bangladesh labour activists said on Friday they had joined a lawsuit in Switzerland against world soccer body FIFA for allegedly failing to use its influence to ensure people working on 2022 World Cup facilities in Qatar are treated fairly. The suit, filed in FIFA’s home city of Zurich with the backing of the largest labour union in the Netherlands, calls on FIFA to force Qatar to adopt […]
Electronic storage detection canine Iris of the New Jersey FBI helps investigators search the home of New York City terror suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami, who set off bombs in Manhattan and on the Jersey Shore, in September 2016. Image: Connecticut State Police This article originally appeared on TechRepublic. The call came at 5:30 am on a hot July morning in 2015. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told […]
BEIRUT: Syrian troops and allied forces shelled besieged districts of eastern Aleppo Friday, pressing ahead with a massive onslaught to seize remaining parts of the crumbling enclave that had been controlled by the opposition since 2012.Russia announced Thursday that the Syrian army was suspending combat operations to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged opposition-held districts, but residents and medics inside eastern Aleppo said there was […]
AMSTERDAM Police acting on a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence agency arrested a 30-year-old “terrorist” suspect and seized an arsenal of weapons in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday afternoon, prosecutors said. Detectives found a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, four boxes of illegal highly explosive fireworks, a large depiction of the Islamic State flag, several mobile phones and 1,600 euros in cash when they searched the suspect’s […]
YOLA, Nigeria Several people were feared killed on Friday by suicide bombings in the northeastern Nigerian city of Madagali, residents and army sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The bombings, in Adamawa state, bore the hallmark of Boko Haram, which has been waging an insurgency to set up an Islamic state in the northeast. (Reporting by Emmanuel Anda and Ardo Hazzad; Writing Ulf Laessing) […]
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Malaysian police forces clashed with suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels killing three of them off Semporna City in Sabah after they attacked at least two sea trawlers. The Malaysian media said police captured two more gunmen and rescued a fishing boat captain, believed to be a Filipino holding a special identity card. Another skipper, however, was abducted by the two gunmen who escaped at the height […]
Photo Residents fleeing the violence in Aleppo, Syria, gathered at a government checkpoint in the city on Thursday. Credit Youssef Karwashan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images GENEVA — Hundreds of Syrian men escaping rebel-held areas of Aleppo to go to government-controlled parts of the city are missing, and there were reports of government reprisals, including numerous arrests and several cases of summary killings of people perceived to be […]
By Luiza Ilie | BUCHAREST BUCHAREST When Romania’s leftist government collapsed a year ago amid outrage over a deadly nightclub fire, many people spied an opportunity for sweeping change in a country plagued by corruption and inept public services. But after the upswelling of public anger over the deaths of 64 people in the Club Colectiv, which lacked emergency exits and fire safety permits, the clamour for […]
Good morning. Regrets laced with irony Glenn Beck is sorry. He really is. He swears. He’s sort of like Miss Otis in Cole Porter’s oft-recorded 1934 “Miss Otis Regrets” (I’ll take Bette Midler’s version). She “woke up and found that her dream of love was gone, madam.” And, them, “from under her velvet gown, she drew a gun and shot her lover down, madam.” In this case, […]
Google Map’s updated timelapse feature shows how Mumbai and other Indian cities are booming and building infrastructure. A timelapse of Mumbai, starting in 1984 and ending in 2016 shows green patches in the mega city of more than 10 million people disappearing and being replaced with developments. The 3.4-mile long bridge which connects the city’s Bandra neighborhood with Worli starts to be visible in 2006 and it […]
Scientists have developed liquid-like TE materials that can be painted on almost any surface. This new technology can convert exhaust heat into electricity for vehicles and other applications. (via WSJ)
GENEVA Hundreds of men from eastern Aleppo have gone missing after leaving rebel-held areas, the United Nations’ human rights office said on Friday, voicing deep concern over their fate at the hands of government forces. U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing the office had heard “worrying allegations that hundreds of men have gone missing after crossing into government-controlled areas” of Aleppo. “Given the […]
TUNIS Libyan forces are trying to secure the city of Sirte after ousting Islamic State from its former North African stronghold in a battle that lasted nearly seven months. Here are some facts about Islamic State in Libya: ORIGINS Islamic State drew on existing pockets of militancy in Libya, establishing its first major presence in Derna, an eastern city with a strong Islamist tradition. It also profited […]
In 2011, as skincare brand Nivea marked its centenary with a string of parties across the world, Indian billionaire BR Shetty hosted his own private celebration in his extraordinary apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. No humble pied-à-terre, this pad occupies the entire 100th floor of the tallest building in the world — not bad for the former pharmaceutical salesman, who was one of the first people to […]
GUATEMALA CITY Revellers in Guatemala set ablaze cardboard representations of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump wearing devil horns during a traditional ceremony, “La Quema del Diablo”, or the Burning of the Devil, held ahead of Christmas every year. Trump’s hardline stance on immigration during his presidential election campaign, including a promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has drawn anger from Latin Americans in the United […]
ISTANBUL Turkish prosecutors ordered the arrest of 87 people linked to Istanbul University in an investigation targeting followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of being behind July’s attempted coup, media reported on Friday. Broadcaster CNN Turk said police carried out simultaneous raids across 12 provinces, targeting suspects including someone it said was the head of a minor political party and many professors from the […]
Shares in casino operators took a tumble on Friday before recovering some poise, following a response from China’s UnionPay to a report that its daily withdrawal limit from ATMs in the gambling haven of Macau was to be halved as part of Beijing’s battle against capital flight from the mainland. China has moved in recent weeks to staunch capital gushing from the mainland, including tightening scrutiny of cross-border […]
