BEIRUT, Lebanon — The United States blamed the Syrian government and its patrons, Russia and Iran, on Tuesday for one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in Syria, one that killed dozens of people in Idlib Province, including children, and sickened scores more. A senior State Department official said the attack appeared to be a war crime and called on Russia and Iran to restrain […]
South Africa’s rand tumbled in late trading on Monday after a rating agency cut the country’s coveted investment grade status, leaving President Jacob Zuma’s decision to fire his finance minister responsible for wiping out almost all the currency’s gains for the year. The rand slid to R13.7 against the dollar, taking its drop in the past five days to almost 9 per cent. Having recorded a gain […]
While Republican lawmakers in Congress gear up for a drive to cut regulation on the financial sector, bankers and lobbyists have their eyes on another institution in the US capital — the Federal Reserve. On Wednesday Daniel Tarullo, the Fed governor who has been supervising US banks, leaves the institution after eight years during which he assumed a hardline reputation overseeing the rebuilding of US finance from the […]
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings has finally reached his maximum willingness to throw taxpayer dollars at the Dallas Police and Fire Pension (DPFP) system and has pulled is support for a bill that, if it passes, will undoubtedly prove to be yet another futile effort to save the system from insolvency. Despite support for the original legislation introduced by Dan Flynn, chair of the pensions committee in the […]
Timings for the eight Korean films screening in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as part of K-Fest 2017. newslide Train to Busan (2016) Director Yeon Sang-ho 15+ Korea’s first zombie film achieved massive success across Asia when it was released last year, and has attracted critical acclaim internationally. Passengers on a train have a fight to survive as a viral outbreak pushes Korea into a state of emergency. […]
AMMAN: US-backed Syrian forces repelled a major counter-attack by Daesh militants holding out at the country’s largest dam and in the nearby town of Tabqa, the group and activists said on Sunday.The dam is a key strategic target in the military campaign to isolate and capture the Syrian city of Raqqa, 40 km to the east and Daesh’s biggest urban stronghold.The US-backed group said militants attacked its […]
China’s Huishan Dairy raised millions of dollars by selling shadow bank products labelled as “low risk” to the public last year, only months before missed loan payments sent creditors scrambling to protect themselves, according to exchange listings in north-east China. Huishan’s share price plunged 85 per cent in Hong Kong on March 24 amid reports — which the company denies — that chairman and controlling shareholder Yang Kai embezzled Rmb3bn […]
AMATRICE, Italy Britain’s Prince Charles paid a visit on Sunday to one of the towns in central Italy devastated by a major earthquake last August, a day after locals protested against the government because of aid delays. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake killed nearly 300 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses. More than 45,000 aftershocks have rattled the region, including an even stronger 6.6 magnitude quake […]
Submitted by Wolf Richter of WolfStreet The Last time automakers tried this was in 2009! In a few days, automakers are going to report their new vehicle deliveries for March. TrueCar, Kelley Blue Book, and LMC Automotive are predicting total vehicle sales slightly above the flat-line compared to March a year ago, though sales were down year-over-year in both January and February. TrueCar forecasts an increase of […]
BEIJING An explosion in northern China’s Shanxi province on Saturday evening killed at least nine and injured six, state news agency Xinhua reported. The blast occurred in a residential building and was believed to have been caused by illegally stored explosives, Xinhua said. An investigation was underway. A number of buildings collapsed and search and rescue work continued on Sunday afternoon, said state broadcaster CCTV. China has […]
Earlier this month, Harvard Ph.D. Jerome Corsi of InfoWars (@jerome_corsi) and a CPA “who worked for two years for a major U.S. accounting firm as an outside auditor for Freddie Mac,” confirmed a 2012 scheme hatched by the Obama administration to funnel hundreds of billions in dividends from Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prop up the failing Obamacare program – by paying subsidies to insurers to remain in the system. If you need […]
NEW YORK U.S. mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNMA.PK) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.PK) may write down $21 billion of tax-related assets if there is a deep cut in the federal corporate tax rate as promised by President Donald Trump, according to an analyst at BMO Capital Markets on Friday. These assets, known as deferred tax assets, are items such as tax credits that may be used to […]
By Rodrigo Campos | NEW YORK NEW YORK Forget the jobs report. The most interesting bit of U.S. economic data next week is Monday’s auto sales release, which will offer a measure of the middle-class consumer and a sector of the stock market that has had a rough ride so far in 2017. Economists are looking for another solid month of sales north of 17 million new […]
By Murad Sezer | DIYARBAKIR, Turkey DIYARBAKIR, Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan described himself as a “guardian of peace” on Saturday as he called on Kurds in conflict-torn southeast Turkey to vote ‘yes’ in a referendum in two weeks time on reforms that would grant him sweeping new powers. Since the collapse of a two-year-old ceasefire in July 2015, the mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by some […]
Photo Iraqis bathed in a sulfur pond not far from the southern outskirts of Mosul on Saturday. Iraqi forces are pushing to take western Mosul from the Islamic State. Credit Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images WASHINGTON — Facing mounting pressure over civilian casualties in American airstrikes, the United States-led coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria said on Saturday that it was likely that […]
Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com, If you’ve been paying attention to the ongoing degradation of the American economy since the last financial crisis, you’re probably flabbergasted by the fact that our economy has managed to make it this far without imploding. I know I am. I find myself shocked with every year that passes without incident. The warning signs are there for anyone willing to see, […]
Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is back in talks for a possible fight with unbeaten Australian Jeff Horn, the Filipino world champion’s adviser said Friday. The announcement follows the much-publicised collapse of a $38 million bout between Pacquiao and Britain’s Amir Khan, reportedly after investors in the United Arab Emirates failed to come up with the money. “We are discussing the matter with (US promoter Bob) Arum,” Pacquiao’s […]
LONDON Global food crises worsened significantly in 2016 and conditions look set to deteriorate further this year in some areas with an increasing risk of famine, a report said on Friday. “There is a high risk of famine in some areas of north-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen because of armed conflict, drought and macro-economic collapse,” the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) said. FSIN, which is […]
By Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Pentagon on Thursday said it would soon release a video showing Islamic State militants herding civilians into a building in the Iraqi city of Mosul and then firing from it, the U.S. military’s latest response to an outcry over a separate explosion thought to have killed scores of civilians. The U.S. military has acknowledged that the U.S.-led coalition probably had […]
By Maayan Lubell | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday approved the building of the first new settlement in the occupied West Bank in two decades, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu negotiates with Washington on a possible curb on settlement activity. The unanimous vote in favour of construction of the new settlement in an area called Emek Shilo came after Netanyahu earlier told reporters: “I […]
By Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A senior U.S. general said on Wednesday it will be difficult to maintain “extraordinarily high standards” to avoid civilian casualties in Mosul, even as the U.S. military begins a formal investigation into an explosion in the Iraqi city that is believed to have killed scores of civilians. The U.S. military has acknowledged the U.S.-led coalition probably had a role in the […]
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a truck filled with explosives attacked a police checkpoint in southern Baghdad on Wednesday night, killing at least 15 people and wounding 45 others, Iraqi officials said. Three police officers were among the dead and several were wounded, but most of the victims were civilians, officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State has carried […]
By Isabel Coles and John Davison | MOSUL MOSUL Iraqi special forces and police fought Islamic State militants to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site and in Baghdad a suicide truck bomb killed at least 17 people. The close-quarters fighting is focussed on the Old City surrounding the mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr […]
LIMA Extreme floods wreaking havoc in Peru are also threatening the South American country’s rich archeological heritage and the tourism that thrives on it, a Peruvian archaeologist said on Tuesday. At least 50 archaeological sites in Peru have been damaged by the intense rains that are battering northern Peru, resulting in a drastic drop in related tourism, said archaeologist and explorer Walter Alva. Alva discovered the tomb […]
