Europe’s mainstream political parties have voiced their relief after Austria voted against a far-right nationalist becoming president in an election that had been seen as the first of two tests of populism on the continent on Sunday. Alexander Van der Bellen, a Green politician who ran as an independent, won 53.3 per cent of the vote while his far-right opponent, Norbert Hofer of the Freedom party, won […]
PANAMA CITY: Getting rid of tax havens depends on the United States and Europe, but is unlikely to happen anytime soon, journalists behind the publication of the Panama Papers said Friday. “The biggest tax haven in the world today is probably in the United States,” Jake Bernstein, a US investigative reporter with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), told a conference in Panama hosted by anti-corruption […]
Expert Panel At Telematics Middle East 2016 to Discuss Impact of the OEMs’ Changing Role in the Mobility Market and How Connected Cars will change the industry? Expert Panel At Telematics Middle East 2016 to Discuss Impact of the OEMs’ Changing Role in the Mobility Market and How Connected Cars will change the industry? Dubai, UAE – December 4, 2016 Bright Box, a global vendor of connected […]
ATHENS Political uncertainty in Europe has created fresh momentum for a “comprehensive and permanent” solution to the Greek debt crisis before the year ends, a government spokesman said on Sunday. Euro zone finance ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss short-term debt relief for Greece, and Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble said it must implement reforms instead of hoping for further debt forgiveness. Greece remained optimistic for […]
Italians and Austrians headed to the polls in closely watched votes on Sunday that will gauge the strength of Europe’s populist and extreme right political parties. Italy’s constitutional referendum on Sunday will determine the political future of prime minister Matteo Renzi and test anti-establishment parties in the eurozone’s third-largest economy. The plebiscite on Mr Renzi’s flagship overhaul — which would shrink the powers of the Italian senate […]
LONDON British Prime Minister Theresa May is cracking down on unauthorised leaks by ministers and civil servants on her Brexit plans, a leaked memo to the Mail on Sunday newspaper said. Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood has written to senior officials to tell them that May wants to “urgently tighten security processes” and that anyone found to have leaked sensitive information will be dismissed, according to the memo. […]
The UK’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, has been in post just under four months, but already the differences between her approach and those of her two most recent predecessors (Richard Thomas and Christopher Graham) are starting to become clear. This may be due partly to the fact that she comes to the role with six years’ experience as the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia, whereas […]
One of CES’ major trends over the last few years has been the connected car — the concept of adding Internet connectivity and networking to our vehicles. Stealing the spotlight this year was Nvidia, which launched the Drive PX 2 — an in-car artificial intelligence system. PX 2 is designed for automakers exploring autonomous driving and includes 360-degree situational awareness, deep learning and the processing power of […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
By Francois Murphy | VIENNA VIENNA Austria will provide a new gauge of the populist wave sweeping Western democracies on Sunday, as the divided country holds a vote that could deliver the first freely-elected far-right head of state in Europe since World War Two. The knife-edge presidential run-off is all the more dramatic for being a re-run of an election held six months ago – before Britain […]
By Michael Holden | LONDON LONDON Prime Minister Theresa May’s government launches a challenge on Monday against a court ruling that it requires parliamentary approval to start the process of leaving the European Union, a decision that could upset Britain’s Brexit plans. If the Supreme Court, the United Kingdom’s highest judicial body, dismisses the government appeal it could derail May’s timetable for triggering Article 50 of the […]
Submitted by Robert Parry via Strategic-Culture.org, Under the cover of battling “fake news,” the mainstream U.S. news media and officialdom are taking aim at journalistic skepticism when it is directed at the pronouncements of the U.S. government and its allies. One might have hoped that the alarm about “fake news” would remind major U.S. news outlets, such as The Washington Post and The New York Times, about […]
By Tom Perry, Isla Binnie and Vladimir Soldatkin | BEIRUT/ROME/MOSCOW BEIRUT/ROME/MOSCOW Russia said on Saturday it was ready for talks with the United States about a withdrawal of all Syrian rebels from eastern Aleppo where advances by the Russian-backed Syrian army and its allies threaten to deal a crushing blow to the rebellion. An official with an Aleppo rebel group accused Russia of backtracking on ideas agreed […]
It has been a bad week for Conservative Eurosceptics, their worst since their EU referendum victory in June. The sight of Zac Goldsmith, a leading Brexiter, losing his 23,000 majority in a by-election to the pro-European Liberal Democrats capped it. “The result doesn’t change anything,” said a Conservative spokesman, pointing out that Theresa May was still committed to starting Brexit by the end of March 2017, whatever […]
By Emma Farge | BANJUL BANJUL Gambians reacted with joy and stunned disbelief on Saturday to the defeat of President Yahya Jammeh, one day after he conceded that he lost an election set to end his 22 years in power. Jammeh’s government is accused of crushing dissent and torturing opponents and he had said he would rule for a “billion years”. As a result, few believed he […]
Panama City (AFP) – Getting rid of tax havens depends on the United States and Europe, but is unlikely to happen anytime soon, journalists behind the publication of the Panama Papers said Friday. “The biggest tax haven in the world today is probably in the United States,” Jake Bernstein, a US investigative reporter with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), told a conference in Panama hosted […]
LIBREVILLE Gabon has postponed legislative elections set for Dec. 27 until next July because of a lack of money, the interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The decision was taken after a request by the electoral commission and the vote will now take place on July 29, 2017, with parliament extended until then, it said. “The constitutional court has … decided that the means invoked […]
ANKARA The Turkish military killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province, the military said on Saturday. The fighters crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq and attempted to launch attacks on military bases in the mountainous border region, the military said, without giving further details. Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by […]
By Isla Binnie | ROME ROME European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is convinced the fall of rebel-held areas of Aleppo to the government would not end the war in Syria, she said on Saturday. “I’m convinced the fall of Aleppo will not end the war,” Mogherini said during a panel discussion at a conference in Rome war with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura. Syrian […]
Authored by William Blum, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org, On November 16, at a State Department press briefing, department spokesperson John Kirby was having one of his frequent adversarial dialogues with Gayane Chichakyan, a reporter for RT (Russia Today); this time concerning U.S. charges of Russia bombing hospitals in Syria and blocking the U.N. from delivering aid to the trapped population. When Chichakyan asked for some detail about […]
First, write out the numbers one to 100 in 10 rows. Cross out the one. Then circle the two, and cross out all of the multiples of two. Circle the three, and do likewise. Follow those instructions, and you’ve just completed the first three steps of an algorithm, and an incredibly ancient one. Twenty-three centuries ago, Eratosthenes was sat in the great library of Alexandria, using this […]
The Middle East is one of the largest importers of French dairy products in the world, according to the latest research from the country’s official cheese board, the Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière (CNIEL). The research puts the Middle East ahead of China ($354 million), North America ($270 million), Switzerland ($137 million) and Australia ($30 million). Of the $8 billion of French dairy produce exported around […]
Europe’s financial markets are bracing for Italy to reject the government’s constitutional reforms in Sunday’s referendum, with investors warning that an emphatic No vote risks a sharp sell-off in Italian assets. Although there has not been panic ahead of the vote, there are signs of some nerves among money managers and traders whose attention in recent weeks has been dominated by the reflation trade unleashed by Donald […]
The U.S. Transportation Department said on Friday it granted flying rights to Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA’s (NWC.OL) Irish unit, setting the stage for a new battle among airlines for leisure travelers across the Atlantic. The order finalized a tentative ruling the department made in April and came days after the European Commission formally filed for arbitration over Norwegian’s request, which had languished for three years. U.S. airlines […]
