By Chris Prentice | NEW YORK NEW YORK Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg again rejected the idea that the social network affected the U.S. presidential election, saying late Saturday it is “extremely unlikely” news hoaxes changed the outcome. Ensnared in a string of content controversies in recent months, Facebook has insisted that it is a technology company, not a media firm. But scrutiny of the site […]
The latest weekly Spotify chart has a new leader as “Black Beatles” by hip-hop group Rae Sremmurd hits the top spot on the strength of the viral “Mannequin Challenge” video craze, for which the song serves as the unofficial theme. Former chart toppers The Weeknd and The Chainsmokers both drop down a spot with their latest hits as does Drake’s newest release “Fake Love.” ‘Mannequin Challenge’: Viral […]
By Dustin Volz Facebook Inc said on Friday it would no longer allow certain advertisers to exclude racial or ethnic groups when placing ads on its service, following criticism that the practice was discriminatory. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of how the world’s largest online social media network’s policies and algorithms shape what content appears in a user’s news feed. The unexpected victory of Donald Trump […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it’s a “crazy idea” to think that his social network helped deliver Donald Trump the White House by also delivering fake news stories to its millions of U.S. users. “Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook…influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea,” Zuckerberg said during a Q&A on Thursday. “Voters make decisions based on their […]
BAGHDAD — If there were one safe place in Iraq, it should be a hospital nursery, locked down for the night with dozens of babies nestled inside. But here, not even that is a given. When a fire started late Tuesday night in the maternity wing of one of Baghdad’s main hospitals, it quickly engulfed the babies’ room. And then, in another Iraqi tragedy in a horrifying […]
When Shahram Amiri emerged from the shadows into the spotlight six years ago, he was a young Iranian scientist who suddenly appeared on YouTube from a safe house, telling a bizarre story of having been kidnapped by the Central Intelligence Agency. Then, in another video that quickly followed, his story changed: He had come to the United States voluntarily to study, but desperately missed his son back […]
YANGJU, South Korea — Surrounded by salvaged used-cars parts bound for Syria, Ahmad Khalifa has worked 12 hours a day for three years in one country that does not really want him while longing for another that war has destroyed. In junkyards in South Korean towns like Yangju, north of Seoul, there are hundreds of young Syrian men like Mr. Khalifa, who often worked, ate and slept […]
BREMEN, Germany — Believing he was answering a holy call, Harry Sarfo left his home in the working-class city of Bremen last year and drove for four straight days to reach the territory controlled by the Islamic State in Syria. He barely had time to settle in before members of the Islamic State’s secret service, wearing masks over their faces, came to inform him and his German […]
DHAKA/NEW YORK Jupiter. That single word, by a stroke of luck, helped stop the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from paying nearly $1 billion (£757 million) to the cyber-criminals behind a notorious bank heist earlier this year, according to sources familiar with the incident. When hackers broke into the computers of Bangladesh’s central bank in February and sent fake payment orders, the Fed was tricked into […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — known abroad as the religious police — serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. […]
RAS AL KHAIMAH// A gang has been arrested for attempting to sell US$1.5 million in counterfeit money in Ras Al Khaimah. The four men – all from Arab countries – sought buyers for the fake notes at a price of Dh1m, according to Maj Mohammed Al Qasimi, head of CID at RAK Police. Police received a tip-off about the men and set them up in a sting […]
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan officially confirmed the death of the former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour for the first time on Thursday, five days after the American drone strike that killed him on Pakistani soil, raising diplomatic tensions. The official announcement came from Sartaj Aziz, the chief foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at a news conference in Islamabad. “All indicators confirm that the […]
By PATRICK SCOTT May 23, 2016 LUXOR, Egypt — After five and a half years of misery, the people in Egypt’s depressed tourism industry had reason for a bit of hope. The United Nations World Tourism Organization on May 11 chose Luxor to host two of its major gatherings later this year, potentially drawing 400 to 600 people and plenty of attention to this ancient city along the Nile […]
Noting that “terrorism is one of the truly urgent issues of our time,” Microsoft recently said it is taking several steps to identify and combat extremist content online. Those measures include a change in its terms of use to prohibit the posting of terrorist content on Microsoft consumer services like Xbox Live, OneDrive, Skype and Outlook, according to a blog post on Friday. The company defines such […]
Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma attends the opening ceremony of the second annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen town of Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, December 16, 2015. Reuters/Aly Song/Files SHANGHAI Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s chief Jack Ma has cancelled a speech at an anti-counterfeiting conference in the United States after the trade group behind it suspended the e-commerce giant’s recently gained membership. Alibaba has been dogged for […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Citibank has clarified that the ‘technical glitch’ that caused transmission of SMS messages to credit card customers about certain mysterious credit card transactions that they did not initiate has been resolved and there has been no data breach or compromising of personal information. The problem affected only a limited number of customers, the bank said further. Citibank credit card customers were on Friday surprised to […]
WHY TAX/GREEN BREAK FOR INDIA’S RICH?
By Garga Chatterjee
On 16th January, with much fanfare, the Union government announced its “Start-up India” scheme. On attendance were big people, big enough not to deserve any income tax break in their next seven lives. But this is precisely what the Government of India (GoI) has offered – an income tax exemption for first three years of a “start-up”. There will also be tax exemption on capital gains. After all its fake environment-love recently in Paris, this GoI scheme has also offered a three-year exemption on environment law compliance! Entities will only need to self-certify! In the name of “start-up”, exactly what anti-environment, anti-labour racket are we starting up here? This will also be true for labour law and working condition compliance (including payment of wages and benefits to staff). Shamelessly, this whole sch
Saudi Arabia released a more tightfisted budget for 2016, reflecting scaled-back revenue expectations and lower spending on subsidies because of sinking oil prices and its involvement in the war in neighboring Yemen. Here are some key points in the first spending plan under King Salman, released on Monday by the Ministry of Finance: DEFICIT The government forecasts the deficit will narrow to 326.2 billion riyals ($87 billion) […]
Middle East Patients waited to receive medical-transfer documents in Gaza City in August. By JODI RUDOREN August 31, 2015 GAZA — The medical report details some worrying conditions: chronic dyspnea — a shortage of breath that could be a sign of heart or lung disease — and bronchial asthma. It says the patient, a 28-year-old woman from Gaza City, relies on “continuous medication” and an inhaler. But the woman […]
An employee works near screens in the virus lab at the headquarters of Russian cyber security company Kaspersky Labs in Moscow July 29, 2013. RUSSIA-CYBERCRIME/ Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin/Files SAN FRANCISCO Beginning more than a decade ago, one of the largest security companies in the world, Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, tried to damage rivals in the marketplace by tricking their antivirus software programs into classifying benign files as malicious, according […]
DUBAI // Two university administrators accused of accepting bribes from students to change their exam results from fail to pass on an electronic system are back in court after the charges were altered. Russian M N, 32, and M A, 33, from Lebanon, were in November last year charged at Dubai Criminal Court with accepting bribes totalling Dh300,000 from 20 major students at the American University in Dubai. But […]
A salesperson cleans next to an iPhone 6 at an Apple store in Beijing, October 17, 2014. Reuters/Jason Lee/Files BEIJING Police in Beijing have busted a factory that produced more than 41,000 fake iPhones worth as much as 120 million yuan ($19 million), including some that reached the United States, and have arrested nine suspects in the counterfeiting operation. Apple is one of the most popular brands […]
DUBAI // Police have ended burglary sprees in which two gangs stole Dh15 million worth of jewellery and other goods from 36 homes around the UAE. Seven Colombians, a Mexican and an American were caught this month and accused of burgling houses in Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Al Safa, Al Rashidiya and Arabian Ranches, and homes in other emirates. “The gangs would target homes whose residents were on […]
JERUSALEM — Israel’s strictly Orthodox minister of religious services said on Tuesday that he did not consider Reform Jews to be Jewish, inflaming internal discord over religious issues and underscoring tensions with American Jews, who mostly belong to the more liberal streams of Conservative and Reform Judaism. “The moment a Reform Jew stops following the religion of Israel, let’s say there’s a problem,” the minister, David Azoulay […]
