General counsel from 185 companies are joining the chorus of voices supporting the Legal Services Corp., a major benefactor of civil legal aid that’s at risk of being completely eliminated under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget. The group of top corporate lawyers, from companies including Google Inc., , and , signed on to a letter delivered to all […] (via WSJ)
By Dan Levine and Mica Rosenberg | SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK President Donald Trump’s travel ban on citizens of six Muslim-majority nations faces its second challenge at a U.S. appeals court next month, and this time more Republican states are backing the measure, while one Democratic state attorney general dropped out of the legal fight this week. Some legal experts say the states’ realignment could […]
It is clear now that from the very start, the hunters’ abduction was linked to the civil war in Syria, which has drawn in regional powers in an increasingly complicated proxy war. On one side of the hostage negotiations were Shiite powers — Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah — which firmly support the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. On the other were the Sunni powers Qatar […]
MOSCOW Russia has told the United States it regrets Washington’s opposition to letting its inspectors take part in an investigation into a chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this month, the foreign ministry said on Friday. It said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the two sides agreed to consider one more time an “objective investigation into the […]
Jürgen Mossack said in a document, obtained by French news agency AFP, that the number of new tax shelters created has fallen by 30% in Panama and elsewhere after more than 11 million documents were leaked from the law firm in April 2016. “However, jurisdictions such as Delaware, Nevada and others located in the United States, where virtually no due diligence is required […] incorporations are thriving!” […]
By Eyanir Chinea and Efrain Otero | CARACAS CARACAS Eight people were electrocuted to death during a looting incident in Caracas, a firefighter said on Friday, amid violent protests against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by opponents accusing him of seeking to create a dictatorship. The accident occurred when a group of looters broke into a bakery in the working class neighborhood of El Valle, according the firefighter, […]
Just when you thought it was over – after Trump ‘Tomahawks’ Putin’s pal Assad, and Tillerson trounces Lavrov – and the media had stopped the constant “Russia did it” narrative, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (which seems like as big an oxymoron as can occur) has called numerous current (and former) officials to testify once again on Russia’s “active measures during the 2016 election.” As […]
ABU DHABI // The capital is the safest cities in the world, according to a 300-strong online index. Compiled by Numbeo.com, a database of user-contributed information, the Crime Index Rate puts the capital in 288th place among 288 cities in terms of crime, meaning it is the safest city on the planet. Dubai is in 279th place. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of […]
As an ardent Brexiter, Simon Boyd did not support Theresa May to be prime minister. After all, she not only sat out the UK’s EU referendum contest last June but quietly voiced support for key arguments to remain in the bloc. But now Mr Boyd, the managing director of a specialty steelmaker in south-west England and regional head of a pro-Brexit business group, has the zeal of […]
ROME The number of migrants crossing Niger to reach Libya has declined, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, after Europe pledged Niger money to help it fight people-smuggling. The IOM monitors trucks carrying migrants at a desert crossroads in eastern Niger commonly used to reach Libya, where more than half a million have set out on flimsy boats for Europe in the past three […]
Yet another wildlife species has fallen victim to a deadly fungus that could potentially result in significant biodiversity loss. Nearly a month after Tech Times reported about three species of Texas bats carrying the Pd fungus, putting them at risk for the lethal white nose syndrome, biologists warn salamanders are in danger of being decimated. Researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland reveal that fire salamander populations […]
By Mica Rosenberg and Yeganeh Torbati | NEW YORK/WASHINGTON NEW YORK/WASHINGTON When Raj, a Sri Lankan fisherman, sought refuge in the United States in 2005, he had precisely the kind of fear of returning home that U.S. asylum laws require. In 2004, he was kidnapped by the separatist rebel group the Tamil Tigers and had to pay $500 to secure his release, according to Raj, his lawyer […]
Feb 13, 2017 11:59 am IST An earnest band of Indian activists is asking rich people to boycott money, so there’s more for the needy. A motley mix of bankers, Bollywood stars and bikers have pledged their support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s November move to ban almost 90% of Indian currency to fight counterfeiting, tax evasion and terrorism. A story from The Wall Street Journal investigated […]
PANAMA CITY — The co-founder of the law firm at the center of the Panama Papers scandal says the fallout has set off a “thriving” boom in the creation of tax shelters in the United States. Juergen Mossack, who partnered with Ramon Fonseca to create the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca, said in a document obtained Thursday by AFP that after the Panama Papers leak a year ago, […]
ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, held bilateral talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday to discuss efforts to bring about an end to conflicts in the region as well as increasing security cooperation and economic ties. The UAE is Russia’s closest partner in the GCC, and Moscow has […]
France has launched an anti-terror investigation after a policeman was killed and two other officers injured in an apparent Islamist attack in Paris on Thursday that threatens to disrupt the country’s presidential election. French authorities said the suspected gunman had been shot dead in the assault on the Champs-Élysées shortly before 9pm local time. One civilian was also injured in the attack. “We are convinced that the […]
Australia has done everything it can to make the refugees it detains in offshore camps voiceless — confiscating phones, refusing journalists access and threatening staff with jail if they speak out about the wretched conditions. But behind the fences, those detained on the South Pacific islands of Manus and Nauru are telling their stories to the world by embracing the arts: writing articles and books, drawing cartoons and […]
Photo An image from a video, released on Thursday through a Muslim Brotherhood channel, appears to show Egyptian soldiers summarily executing unarmed detainees in the Sinai Peninsula. Credit Mekameleen TV, via Youtube A video has emerged that appears to show members of the Egyptian military shooting unarmed detainees to death at point-blank range in the Sinai Peninsula and staging the killings to look as if they had […]
Credit: George Hodan/public domain Your partner comes in and slams a door. What was that about? Something you did? What if you knew to anticipate it because you were notified in advance from an automated text message that he/she didn’t have a great day at work? Might that change the dynamic of your interactions? You had a bad day. The last thing you need is to get […]
By Ulf Laessing | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq If you want to hear the resentment people of Mosul feel now that Iraqi forces have driven Islamic State out of most of the city, you should talk to Saddam Hussein. Not the dictator, but the Mosul schoolteacher, who proudly shows off an identity card bearing the name which his parents gave him in the ruler’s honour 45 years […]
ABU DHABI // The attack on the UAE’s humanitarian convoy in Somalia on Wednesday will only strengthen the Emirates’ will to support peace and stability in the region, security experts said. “This incident is not going to deter the UAE from being active in the humanitarian field, where it has been active in the past few decades,” said Ahmed Al Attar, assistant director of defence and security […]
By Sarah Marsh and Alexandre Meneghini | CIEGO DE AVILA CIEGO DE AVILA Cuban farmer Pascual Ferrel says his favorite fighting cock’s prowess was “off the charts,” so after it died of illness he had the black and red rooster preserved and displays it on his mantelpiece beside a television. “He fought six times and was invincible,” the 64-year old recalled fondly, talking over the crowing of […]
(Image: Mastercard) Swipe-to-pay, then chip-and-PIN. What next, credit cards with fingerprint sensors? Turns out that’s Mastercard’s latest invention, a new credit card with an integrated fingerprint sensor, which aims to fight in-store fraud. The card, currently under trial in South Africa, includes sensor is embedded in plastic of the credit card, allowing customers to authorize a payment with a fingerprint, rather than a PIN code or a […]
By Mubasher Bukhari | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Three women dressed in burqas killed a man who had been accused of blasphemy in 2004 in a northeastern Pakistani town, police said on Thursday, the second brutal killing over alleged insults to Islam in a week. Blasphemy is a highly charged topic in Pakistan where there have been at least 66 murders over unproven allegations since 1990 according to figures […]
