Two beauty queens with links to the Gulf have won the latest season of The Amazing Race Asia. After they returned from filming The Amazing Race Asia last summer, Maggie Wilson-Consunji and Parul Shah could barely contain their excitement. “Don’t let our invisible crowns fool you. We are beauty-queen fighting machines,” they told their fans on social media. “We are scared but also super excited. We cannot […]
The announcement of new US sanctions against Russia paves the way for a potential showdown between Congress and Donald Trump’s incoming administration over what kind of stance Washington should take against the country in the future. Mr Trump has called for closer ties with Moscow and played down its role in the Ukrainian conflict. But he is likely to face fierce resistance from a bipartisan coalition in […]
Back in September we wrote about what we thought for sure would be the wackiest new state law passed in 2016. The law came from the state of California (of course) and demanded a 40% reduction in methane gas from cow flatulence by 2030. Here’s what we had to say about the bill: In yet another attack on California businesses, yesterday Governor Jerry Brown signed into law […]
BEIRUT A spokesman for the Syrian Islamist militia Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly called the Nusra Front, criticised a nationwide Turkish- and Russian-backed ceasefire in Syria on Friday, saying the political solution under this agreement would “reproduce the criminal regime”. The group, which changed its name and announced in July that it was severing ties with al Qaeda, condemned the deal for not mentioning President Bashar al-Assad’s fate. […]
RIO DE JANEIRO Rio de Janeiro investigators suspect that Greece’s ambassador to Brazil was murdered at the behest of his wife and a police officer with whom she was romantically involved, Globo TV reported on Friday, citing police sources. Greek Ambassador Kyriakos Amiridis, 59, had been missing since Monday night. His Brazilian wife, Françoise, reported him missing to police on Wednesday. The pair have a 10-year-old daughter. […]
Photo Ruined buildings in Douma, Syria, a rebel-held area near Damascus, on Friday. Credit Bassam Khabieh/Reuters BEIRUT, Lebanon — A cease-fire between the Syrian government and rebel groups tentatively took hold across the country on Friday, with only scattered reports of clashes, shelling and airstrikes. The truce, brokered primarily by Russia and Turkey, who pledged to guarantee the compliance of the government and the opposition, was announced […]
As we live through it, every year seems packed with significant events and key players who, for better or worse, seize our attention on the world stage. But as 2016 draws to a close and the white noise of 24-hour news cycles and transient Twitter storms fades into the background, it is already clear that history will remember only a handful of those people, each of whom […]
This has already changed the course of the Syrian war. Turkey grudgingly accepted the fall of Aleppo in return for a de facto recognition of its zone of influence along the Syrian-Turkish border. Instead of supporting rebel groups fighting in Aleppo or pressuring the Assad forces besieging the city, Turkey raced to capture territory from the Islamic State before the Kurds did. The Kremlin is now not […]
By Stephen Kalin | NEAR MOSUL, Iraq NEAR MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi forces faced car bombs and fierce resistance from Islamic State militants in southern Mosul on Friday, the second day of a renewed push to take back the city after fighting stalled for several weeks. An officer in the federal police forces, which joined the battle on Thursday, said there were heavy clashes in the southeastern Palestine […]
Swimming upstream Even before Trump, reform advocates like the Chamber were up against a rising tide of skepticism regarding reform. Congress grew cold after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and conservative talk radio and TV programs began a drumbeat of attacks against legalizing immigrants; TV personalities such as Lou Dobbs spread outlandish claims about Mexican plots to “take over” the American Southwest. Ironically, Mexican President Vicente Fox — […]
“I just think for us, we’re not afraid of the name on the jersey,” Maryland Coach Brenda Frese said. “And that’s three-fourths of the battle.” Continue reading the main story The idea was more than just wishful thinking. Unlike last season, when Connecticut stood well ahead of the pack in both offensive and defensive points per possession, the Huskies trailed the Terrapins on both counts entering the […]
Authored by Oliver Stone (via Facebook), THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING As 2016 draws to a close, we find ourselves a deeply unsettled nation. We’re unable to draw the lines of our national interest. Is it jobs and economy, is it national security, or is it now in our interest to ensure global security — in other words, act as the world’s policemen? As the “failing” (to quote […]
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently asked what users would want to see or improve on the social media platform for 2017, and responses to the question have flooded in. Some of the top requests include a bookmark button that would allow users to revisit their favorite accounts and tweets, as well as an improved system for reporting harassment. One of the most requested features for Twitter, however, is […]
Oman has joined a Saudi-led coalition of Muslim countries to fight terrorism, Saudi Arabian and Gulf sources said on Wednesday. The sultanate indicated its willingness to take part in the 40-country alliance in a letter to Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman, the sources said. Although differences are rarely aired in public, Oman has long stood out among its Gulf allies, remaining close […]
By John Davison | BEIRUT BEIRUT A nationwide ceasefire in Syria, brokered by Russia and Turkey which back opposing sides in the conflict, got off to a shaky start after midnight on Friday (2200 GMT on Thursday) in the latest attempt to end nearly six years of bloodshed. Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, announced the ceasefire on Thursday after forging […]
The Malaysian opposition has attacked a state company’s investment in a palm oil project in Indonesia, saying it is a costly handout to a foreign businessman connected to Prime Minister Najib Razak. Malaysia’s state-owned Federal Land Development Authority, known as Felda, plans to buy a 37 per cent stake in Eagle High, controlled by Indonesian conglomerate Rajawali Group, for $505m. The deal will be financed by the […]
In the battle against the Islamic State for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, there is no continuous front line, but a patchwork of battlegrounds in the city and all around its edge. When the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, retreats from a position, it tries to leave as much damage behind as possible, including burning oil field wells to provide concealment ahead of a government […]
The Syrian government and rebels have agreed a ceasefire brokered and guaranteed by Russia and Turkey, marking a potential breakthrough in efforts to end a near six-year conflict that has claimed more than 400,000 lives. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a truce would come into effect at midnight on Thursday, adding that Syria’s warring parties had signed documents detailing how it would be monitored and declaring their […]
MANILA, Philippines – The military is eyeing the Maute terror group in the bombing of the town plaza of Hilongos, Leyte last Wednesday night. In line with initial military findings, Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, said the Maute group could have launched the Leyte bombing to divert the attention of government troops conducting offensive operations against the group in Butig, Lanao del Sur. […]
BEIJING China has persuaded a fugitive suspected of graft to return home as part of “Operation Skynet” that seeks to capture corrupt officials who flee abroad, the top graft agency said on Thursday. Zhang Jun, the former general manager of Shanghai Sports Investment Management Co Ltd, fled to Australia in 2014 under suspicion of corruption, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a statement on […]
Photo The body of a 15-year-old girl at a makeshift morgue on Thursday in the rebel-held town of Douma, Syria, on the outskirts of Damascus, after reports of airstrikes. Credit Abd Doumany/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images MOSCOW — The Syrian government and its most important ally, Russia, announced on Thursday that they had reached a cease-fire agreement with Syrian rebels and with Turkey — a potential turning […]
By Isabel Coles and Stephen Kalin | NEAR MOSUL, Iraq NEAR MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi security forces on Thursday began the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State militants in Mosul, pushing from three directions into eastern districts where the battle has been deadlocked for nearly a month. Since the offensive to capture Mosul began 10 weeks ago, counter-terrorism forces have retaken a quarter of the city, […]
(Image: file photo) Legacy vendors and the cloud The cloud has devastated revenue, growth and margins of legacy vendors. Any CFO can look online to see what similar capacity, performance, and higher availability costs compared to the huge capital costs of traditional RAID arrays. 2016 saw the world’s largest independent storage company — EMC — bought by Dell, after shopping itself to all the big system vendors. […]
BEIJING A Chinese general is being investigated for suspected bribery, the defence ministry said on Thursday, a man connected to the jailed former domestic security chief and one of the most senior incumbent military officials to be targeted for graft. Military prosecutors had already opened a case into Wang Jianping, a deputy chief of the joint staff department under the powerful Central Military Commission, ministry spokesman Yang […]
