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GENEVA North Korea boycotted the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday which was reviewing its record, calling it “politically-motivated”. The U.N. human rights investigator on North Korea, Tomas Ojea Quintana opened the session by saying that an escalation in hostilities on the divided Korean peninsula had further closed off opportunities for dialogue with the isolated government of Kim Jong Un. North Korea was called […]

By James Pomfret | NANSAN, China NANSAN, China Within earshot of mortar fire echoing from beyond a ring of hills, a sprawling relief camp in Southwestern China is swelling steadily after fighting erupted last week between a rebel ethnic army in Myanmar and government troops just across the border. In a recent Reuters visit to the rugged area in southwestern Yunnan province, aid workers and those displaced […]

BOSTON BlackRock Inc(BLK.N), which wields outsized clout as the world’s largest asset manager, planned on Monday to put new pressure on companies to explain themselves on issues including how climate change could affect their business as well as boardroom diversity. The move by BlackRock, a powerful force in Corporate America with $5.1 trillion under management, could bolster efforts like climate-risk disclosure practices developed by the Financial Stability […]

FUJAIRAH // An eight-year-old boy was rescued from a well by police on Sunday. Police were called to Al Bidya in Fujairah after a man heard cries for help coming from the well at 5pm. Once police arrived, First Sergeant Ali Al Khuzaimi rappelled down the well and rescued the child, with the help of an Emirati member of the public. The child was taken to hospital […]

ASTANA Russia, Turkey and Iran are pressing ahead with a fresh round of Syria talks in Kazakhstan, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Monday, despite a request from the Syrian rebels to delay the meeting. “We are awaiting confirmations from the other parties to the meeting,” Abdrakhmanov told parliament, adding that delegations had already started arriving in the Kazakh capital, Astana. (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing […]

Arabic indie heavyweights Mashrou ‘Leila, The Wanton Bishops and Autostrad are among a goody bag of stellar acts set to play Dubai’s first Step Music festival. Leading hip-hop names including Malika, The Narcycist, Daffy and Flipperachi and Muqata’a are also set for the monster one-day event, taking place at Dubai International Marine Club on Friday April 7. An off-shoot of the annual Step Conference, running from April […]

Stuart Gulliver has told the HSBC board he will quit as chief executive next year, making the search for his successor a priority for Mark Tucker, who has decided to leave Asian insurer AIA to become the bank’s chairman. The appointment of Mr Tucker was announced before the Hong Kong market opened on Monday by AIA and HSBC, which first approached the insurer’s president and chief executive last […]

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March 13, 2017 by: Hudson Lockett in Hong Kong and Michael Hunter in London Monday 07:15 GMT What you need to know US West Texas Intermediate crude is at $48.33 a barrel, having fallen under $48 for the first time in more than three months. The pound is holding above $1.22 as speculation mounts that the UK government is poised to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon […]

Stock photo The price of Bitcoin plummeted after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) denied a request to bring Bitcoin to the financial market, highlighting how the value of the virtual currency can change within minutes. In February, the virtual currency’s value reached an all-time high of over $1,300 with investors taking a punt on rumors SEC would allow the first Bitcoin ETF. An exchange-traded fund […]

SEOUL Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye faced criticism on Monday over a defiant vow that the truth of her impeachment would be revealed, with the main opposition party urging prosecutors to investigate her quickly. The Constitutional Court dismissed Park from office on Friday when it upheld a parliamentary impeachment vote over an influence-peddling scandal that has shaken the political and business elite. Park has denied any […]

TAIPEI China does not understand Taiwan’s laws and its democracy, a senior Taiwanese justice ministry official said Monday, in the latest spat between the self-ruled island and Beijing, after island authorities detained a Chinese man in a suspected spy case. Deputy justice minister Chen Ming-tang said comments from a senior Chinese official that Taiwan was trying to use the case to stir up trouble with China was […]

SINGAPORE Singapore’s police took issue on Sunday with a Reuters report on a public protest over water price increases, saying it presented a “false and misleading” picture of the use of Speakers’ Corner, a designated place for citizens to speak publicly on issues. The Reuters report said that more than 100 people gathered at Speakers’ Corner on Saturday to protest against a two-step, 30 percent increase in […]

SEOUL Oil prices dropped to their lowest in three months on Monday despite OPEC efforts to curb crude output, dragged down as U.S. drillers kept adding rigs. Brent crude LCOc1 had fallen 35 cents, or 0.68 percent, to its lowest since Nov. 30 at $51.02 per barrel by 0231 GMT. It closed the previous session down 1.6 percent at $51.37. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) CLc1 […]

HPE and SUSE, a top Linux distributor, have a complex relationship. First, HPE spun and merged its non-core software assets with Micro Focus. Micro Focus owns SUSE, a major Linux provider. Now, SUSE has finished acquiring cloud assets of HPE’s OpenStack Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Cloud Foundry Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Stackato, HPE’s Cloud Foundry implementation. SUSE will develop clouds while HPE will sell, support, and maintain them in their […]

Leisure This is Ferrari’s new supercar – the 812 Superfast. It’s powered by a 6.5-liter V12 engine (that’s 200 cc larger than the unit found in the LaFerrari). It produces 789 horsepower. That makes it the most powerful non-hybrid model ever made by Ferrari. It goes from zero to 2.9-seconds in just 2.9 seconds. Its top speed is 340kph (or 211 miles per hour). The Superfast is […]

By Mark Hosenball and Ayesha Rascoe | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Two days before U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was fired, President Donald Trump tried to call the high-profile New York prosecutor in what a White House official said was an effort to “thank him for his service and to wish him good luck.” But a U.S. law enforcement official said Bharara declined to take the call, placed on Thursday, […]

March 13, 2017 by: Lucy Hornby and Archie Zhang in Beijing and Jane Pong in Hong Kong Sceptics about China’s economic statistics have taken a special pleasure in revelations of faked data in the north-eastern province of Liaoning dating at least to 2011. Along with an officially reported contraction in its economy last year, they have given the impression that Liaoning’s economy is unusually troubled. That impression may be […]

The anti-Dutch remarks from Turkey inflamed tensions among the Turkish community in the Netherlands, who protested in Rotterdam until the early hours of Sunday, when they were dispersed by police officers wielding batons and water cannons. The police arrested 12 people, and seven were injured, including a policeman, whose hand was broken. Continue reading the main story Though Turkish law technically bars the practice, Turkish ministers are […]

PARIS The French foreign ministry condemned a deadly bombing in Damascus and called on truce guarantors, especially Russia and Iran, to ensure a ceasefire in Syria is fully respected. The death toll from a double bomb attack on Saturday targeting Shi’ites visiting a pilgrimage site in Damascus has climbed to 74, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday. “There is more than ever urgency to […]

By Jeremy Wagstaff | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE In today’s so-called smart home, you can dim the lights, order more toothpaste or tell the kids to go to bed simply by talking to a small Wifi-connected speaker, such as Amazon’s (AMZN.O) Echo or Google’s (GOOGL.O) Home. This voice-first market – combining voice with artificial intelligence (AI) – barely existed in 2014. This year, Voice Labs, a consultancy, expects 24.5 […]

DUBAI // The Government will continue to be open and transparent with its people and residents, Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saif bin Zayed says. Sheikh Saif, also Minister of Interior, made a closing address to the Public Diplomacy and Government Communication Forum about the importance of effective communication between the governments and citizens. Sheikh Saif said the fire that gutted The Address Hotel in Downtown Dubai on […]

By any measure, adapting Homer’s The Iliad for the stage is a brave, bold – and as some might say – foolhardy undertaking. It took director Lisa Peterson and actor Denis O’Hare more than five years to distil the ancient Greek epic poem into the 100-minute solo show An Iliad, which will be presented at New York University Abu Dhabi at three shows this week, starring O’Hare […]

The Trump administration’s sweeping dismissal of dozens of US attorneys held over from the Obama administration leaves the president with sudden gaps in top law enforcement positions across the country. The swift dismissals which began with Friday phone calls from Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney-general, to 46 US attorneys, now puts pressure on the Trump administration to select candidates who will pass congressional scrutiny to fill […]

WASHINGTON White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said on Sunday that the Federal Reserve “has been doing a good job” and the Trump administration respects its independence, even if the U.S. central bank raises interest rates this week. Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, told Fox News Sunday that the Trump administration will keep working to reduce barriers to job creation no matter what the Fed […]

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