TOKYO Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has plunged after questions were raised in parliament about a murky land deal involving an elementary school to which his wife had ties, according to an online poll published on Wednesday. Abe has said neither he nor his wife, Akie, was involved in the deal for state-owned land purchased by Moritomo Gakuen, an educational body in the western city […]
By Adam Jourdan and Eric Walsh | SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON SHANGHAI/WASHINGTON China has granted preliminary approval for 38 trademarks linked to Donald Trump, documents on China’s state trademark office show, giving the U.S. President and his family protection were they to develop the “Trump” brand in the market. The trademarks – which in theory cover a wide sweep of businesses from hotels to mobile libraries and escorts – underline […]
First teased in 2016, the latest version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio has been released on March 7 as a digital download. The company describes its latest integrated development environment as a “faster and more responsive IDE from startup to shutdown.” Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 is used to develop programs for Windows, as well as web apps, websites, mobile apps, and web services. It supports HTML, JavaScript, and CSS […]
By Susan Cornwell and Yasmeen Abutaleb | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Republicans pushed ahead on Thursday with their plan for a massive overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system backed by President Donald Trump, despite Democratic concern that the cost of the bill and its impact on the budget remain unknown. Two House of Representatives committees debated the draft legislation late into the night on Wednesday in marathon sessions, two […]
AIG is to set up a new base in Luxembourg after the UK leaves the EU as the likely loss of passporting rights post Brexit has forced the US insurer to look for an alternative location to London from which to service EU business. The choice of Luxembourg is a sign of a shift in attitudes in the insurance world. Immediately after the Brexit vote, there was […]
By Jonathan Barrett and Aaron Bunch | SYDNEY SYDNEY Notices in several languages emblazoned with the symbol of the skull and crossbones caution against the risk of being swept off the rocks at Maroubra Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. But the warnings were not enough to prevent Nepali university students Shristi Bhandari, 23, and Sudeep Uprety, 26, from walking beside an ocean pool towards a rocky ledge […]
Dubai-based online portal ServiceMarket analysed customer data on its car insurance comparison portal. Using a sample of 7,000 clients that have used ServiceMarket in 2017 to receive car insurance quotations and buy policies online, the startup identified five interesting car and insurance trends in the UAE: 1. Women Emiratis drive the most expensive cars: When looking at average car values the data shows that Emirati drivers own […]
Sheikh Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al-Thani: Qatar adopts agriculture plan to achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture production by 2030 Doha, Qatar, March 8, 2017 Under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of Qatar is all set to host the fifth edition of Qatar International Agricultural Exhibition (Agriteq 2017) being organized Ministry of Municipality and Environment […]
By Olga Grigoryants | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Two women from the U.S. Marine Corps, one still on active duty, came forward on Wednesday as victims of a clandestine all-male social media network of military personnel and veterans under investigation for sharing nude photos of female colleagues. The existence of a private Facebook group called “Marines United” and its surreptitious distribution of explicit images of women in […]
We have just lived through the most spectacular global bullmarket run for the fixed income markets. This bull market rallied the bond market tothe lowest yields ever! Over a third ofall global fixed income was trading with a negative yield. The most accommodative central bank policiesmade heroes out of bond fund managers. Bond investors that stayed fullyinvested with fingers crossed, hoping for the greater fool theory to […]
WASHINGTON The number of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico declined by 40 percent from January to February, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Wednesday. The downturn came after President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20 vowing to deport many of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. The flow of illegal border crossings as measured by apprehensions and […]
MEXICO CITY Billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil said on Wednesday that the Mexican telecommunications regulator had stepped up antitrust rules against the company, including ordering it to separate out part of its fixed-line infrastructure. America Movil, controlled by the family of Slim, has been subject to tougher regulations since 2014 as part of a sweeping sector reform aimed at making the market more competitive. It said the […]
For the teaser video of Age of Triumph, the last update to Destiny before developer Bungie focuses on its sequel, it was hinted that players will be returning to the Vault of Glass. The Vault of Glass was the very first raid for the massively popular space shooter, with many players considering it as the best raid ever released for Destiny. However, as Bungie released all the details for […]
ABU DHABI // “You are better than us and you have to be better than us – there is no option, you have to be better than your fathers and grandfathers.” With these words, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed urged youths to learn skills that will make them globally competitive. The UAE will need generations of young engineers and scientists as it shifts from oil towards a knowledge-based […]
A rare opera by Franz Liszt has been meticulously restored by a senior lecturer at Cambridge University in England. David Trippett said he discovered the manuscript for the Hungarian composer’s Sardanapale in an archive in Weimar, Liszt’s long-time base in Germany, and spent two years restoring it. Sardanapale is based on an 1821 tragedy of the same name written by the British poet Lord Byron. Long thought […]
NEW YORK More than 140 Jewish community centre leaders sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday expressing frustration with the progress made in identifying whoever is responsible for this year’s wave of bomb threats against Jewish interests. The letter, sent by the JCC Association of North America and signed by 141 of the group’s leaders, came as two more community centres received threats […]
Uber has pledged to end the use of its “greyball” system for blocking officials from booking cars with its app — less than a week after the tool was made public. An investigation into its employees’ handling of the tool, which Uber has insisted is fully legal and has other uses, follows several inquiries from regulators about the technology. Last week’s revelation that Uber offices around the […]
Photo A minaret in Beit Safafa, a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, on Wednesday. Credit Ammar Awad/Reuters A bill that would regulate the traditional use of loudspeakers for the Muslim call to prayer passed its first legislative hurdle in Israel’s Parliament on Wednesday, provoking frustration and anger among some Arab lawmakers. One version of the bill would prohibit places of worship from using loudspeakers between 11 p.m. and […]
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks in Qatar on Wednesday with the country’s ruler about improving relations, soured by a dispute last year between Tehran and Gulf Arab powerhouse Saudi Arabia. Tasnim news agency said Zarif also met his Qatari counterpart during the trip to Doha, his second this year. Qatar and two other Gulf Arab states recalled their envoys from Tehran in January 2016 […]
By Dustin Volz and Jonathan Landay | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The disclosure this week of documents describing secret CIA hacking tools shows that intensified U.S. government efforts to prevent leaks by intelligence agency employees and contractors have largely failed, cybersecurity professionals and intelligence officials say. If the Central Intelligence Agency disclosures are confirmed to be the work of an intelligence agency contractor, as government investigators currently suspect, it […]
New York – Pat Beall said she and her colleagues at The Palm Beach Post had been consistently reporting on Palm Beach County’s growing opioid epidemic, highlighting the lives of a few of the victims and the toll their death took on families and the larger community. But it wasn’t enough. Each story would get a little attention, but within a day or two the latest […]
There are efficiency gaps between the startup ecosystems in Singapore and Silicon Valley, which the former can address by introducing simpler and clearer investment terms. Doing so would, in turn, attract more mature startups to their fold and better set up founders for success, according to executives from muru-D’s Singapore outfit. The Telstra-owned accelerator had just completed its second batch of eight startups under the six-month programme, […]
By Joseph Ax and Lisa Fernandez | NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO Women protested around the world on Wednesday for equal rights and in the United States against President Donald Trump, with many Americans skipping work or boycotting stores to demand economic fairness on International Women’s Day. American women seized upon the momentum of the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21, the day after Trump’s […]
Highlights of the day for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday: WIRETAPPING Two senior senators ask the FBI and Justice Department for any information they have on Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that predecessor Barack Obama wiretapped him during the presidential campaign. HEALTHCARE The top U.S. doctors’ organization and several hospital groups come out strongly against a Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul America’s healthcare system as […]
