Conceived by legendary Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz as a single novel of about 1,500 pages, The Cairo Trilogy is a timeless work of modern Arab literature, with themes, characters and ideas that are familiar and ring true almost 60 years after it was published. “The Cairo Trilogy is a work on a par with Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks,” says Dr Rasheed El […]
When Lieutenant General HR McMaster walks into his office in the West Wing of the White House as the new US national security adviser, the widely respected soldier and military historian will face one of the biggest challenges of his decorated career. President Donald Trump named Lt Gen McMaster — a three-star army general who commanded troops in Iraq and served in Afghanistan — to succeed Michael […]
This is a difficult time for democracy, and autocratic leaders are on the rise. I refer, of course, to shareholder democracy and to the increasingly bold attempts of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, when they go public, to prevent investors from having a say in the running of their company. The founders of Snap, the owner of the messaging service Snapchat are brazenly selling second-class shares that give investors […]
Injecting large amounts of offshore wind power into the US electrical grid is manageable, will cut electricity costs, and will reduce pollution compared to current fossil fuel sources, according to researchers who have completed a first-of-its-kind simulation with the electric power industry. (via WSJ)
MEXICO CITY Homicides in Mexico jumped by more than a third in January, new figures showed, fueled by violence in states hit by an internal split in the Sinaloa drug cartel. Murders were up by more than half in the northern states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa, according to official figures dated Monday. In Baja California there were almost 50 percent more. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the powerful […]
Alt-right star Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart News after backlash from his statements regarding pedophilia put his status at the conservative publication in doubt. Earlier Tuesday, Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow called Yiannopoulos’ remarks “indefensible.” Several staffers at Breitbart were on the verge of quitting if Yiannopoulos remained at the site, according to Washingtonian. In a statement announcing his resignation, Yiannopoulos said he didn’t want his remarks […]
KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police identified a senior official in the North Korean embassy on Wednesday as a suspect in the murder of Kim Jong Nam, and said another was linked to North Korea’s state airline. Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said both suspects are still in Malaysia and have been called in for questioning. He said North Korean diplomat held the rank of second secretary at the […]
This much we can tell you for sure: the still-untitled Han Solo spin-off movie will not be called “Red Cup.” That’s the working title, a nod to the fact that George Lucas named Solo’s character for the plastic drinks brand. (True story.) But what about the actual title for the standalone film, which as of Tuesday is scheduled for May 25, 2018? Thus far Lucasfilm has it […]
Credit: Georgia Institute of Technology There is a direct link between a person’s attitude on social media and the likelihood that their dieting efforts will succeed. In fact, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have determined that dieting success—or failure—can be predicted with an accuracy rate of 77 percent based on the sentiment of the words and phrases one uses on Twitter. “We see that those who […]
Last fall, we saw the biggest distibuted denial of service (DDoS) attack ever. This year we’ll see even bigger ones. According to Akamai‘s latest State of the Internet Security report, here’s what’s behind them. Behind today’s DDoS attacks you’ll find botnets and they’re using the same old techniques hackers have always used to bring down your servers. Akamai First, you should know that while the total DDoS […]
22 Feb 2017, Doha, Qatar The Commercial Bank (P.S.Q.C.) (“the Bank”), its subsidiaries and associates (“Group”) announced today its financial results for the full year ended 31 December 2016. The Group reported a net profit of QAR 501.4 million as compared to QAR 1,434 million for the same period in 2015, a decrease of 65%. The Bank reported a net profit of QAR 683 million (2015- QAR […]
By Nathalie Kantaris Diaz | PARIS PARIS Amnesty International said on Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s “poisonous” rhetoric on his way to winning the White House led a global trend towards increasingly divisive politics in 2016 that had made the world a “darker” place. In its annual report covering 159 countries, the human rights group said principles of human dignity and equality had come under assault from […]
By David Brunnstrom | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke by telephone with China’s top diplomat on Tuesday and affirmed the importance of a constructive U.S.-China relationship, and the two agreed on the need to address the threat posed by North Korea, the State Department said. Tillerson and Yang Jiechi, China’s state councillor who outranks the foreign minister, also discussed economics and trade as […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday, joining a record-setting night for world markets as investors cheered upbeat factory activity in Europe and solid earnings on Wall Street. The dollar was steady after hawkish comments from top Federal Reserve officials bolstered expectations the world’s no. 1 economy was strong enough to keep policymakers on course to further raise rates this year. MSCI’s […]
UPS has announced plans for deliveries via drones, but unlike Amazon’s drone delivery schtick, it’s not offloading them from a distant outpost or even a blimp: it’s integrating them intro delivery trucks, perched atop the vehicle, prepared to launch at various points within a route. UPS Fuses Delivery Trucks With Drones The Georgia-based package delivery company ran the initial drone delivery service tests Monday in a small […]
Evan Spiegel and other top executives at Snap, the owner of messaging app Snapchat, on Tuesday pitched the company to hundreds of investors in New York and faced questions about user growth, costs and the development of the platform. The ballroom at the Mandarin Oriental in midtown Manhattan was the second stop on a roadshow for the company’s listing, after it kicked off its marketing blitz in […]
“If someone is arrested for throwing a rock, they get a two-year sentence,” the father, Yusri al-Sharif, said, according to the news site Ynet. “In this case, a soldier murdered and got a year and a half.” Continue reading the main story “My son is not an animal,” he said. But Israeli leaders, still shocked that an Israeli soldier was convicted in January in a killing in […]
Rising angst over the outcome of France’s presidential election sent the premium investors are demanding to own French debt instead of German bonds to a new post-eurozone crisis high. The gap between the yield on 10-year French debt and German equivalent bonds exceeded 0.81 percentage points for the first time since August 2012, as a fresh poll showing far right candidate Marine Le Pen is on course […]
Isomax is now proved to be the world’s first to achieve the performance predicted by theoretical bounds, reports a new study. (via WSJ)
By Idrees Ali | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON China, in an early test of U.S. President Donald Trump, is nearly finished building almost two dozen structures on artificial islands in the South China Sea that appear designed to house long-range surface-to-air missiles, two U.S. officials told Reuters. The development is likely to raise questions about whether and how the United States will respond, given its vows to take a […]
Wholesale telecommunications and cloud services provider Inabox has announced it has successfully raised AU$4 million via a private placement that it said will be used to pay down short-term debt from its recent acquisition of Hostworks Group and its associated companies. Under the placement, 3,636,364 fully paid ordinary shares will be issued at AU$1.10 per share, and the placement shares are expected to commence trading on the […]
By David Ingram | NEW YORK NEW YORK A runaway bull led New York City police on a wild chase after escaping from a slaughterhouse on Tuesday, but the animal died after being cornered in someone’s backyard, officials said. During the chase, TV news helicopter video footage showed one fruitless capture attempt after another in the borough of Queens. Police officers tried and failed to use their […]
LONDON Average life expectancy will rise in many countries by 2030, breaking through 90 years in some places, and policymakers need to make more efforts to plan for it, according to a large international study. South Koreans are likely to have the highest life expectancy in the world by 2030 and the United States one of the lowest among developed countries, the study showed. “The fact that […]
The White House on Tuesday signaled it was preparing to reverse a U.S. policy on transgender rights, raising concern among rights advocates that Republican President Donald Trump is about to revoke a signature initiative of his predecessor. Former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration issued guidance to public schools last May to allow transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity, a move transgender people hailed as […]
