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MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed topics including the situation in Syria during phone calls with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Kremlin said on Thursday. (Reporting by Peter Hobson; editing by Katya Golubkova) ‘); $(‘.second-article-divide’).append($(‘.slider.slider-module’)); $(‘.third-article-divide’).append(”); var median = (relatedItemsTotal / 2); var $relatedContentGroupOne = $(‘.related-content.group-one ul’); var $relatedContentGroupTwo = $(‘.related-content.group-two ul’); $.each($relatedItems, function(k,v) { if (k + 1 Also […]

29 December 2016 Munich. As 2016 comes to a close, BMW is able to look back on a highly successful year with well over 50 national and international awards and distinctions. As in the past, vehicles of the brand were highly rated by juries across a range of different categories and topics, frequently finishing at the top of the winners’ rostrum. The awards reflect not just outstanding […]

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 […]

By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON European shares, the dollar and bond yields fell on Thursday, with traders using the quiet holiday period to book some profit on the rise that had lifted all three to multi-year and in some cases record highs recently. Weakness in European financial stocks helped push broader indices into the red, extending the slippage after soft U.S. housing data the previous day. […]

On the other were Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump, firing back at what they deemed a hypocritical betrayal of America’s closest friend in the Middle East. Continue reading the main story If Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry were playing for history, Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Trump were playing for time. The departing administration intended for the speech to lay out a path to peace that they had […]

ISTANBUL Prominent Turkish journalist Ahmet Sik on Thursday said he was being detained by authorities over a Twitter statement he made while an opposition lawmaker who spoke to him said the reporter was being accused of terrorist propaganda. At least 81 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with more than 130 media outlets shut since a failed coup […]

SHANGHAI China’s environment ministry on Thursday warned northern regions to get ready for emergency action to tackle another bout of heavy smog expected over the New Year. Large parts of the north were hit by hazardous smog in mid-December, and authorities ordered hundreds of factories to close and restricted motorists to cut emissions. “Unfavorable weather” was expected to bring more smog to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as well […]

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Saudi Arabia has announced a timeline for implementation of a tax on harmful products including soft drinks and cigarettes, and said it has completely ruled out income tax contrary to previous reports, according to an official document. The Fiscal Balance Program 2020 report, published by the Saudi government last week, said the kingdom would impose a 50 percent tax on soft drinks and a 100 percent tax […]

MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened corrupt government officials with the prospect of being thrown out of a helicopter mid-air, warning he has done it himself before and had no qualms about doing it again. The fiery-tempered former prosecutor said he once hurled a Chinese man suspected of rape and murder out of a helicopter. “If you are corrupt, I will fetch you using a helicopter […]

This year has been tough-going in more ways than one and, by most accounts, Singapore’s economy is expected to be heading for rougher seas in 2017. According to a survey by the Singapore Business Federation, 63 percent of local companies said the economic climate worsened in 2016 and 48 percent believed the downward spiral would continue in the new year. The Monetary Authority of Singapore also warned […]

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella says there are no indications that would prompt the declaration of martial law. KING RODRIGUEZ/ Presidential Photo The recent bombings in Leyte and North Cotabato are not “indicators” for a possible declaration of martial law, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said on Thursday. Abella said the separate bombings Wednesday night in Hilongos, Leyte, and Aleosan, Cotabato, were “areas of concern” but were not cause […]

TOKYO Shares in Toshiba (6502.T) fell more than 19 percent in morning trade on Thursday, clocking a third day of heavy losses after the Japanese tech-to-nuclear conglomerate said earlier this week it faced a potential multi-billion dollar writedown. Late on Wednesday, Moody’s became the second rating agency to downgrade the group, pushing it deeper into “junk”, or non-investment grade territory, with a Caa1 rating, from B3. “Although […]

BEIJING Attackers drove a car into a government building in China’s unruly far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday and set off an explosive device killing one person, while all four of the attackers were shot dead, the regional government said. Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years in resource-rich Xinjiang, on the borders of central Asia, in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who […]

Principal Investment Arm of the Government of Dubai Grows its Portfolio to AED 736.8 Billion Dubai 28 December 2016  Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) announced its consolidated financial results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2016 showing Revenues of AED 82.5 Billion and a Net Profit of AED 10.3 Billion. These results are achieved against a backdrop of lower oil and commodity prices, a strong US […]

Two years ago, James Garstang, a brewer at the Kernel Brewery, one of London’s most popular microbreweries, was approached by a friend about an opportunity abroad. “He said: ‘If you are interested in some karma and curry, then I have a potential job for you,’” Mr Garstang recalls. Less than a month later, the Londoner was living and working in Gwalior, a midsized city in India five […]

TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pass through the United States when she visits Latin America next month, the foreign ministry said Thursday, a move bound to infuriate China which had urged the United States to block a transit stopover. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a renegade […]

TOKYO The president of Dentsu Inc, Japan’s largest advertising agency, will step down over the “death by overwork” of a young employee, a suicide which has prompted official probes and fresh hand-wringing over Japan’s overtime culture. Matsuri Takahashi, a promising graduate of Japan’s top university, leapt to her death in December 2015, leaving behind a trail of grievances over relentless days. She clocked 105 hours of overtime […]

By Nobuhiro Kubo | TOKYO TOKYO Japan’s defence minister visited a controversial shrine to Japan’s war dead on Thursday, just after accompanying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a historic visit to Pearl Harbor, where Japan’s attack brought the United States into World War Two. Television footage showed a smiling Tomomi Inada in a black jacket and skirt arriving at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japanese who lost […]

Singapore Oil prices fell in early trade in Asia on Thursday following a surprise build in U.S. crude stocks shown in data published by the American Petroleum Institute (API) late on Wednesday. U.S. benchmark West Texas intermediate (WTI) CLc1 crude futures were down 31 cents or 0.57 percent to $53.75 at 0104 GMT after settling up 16 cents at $54.06 per barrel in the previous session. Brent […]

Aliens may be communicating to us in the form of fast radio burst (FRB) signals, scientists believe. Two separate groups of astronomers have recently discovered radio bursts coming from the Auriga constellation, which is about 3 billion light years away from the Milky Way galaxy. According to a report filed in The Astrophysical Journal, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia discovered five radio bursts coming from the Auriga […]

KINSHASA A court in Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced a political opposition leader to five years in prison on Wednesday, a human rights advocate said, a judgment that risks imperiling multi-party talks meant to organise a presidential election next year. The court found Franck Diongo, president of the opposition MLP party, guilty of illegally detaining three soldiers during violent protests last week in the capital Kinshasa that […]

This July 29, 2015, file photo shows Amazon’s Echo speaker, which responds to voice commands, in New York. A prosecutor investigating the death of a man whose body was found in a hot tub wants to expand the probe to include a potential new kind of evidence: the suspect’s Amazon Echo smart speaker. Amazon has called the request “overbroad or otherwise inappropriate.” (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Authorities […]

Updated December 29, 2016, 9:08 AM By Restituto Cayubit HILONGOS, Leyte – At least 32 persons watching an amateur boxing bout were injured in an explosion at the town plaza  Wednesday night. HILONGOS, Leyte CREDIT: Google Maps, Manila Bulletin Leyte police provincial director Supt. Franco Simborio said out of the 32 injured, 16 were treated as outpatient while the remaining 16 were brought to various hospitals in […]

Some of the biggest law firms on Wall Street are scrambling to shore up their defences against cyber attacks, in the wake of a raid by Chinese hackers which led to millions of dollars of profits from insider trading. Preet Bharara, US attorney for the southern district of New York, this week charged three individuals who he said infiltrated law firms over a period of about 18 […]

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