By Steve Gorman | LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES Carrie Fisher, who rose to fame as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” films and later endured drug addiction and stormy romances with show business heavyweights, died on Tuesday aged 60, her daughter said through a family spokesman. “It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 […]
The software behind the exposure of a financial scandal was supplied by an Irishman’s firm, writes Joe Leogue. It may now seem like a lifetime ago, but before Trump and Brexit stole the limelight, the revelations contained within the Panama Papers were early contenders for the story of 2016. The reports that emerged from the huge cache of leaked documents showed the world how the rich exploited […]
ANKARA Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he has evidence that U.S.-led coalition forces give support to terrorist groups including the Islamic State and Kurdish militant groups YPG and PYD, he said on Tuesday. “They were accusing us of supporting Daesh (Islamic State),” he told a press conference in Ankara. “Now they give support to terrorist groups including Daesh, YPG, PYD. It’s very clear. We have confirmed evidence, […]
By Yashaswini Swamynathan Wall Street was higher on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average resuming its climb toward 20,000 and the Nasdaq hitting a record as technology and health stocks rose. The blue-chip index has been riding on a post-election rally, feeding on optimism that President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for deregulation and infrastructure spending would bolster the economy. The index, which came within 13 points of […]
The stadium lights ripped the darkness over an empty field. They weren’t supposed to be on. The lights at Princeton University’s stadium, recently upgraded, should have followed an automated cycle, reducing the need for human oversight. Instead, the… Date published 27 December 2016 Towards the end of October 2016, several Indian banks announced they would be recalling millions of debit cards in the wake of a data […]
By Jeffrey Heller | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM The Jerusalem municipality, undeterred by a U.N. anti-settlement resolution, is due to consider on Wednesday requests for construction permits for hundreds of new homes for Israelis in areas that Israel captured in 1967 and annexed to the city. Israel is still fuming over the resolution approved last Friday by the United Nations Security Council that demands an end to settlement activity […]
Given the number of people in the city, New Yorkers rarely feel they’re on the same page with each other. The day after Donald Trump was elected United States president, however, they quietly mourned together. The weather, as if set in a Shakespearean drama, reflected the solemn state of the city’s inhabitants. In the days leading up to the election, the weather was perfectly crisp. The annual […]
In order to meet this demand for fresh content — a demand created by the process that supplies it — Jukin scales idle browsing to industrial proportions. A researcher, on average, watches 200 clips daily. That’s a thousand videos each week, or 50,000 per year, give or take. The company’s research is aided by proprietary software called Riff, which generates feeds based on niche viral keywords. Maybe […]
By Peter Hobson | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russia, China and Pakistan warned on Tuesday that the influence of Islamic State (IS) was growing in Afghanistan and that the security situation there was deteriorating. Representatives from the three countries, meeting in Moscow, also agreed to invite the Afghan government to such talks in the future, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “(The three countries) expressed particular concern about the rising […]
World number two Rory McIlroy will be looking to maintain a proud record when he competes in the $2.65 million Dubai Desert Classic in February. The four-times major champion won the event in 2009 and 2015 and has finished in the top 10 in each of his seven previous visits to the Emirates Golf Club. “I have great memories of this tournament,” McIlroy said in a news […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that Thomas Bossert, former deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, would be his White House adviser on security and counterterrorism issues, according to a statement. As assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Bossert would be Trump’s top counterterrorism chief. He currently runs a risk management consulting firm and has a cyber risk fellowship […]
I am retiring from the Poynter Institute on New Year’s Eve. As my wife and I watch the ball in Times Square slide down to 2017, our fervent smooch will not just mark a new beginning. It will be the first celebration of almost 40 years well-spent. When my retirement was announced — along with the news that I would continue to work on some important projects […]
Submitted by Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org, The end of the year is approaching, and data concerning government abuses of power has begun pouring in. According to Facebook’s Global Government Requests Report, government’s requests for Facebook account data rose 27 percent in the first half of 2016. Facebook’s official announcement explained that requests for user data went from 46,710 in the last half of 2015 to 59,229 in […]
By Andrew Osborn and Peter Hobson | MOSCOW MOSCOW Russia has found the main flight recorder from a military plane that crashed into the Black Sea killing all 92 on board, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, amid unconfirmed reports that authorities had grounded all aircraft of the same type. The recorder, one of several reported to be on board, contains information that could help investigators identify […]
Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, on December 27, 2016. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie “Avatar” and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company. A giant South Korean-built manned robot that walks […]
By Patrick Graham | LONDON LONDON Share prices inched higher on Tuesday as trading in some of the world’s major financial markets resumed after a Christmas break, with oil and the dollar also rising marginally. Concerns about Italian banks, Chinese growth and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s protectionist bent look set to keep investors on edge into the start of 2017. But expectations the new administration will splash […]
Gravity plays a crucial part in the growth of plants, especially in the early phase. This was amply demonstrated in the seedlings of cucumber analyzed for gravity-related changes in growth. Plants carry specialized cells that perceive gravity and distribute the growth hormone auxin to develop their vital features. Japanese researchers examined cucumber seedlings germinated at the International Space Station, where microgravity conditions prevailed. The results of the study were […]
LONDON The world’s fastest land animal, the cheetah, is in danger of extinction because it is running out of space, research led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has found. After a sharp decline in numbers there are now just 7,100 cheetahs in the world, or 9 percent of the historic range, the ZSL, Wildlife Conservation Society and Panthera study found. In Zimbabwe, the study found, […]
Abu Dhabi’s stock market plans to introduce covered short-selling in the first quarter of 2017, its chief executive said on Monday, as it seeks to boost liquidity and attract more foreign investors. In covered short-selling, investors borrow shares and sell them in the expectation of repurchasing them later at a lower price. Regulators in the Gulf have until now shied away from allowing the practice because of […]
Since achieving global fame in 2000, Coldplay have elicited devotion and derision in equal measure. The question, then, is whether the British four-piece are one of the best bands of their generation – or the most overrated? Rob Garratt and Saeed Saeed state their cases. They are overrated Coldplay produce quintessentially mundane muzak for the masses. They are utterly innocuous, bitterly anodyne and completely forgettable audio dishwater, […]
Farah later said he was surprised that a “multibillionaire” would make so much time for a side project like this. But single-minded persistence is the essence of self-investigation. Trump, for instance, also continued to insist on the guilt of the Central Park Five — five teenagers, four black and one Latino, whose convictions in the 1989 rape and beating of a jogger were later overturned — long […]
MOSCOW Russia said on Tuesday that a U.S. decision to ease some restrictions on arming Syrian rebels had opened the way for deliveries of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, a move it said would directly threaten Russian forces in Syria. Moscow last year launched a campaign of air strikes in Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad and government forces in a conflict with rebels, some of whom are supported […]
MANILA Philippine authorities have seized about 6 billion pesos ($120 million) worth of methamphetamines in a series of anti-narcotics operations this month that have yielded the biggest haul in the country’s history, the justice minister said on Tuesday. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) conducted the operations, including one on Monday in San Juan City in the capital Manila where drums of chemicals used to produce methamphetamines, […]
By Anuradha Nagaraj CHENNAI, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Housemaids, brick makers, labourers, textile workers, fleeing migrants and children risking their lives in mica mines. These were the faces of modern day slavery in 2016 when the world saw a renewed resolve to combat all forms of human bondage. An estimated 45.8 million people globally live in some form of slavery, either trafficked into forced labour, sold […]
