MOSCOW Russia’s economic contraction is slowing, capital flight is fading and real wages are starting to recover, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. Speaking at an annual end-of-year news conference, Putin said the Russian economy was on track to contract by 0.5-0.6 percent this year, while inflation for the whole of 2016 was likely to reach 5.5 percent. Putin said the budget deficit was seen at 3.7 […]
After the heavy attention on ocean-based plastic pollution, the focus is moving to plastic pollution in the Great Lakes. According to a new study by Rochester Institute of Technology researchers, approximately 10,000 metric tons of plastic waste has been entering the Great Lakes every year from the United States and Canada. The study, “Inventory and transport of plastic debris in the Laurentian Great Lakes,” has Matthew Hoffman, assistant […]
ABU DHABI // After going through a divorce and a custody battle for her children, Aysha Al Naqbi knows the trauma that marriage break-ups can cause. So, Ms Al Naqbi has decided to dedicate herself to helping other women going through similar experiences. “It can be tough being a divorced female,” says Ms Al Naqbi, 38, from Khor Fakkan. “You will get questioned a lot, ‘why you’re […]
Filipino beauty pageant winners Parul Shah and Maggie Wilson have emerged victorious on the fifth season of reality-TV programme The Amazing Race Asia. They beat fellow beauty queens Yvonne Lee and Chloe Chen from Malaysia, as well as married couple Eric Tai and Rona Samson, who are also from the Philippines, in the grand finale this week. It was the culmination of 10 legs of competition that […]
Good morning. A media A-list’s favorite books of 2016 Jake Tapper, the CNN reporter-show host, needed far less time than even a hyperactive wire service rewrite guy to answer a question about his favorite book this year: “‘Moonglow’ by Michael Chabon.” Bam, that didn’t take long. But it’s why amid a Trump- and-terrorism-centric moment, I asked busy and smart journalists to go high when so many others […]
Roy Zipstein | Apple Apple has given app developers more time to turn on App Transport Security (ATS) after originally insisting that software submitted to the App Store utilize the feature by the beginning of 2017. According to a brief note posted on the Apple developer website on Wednesday, ATS, first introduced in iOS 9 and OS X v10.11, will now not become mandatory for apps to […]
BEIJING China told its companies on Friday they need to pay attention to the latest U.N. sanctions on North Korea, especially those related to coal, to avoid any unnecessary economic losses. The U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on North Korea last month aimed at cutting its annual export revenue by a quarter, after Pyongyang carried out its fifth and largest nuclear test so far in September. […]
RAK National Hotels, a subsidiary of RAK Hospitality Holding, and Hilton Worldwide have announced that Hilton’s first mid-market hotel in Ras Al Khaimah is scheduled to open by the second quarter of 2017. The announcement was confirmed ahead of the 2016 Ras Al Khaimah Finance and Investment Forum, which took place this week. Hilton Garden Inn Ras Al Khaimah is to be located on the site of […]
BERLIN/MILAN The suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack was killed in a shoot-out in a suburb of the northern Italian city of Milan on Friday, Italy’s interior minister said. Marco Minniti told a news conference that “without any shadow of a doubt” the man was 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri, wanted for the attack in Berlin. A police source said earlier Amri was identified by fingerprints. […]
By Manuel Mogato | MANILA MANILA The United States provided the Philippines with $127 million in security assistance in the 12 months ended in September, the biggest sum in about 15 years, overlapping with a stream of angry threats from President Rodrigo Duterte to sever their defence alliance. The U.S. embassy in Manila on Friday confirmed its longtime Asian ally had received a 154 percent increase in […]
Social enterprise Proximity Designs’s 3D printer is making high technology accessible to Myanmar’s impoverished farmers Whizzing across a blue-lit platform with a whirr and a squeak, liquid plastic emanating from its chrome tip, the 3D printer seems a far cry from the muddy, crop-filled fields that fringe Yangon. But in an industrial park south of Myanmar’s commercial hub, the advanced technology is now being used to design […]
From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals, and by rising public outrage over graft. The question is, will that translate into a lasting demand for cleaner politics? “A new phenomenon” is being seen, said Jose Ugaz, a renowned Peruvian lawyer and the chairman of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, who expressed […]
Lately, cybersecurity has been the place where IT’s optimism goes to die. It’s been a tough road for companies and organizations the past few years as their network defenses have been bent and broken on a consistent, and often dramatic, basis. Hacks that topple over a billion user accounts are shocking and make a solution seem impossible. But IT is resilient despite on-going challenges in staffing, budgeting, […]
The same researchers who pioneered the use of a quantum mechanical effect to convert heat into electricity have figured out how to make their technique work in a form more suitable to industry. In Nature Communications, engineers from The Ohio State University describe how they used magnetism on a composite of nickel and platinum to amplify the voltage output 10 times or more — not in a […]
By Tom Westbrook | SYDNEY SYDNEY Australian police said on Friday they had foiled a plot to attack prominent sites in the city of Melbourne with a series of bombs on Christmas Day that authorities described as “an imminent terrorist event” inspired by Islamic State. Police laid terrorism charges against one man, and were expected to charge at least three others, after authorities conducted overnight raids on […]
Qatar is set to launch a new shopping festival in January, targeting regional visitors from the UAE, which forms the second largest source market for the country. Under the slogan A Brand New Tradition, the first edition of Shop Qatar will start on January 7 with discounts on popular brands, cash prizes worth up to QR4 million, a schedule of entertainment featuring Cats the Broadway musical, live […]
By Michael Shields and Arno Schuetze | ZURICH/FRANKFURT ZURICH/FRANKFURT Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have been hit with a combined penalty of more than $12 billion over the sale of U.S. toxic debt, further hampering two of Europe’s leading investment banks as they grapple with falling profits. The penalty puts them at a further disadvantage to larger U.S. rivals. Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) agreed in principle to pay […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 23, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Festive fun Visit Al Maryah Island for the Winter Wonderland, featuring cosy winter cottages hosting activities including bauble-decorating, cracker-making and gingerbread-house-decorating. A skating rink and snow park offer a wintry feel, while […]
Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to pay out billions to resolve a probe into the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities at the height of the US housing bubble, striking deals before the Trump administration takes power. The deals came as federal prosecutors announced they were suing Barclays and two of its executives over the issue of allegedly fraudulent residential mortgage-backed securities. The suit followed the breakdown of talks […]
By James Pearson | SEOUL SEOUL As hundreds of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets every weekend for two months to call for President Park Geun-hye to resign, the opposition’s leading contender to replace her appeared reluctant to seize the moment. That is changing as Moon Jae-in, a 63-year-old human rights lawyer who lost the 2012 election to Park by more than a million votes, […]
Automotive technology is rapidly advancing on all fronts. This past year saw several massively important developments ranging from vehicle-to-vehicle communication to the advent of 48-volt electrical systems. To be sure, self-driving cars dominated the automotive news over the last 12 months. Hardly a week went by without a significant autonomous vehicle announcement from an automaker, tech company, ride-sharing service, or other player in the increasingly […]
By Timothy Mclaughlin A racist, expletive-filled rant caught on camera at a Louisville, Kentucky, mall has led to a permanent ban for a shopper and prompted an apology from the city’s mayor. The video shows a white woman standing in a checkout line at a JCPenney department store in the Jefferson Mall and berating two women who shopper Renee Buckner, who posted the footage on Facebook on […]
By Lisa Maria Garza | DALLAS DALLAS A video showing a white Fort Worth police officer in an escalating argument with a black woman he took into custody along with the woman’s daughters touched off a social media storm on Thursday, stoking a debate on race and U.S. policing. The woman identified by relatives as Jacqueline Craig, 46, was put on the ground and the officer held […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. It could be a dinner akin to the disastrous ones in “Meet the Parents,” “Talladega Nights” and “Wedding Crashers.” Or maybe “American Beauty,” where newly unemployed Kevin Spacey turns to his wife (Annette Bening) and daughter (Thora Birch) and says […]
