In London last month, Arabian Business was treated to a behind-the-scenes explanation of how in March Google’s AlphaGo computer programme thrashed the world’s best player at the ancient board game Go. The match represented a breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) research being undertaken by Google’s DeepMind since the start-up was acquired for a reported $400m in 2014. Go involves two contestants moving black and white stones on […]
By Daniel Trotta | HAVANA HAVANA Fidel Castro is remembered around the world as a charismatic revolutionary or a ruthless tyrant, but in his neighborhood he was also a friendly old man who used his influence to build a soccer field for kids two weeks before his death. Castro, who led Cuba’s 1959 revolution and for five decades defied U.S. efforts to topple him, died on Nov. […]
By Emma Farge | BANJUL BANJUL Gambians reacted with joy and stunned disbelief on Saturday to the defeat of President Yahya Jammeh, one day after he conceded that he lost an election set to end his 22 years in power. Jammeh’s government is accused of crushing dissent and torturing opponents and he had said he would rule for a “billion years”. As a result, few believed he […]
An international team of researchers led by Gaia Novarino, a scientist at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria, discovered a new genetic cause for autism spectrum disorder. Autism Spectrum Disorder In Humans About 1 percent of the population in the world is currently suffering from autism and experiences a range of debilitating symptoms including difficulties in communication and interaction with people. Novarino said that autism is caused […]
Like Christmas ornaments on Main Streets across America, Wall Street banks’ forecasts for the year ahead keep coming out earlier every year. At least this year analysts have something substantive to sink their intellectual teeth into: the impact of incoming president Donald Trump. The results are fascinating — especially for bonds. The fixed income market has been one of the biggest victims in the “Trumpflation trade” that […]
(a,b) Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) (c) great gray owl (Strix nebulosi) and (d) snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus). Credit: Ian A.Clark, Conor A. Daly, William Devenport, W .Nathan Alexander,Nigel Peake, Justin W. Jaworski, Stewart Glegg Many species of owl are able to hunt in effective silence by suppressing their noise at sound frequencies above 1.6 kilohertz (kHz) – over the range that can be heard by humans. […]
By Abdiqani Hassan | BOSASSO, Somalia BOSASSO, Somalia Soldiers allied to the Western-backed Somali government said they killed seven insurgents from a faction loyal to the Islamic State group in a clash in northern Somalia on Saturday. The soldiers from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland are part of a force headed to the port town of Qandala, which has been under the control of the insurgents since […]
03 December 2016 Abu Dhabi: The food production sector in the Abu Dhabi has enjoyed continued growth in recent years, due to flourishing internal markets and growing export markets. The Emirate’s ability to produce high-quality, competitive and value-added goods, accompanied by a strong logistics network and its strategic geographic location has seen it emerge as one of the most important regional food production and processing centres. As […]
LIBREVILLE Gabon has postponed legislative elections set for Dec. 27 until next July because of a lack of money, the interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday. The decision was taken after a request by the electoral commission and the vote will now take place on July 29, 2017, with parliament extended until then, it said. “The constitutional court has … decided that the means invoked […]
For months we’ve been warning that real estate markets in NYC and San Francisco, among others, are getting ready to rollover as the market is about to be flooded with new supply of luxury apartments (see here and here). Real estate in both markets are just starting to show signs of cracking as the apartments sales cycle is getting stretched out and pricing growth has stalled. Now, […]
By Sinead Carew and Chuck Mikolajczak | NEW YORK NEW YORK The rally in regional U.S. bank stocks that followed last month’s election of Donald Trump may not be over, but investors may have to wait for policy to take shape for the massive move to extend further. The S&P 600 index of small-cap banks has surged more than 20 percent since Trump’s surprise Nov. 8 victory, […]
Dining in the dark Eating without looking first hit the culinary scene in 1999 when a blind man in Switzerland opened Blindekuh in Zurich, the world’s first restaurant where diners ate their meals in the dark. Usually, eating is an act that involves all the senses. When you lose one of the most important ones – sight – the others are heightened, leading to an extraordinary dining […]
ANKARA The Turkish military killed 20 fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they tried to attack army bases in the southeastern Hakkari province, the military said on Saturday. The fighters crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq and attempted to launch attacks on military bases in the mountainous border region, the military said, without giving further details. Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by […]
For the past few months, a number of Microsoft watchers have been predicting and hoping (incorrectly) that Microsoft was ready to roll out a competitor to Amazon’s Echo and Google Home. A discovery by Microsoft sleuth The Walking Cat, a k a @h0x0d, of something called “Home Hub” further fueled this rumor. However, as Walking Cat also discovered, Home Hub wasn’t hardware; it was some kind of […]
By Isla Binnie | ROME ROME European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is convinced the fall of rebel-held areas of Aleppo to the government would not end the war in Syria, she said on Saturday. “I’m convinced the fall of Aleppo will not end the war,” Mogherini said during a panel discussion at a conference in Rome war with U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura. Syrian […]
In a new research published in the journal PLOS One, archeologists claimed that the mummified knees that were discovered in a tomb in the Valley of the Queens in Egypt likely belonged to Queen Nefertari, the royal wife of Pharaoh Ramses II. Lavish Tomb Ransacked By Robbers The Egyptian queen was laid in a lavish tomb during the19th Dynasty, which was around the 13th century B.C, when she […]
Opec’s production cut this week to bolster oil prices may strike many as a throwback to an earlier era, but it hinged on a very modern method of communication: a messaging group between the smartphones of Saudi Arabia’s delegation in Vienna and Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud. For a royal priding himself on being a tech savvy moderniser in the kingdom, the use of a popular encrypted messaging service may […]
Etihad Airways has collected the World’s Leading Airline award at the 23rd annual World Travel Awards Grand Final Gala Ceremony 2016. This marks the eighth consecutive year that the airline has received the prestigious accolade, the airline said in a statement. Friday night’s beachside event was held before an audience of the industry’s leading lights at the Sun Siyam Iru Fushi Beach Resort in the Maldives. Etihad […]
JAKARTA A twin-engine Indonesian police plane went missing on Saturday with 15 people on board en route to the island of Batam, south of Singapore, police said. The plane is thought to have crashed between the islands of Mensanak and Sebangka or Gentar, a police report obtained by Reuters said. A search team recovered items apparently identified as being from the missing aircraft, the report said. No […]
Egypt, which has seen its influence wane, is seeking allies and relevance wherever it can find them, even if that means shelving concerns about Iran. Continue reading the main story While Russia’s goal seems to be to expand its influence and pave the way for the international rehabilitation of Mr. Assad’s government, the scrambling of alliances remains in motion and the results unclear. The new relationships are […]
The New York Times on Friday joined The Associated Press and other news organizations in branding the alt-right as a movement with clear racist motives. In a memo to newsroom staffers, New York Times Standards Editor Phil Corbett ruled that the alt-right is a “racist, far-right fringe movement” that should be described in those terms when it appears in an article: Let’s avoid using ‘alt-right’ in isolation, […]
Virginia-based Kryptowire said that it had discovered the problem in a number of Android-based phones using firmware from the Chinese company Shanghai ADUPS Technology A US security company says a Chinese-made smartphone popular in the United States forwarded detailed user data and user texts back to a Chinese server without the phone owner’s knowledge. Virginia-based Kryptowire, which provides mobile security services to government agencies and private businesses, […]
BEIJING At least 38 people have died in two separate coal mine disasters in China in the last five days, state media said, the latest accidents in a country with a poor record of industrial safety. In the first incident, authorities confirmed on Friday night that 21 people died after a coal mine blast in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said. It […]
BEIJING The chairman of China’s securities regulator condemned “barbaric” leveraged company buy-outs by some asset managers using illegal funds, according to a statement posted on the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) website on Saturday. “You’ve ultimately become a robber in the industry, and that is unacceptable,” CSRC chairman Liu Shiyu said during his strong-worded speech at a meeting held by the Asset Management Association of China. Liu […]
