ROME The number of migrants crossing Niger to reach Libya has declined, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Friday, after Europe pledged Niger money to help it fight people-smuggling. The IOM monitors trucks carrying migrants at a desert crossroads in eastern Niger commonly used to reach Libya, where more than half a million have set out on flimsy boats for Europe in the past three […]
The Federal Reserve appears to believe that the size of its balance sheet matters, but not that bigger is better. The question is, why not? As the Fed pushes ahead with plans to shrink its stock of about $2.5tn of Treasuries and $1.8tn of mortgage-backed securities to “normal”, it is puzzling that officials haven’t provided a compelling case for why the move is either necessary or desirable. […]
PARIS French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron on Friday said France should not yield to fear and candidates in the election should avoid one-upmanship after the killing of a police officer in an Islamic State-claimed attack claimed. “Don’t yield to fear, don’t yield to division and intimidation. Our generation must rise to this challenge,” he said in a statement broadcast from his campaign headquarters. Macron said he had […]
Although Google is processing more requests, it’s also producing data for a smaller share of them. Image: Google Government requests for Google user data in the second half of 2016 were the highest since the firm first reported the figures in 2009. As Google notes in its latest Transparency Report, it received 45,549 government requests for user data in the second half of 2016, of which about […]
Dubai-based retailer Marka has announced that it is opening the first Reem Al Bawadi outlet in Abu Dhabi as part of its ongoing expansion plans for its flagship brand. The new restaurant brings Reem Al Bawadi to Dalma Mall and will offer a total capacity of 243 covers, with 111 seats inside and 132 seats outside. The venue, which will open this spring, also features a TV […]
General Electric Co (GE.N) reported a 1 percent decline in quarterly revenue on Friday, hurt by lower sales in its oil and gas and lighting businesses. However, earnings from continuing operations attributable to GE shareholders rose to $858 million in the first quarter ended March 31, from $248 million a year earlier. Earnings per share from continuing operations rose to 10 cents from 3 cents. (invent.ge/2obaxNT) Total […]
Yet another wildlife species has fallen victim to a deadly fungus that could potentially result in significant biodiversity loss. Nearly a month after Tech Times reported about three species of Texas bats carrying the Pd fungus, putting them at risk for the lethal white nose syndrome, biologists warn salamanders are in danger of being decimated. Researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland reveal that fire salamander populations […]
Lisa Aiken, retail fashion director at Net-a-porter, is currently in the UAE. She was part of a panel discussion in Dubai’s Design District on April 20, with the designers behind Borgo de Nor, Carmen March, Oscar Tiye and Sara Battaglia – brands that are new to Net-a-porter.com this season. Guests varied from emerging local fashion designers to digital influencers and other fashion industry insiders. The discussion aimed […]
© Seb Jarnot I arrive at La Méditerranée, a traditional fish restaurant in a literary quarter of the Left Bank, Paris, at 7pm to find its blue doors firmly bolted. Charlotte Rampling has just confirmed our reservation, but our dining slot appears to have fallen foul of that particularly French timetable that decrees that no civilised person would ever want to eat before 8pm. In a panic, […]
By Mica Rosenberg and Yeganeh Torbati | NEW YORK/WASHINGTON NEW YORK/WASHINGTON When Raj, a Sri Lankan fisherman, sought refuge in the United States in 2005, he had precisely the kind of fear of returning home that U.S. asylum laws require. In 2004, he was kidnapped by the separatist rebel group the Tamil Tigers and had to pay $500 to secure his release, according to Raj, his lawyer […]
BEIJING/SHANGHAI China must work more closely with journalists and non-government bodies to expose incidents of water pollution, an official said on Friday, after activists this week discovered two untreated cesspits filled with hazardous industrial waste. The call for a greater role for non-government organisations (NGOs) in holding polluters to account comes just when China has sought to put such groups under tighter scrutiny, amid a broader push […]
Usually the news is a pretty depressing business. Every now and then there’ll be something mildly positive squeezed in between articles about death and political turmoil, but for the most part it’s a near-constant stream of misery. The local news is different, though. Hidden in the corners of small British news sites and in the back pages of local papers are stories that are, quite simply, glorious. […]
Astronomers have detected for the first time multiple images from a gravitationally lensed Type Ia supernova. The new observations suggest promising new avenues for the study of the accelerated expansion of the universe, gravity and distribution of dark matter in the universe. (via WSJ)
SYDNEY U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to discuss trade and regional security when he meets Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, Australian officials said. Pence arrives in Australia late on Friday for the last stop on his 10-day tour of U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific region that has included a series of roundtables with leading business executives in South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. His […]
Most applications of deep learning use “convolutional” neural networks, in which the nodes of each layer are clustered, the clusters overlap, and each cluster feeds data to multiple nodes (orange and green) of the next layer. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT In the past 10 years, the best-performing artificial-intelligence systems—such as the speech recognizers on smartphones or Google’s latest automatic translator—have resulted from a technique called “deep learning.” Deep […]
Friday 08:30 BST What you need to know ● European and Asian stock markets firm after Wall Street rally● Euro holds above $1.07 in cautious trading ahead of French election● Bund yields up 1bp to 0.25 per cent despite political tensions● Global steelmakers shrug off Trump tariff threat● Oil prices gain but gold pulls back——————- Hot topic Investor attention is turning to eurozone assets ahead of Sunday’s […]
OTTAWA The Bank of Canada may not be known for its humor but it marked the nation’s 150th anniversary with a bit of whimsy, embedding a computer code in its website that lets users unlock a digital celebration. Though Governor Stephen Poloz unveiled a commemorative C$10 banknote at a live ceremony last week, the central bank’s Web team had a nerdier take on the event. The team […]
PARIS France has fully mobilised its security forces, including elite units, to ensure citizens’ protection during the forthcoming presidential election following Thursday night’s shooting in central Paris, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Friday. Speaking after an emergency meeting of top security officials, Cazeneuve said all elite units were on top alert for the election to back up the 50,000 police already earmarked for special election duty. […]
By Kate Holton and William Schomberg | NEWTON FERRERS, England/LONDON NEWTON FERRERS, England/LONDON Before last year’s Brexit vote, Scott McCready was struggling to fill his holiday cabins on the coast of southwest England. Now the site is fully booked with British tourists avoiding more expensive foreign trips following a plunge in the pound. This turnaround in the 10 months since Britons decided to leave the European Union […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for April 21, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE. Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at [email protected] newslide Abu Dhabi Kids’ fun Take […]
France has launched an anti-terror investigation after a policeman was killed and two other officers injured in an apparent Islamist attack in Paris on Thursday that threatens to disrupt the country’s presidential election. French authorities said the suspected gunman had been shot dead in the assault on the Champs-Élysées shortly before 9pm local time. One civilian was also injured in the attack. “We are convinced that the […]
FRANKFURT German police arrested a man on Friday who is suspected of planting explosives targeting the bus of soccer team Borussia Dortmund last week, the office of the German federal chief prosecutor said. The 28-year old man, a dual German and Russian national identified as Sergei V., had bought options on Borussia Dortmund’s stock before the attack, hoping to make a profit, it said in a statement. […]
SYDNEY A new ocean debris drift analysis shows missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 is most likely within a proposed expanded search area rejected by Australia and Malaysia in January, the Australian government’s scientific agency said on Friday. A A$200 million ($150.54 million) search for the aircraft, which went missing in 2014 with 239 people onboard, was suspended when the two nations rejected a recommendation to search north of […]
It was money that kept Bill O’Reilly in his bulletproof bully’s pulpit at Fox News despite sordid sex harassment claims dating back 13 years. And in the end, it was money — not morals — that catapulted him out. For two decades, O’Reilly has been the acid-tongued, anti-political correctness muse and megaphone of the populist right and scolder of the mainstream media — a role that crowned […]
