“We lost everything,” said Hiba Beidak, 34, whose husband ran a pharmacy in the Syrian city of Aleppo. He had thyroid surgery before the war and needs medical care now, as does their 10-year-old daughter, who is unable to walk. Ms. Beidak brought her 6-year-old daughter on the tour. Ms. Taki’s older sister, Ghosoom Taki, 38, left the city of Homs for Jordan in 2011. She arrived […]
A few months ago, staff at The Minneapolis Star Tribune did something journalists don’t always have the time to do: think way ahead. One year in advance, staff photographers shot images of the Minnesota winter for next winter’s StarTribune Magazine. The quarterly magazine debuted Sunday, marking a new product for a newsroom that’s worked hard over the last year to become more digital. But that new product […]
By Mubasher Bukhari | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Three women dressed in burqas killed a man who had been accused of blasphemy in 2004 in a northeastern Pakistani town, police said on Thursday, the second brutal killing over alleged insults to Islam in a week. Blasphemy is a highly charged topic in Pakistan where there have been at least 66 murders over unproven allegations since 1990 according to figures […]
MOSCOW Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that only the Russian people will choose who succeeds him as president, through the electoral process. Russia will hold a presidential election in March next year. Putin has not said whether he will run or not, but is widely expected to go for what would be his fourth term. “The president’s successor will be decided by the Russian people only during […]
It’s springtime. Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and love is in the air. That can only mean one thing: It’s time to send pictures of your bits and pieces! If you’ve ever used your phone to send someone special a picture of your thing(s), you’re not alone. Data shows that sexting is a highly popular pastime enjoyed by men and women alike. As you […]
By Roberta Rampton | JAKARTA JAKARTA U.S. Vice President Mike Pence toured Southeast Asia’s largest mosque on Thursday during a visit to Indonesia, calling the Muslim-majority nation’s tradition of following a moderate form of Islam “an inspiration to the world”. Pence, an evangelical Christian, has sought to use his trip to soften some of the harsher edges of rhetoric about the Muslim world used by U.S. President […]
Rice University researchers (from left) Chen Luo, Anshumali Shrivastava and Juan Jose Gonzalez Espana published a paper on location detection for navigation with Krishna Palem (not pictured). Credit: Carlyn Chatfield/Rice University Rice University computer scientists are mapping a new solution for interior navigational location detection by linking it to existing sensors in mobile devices. Their results were presented in a paper at last month’s 2017 Design, Automation […]
Oil prices levelled off on Thursday after they dropped more than $2 a barrel following publication of data by the US energy department showing a rise in American gasoline stockpiles for the first time since February. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate edged 14 cents higher to $50.58 a barrel in early European trading while the global Brent benchmark ticked 17 cents higher to $53.10 a barrel. The […]
By Jon Herskovitz | AUSTIN, Texas AUSTIN, Texas Hundreds of condoms that clogged a city sewer pipe led police to raid a massage parlor in Texas and arrest two people for prostitution and other crimes, police documents released on Tuesday showed. A real estate agent who had just taken over the property notified police of the blockage at Jade Massage Therapy in the Texas capital of Austin. […]
By Sarah White and Yann Le Guernigou | PARIS PARIS Hard-left presidential challenger Jean-Luc Melenchon and conservative Francois Fillon were neck-and-neck behind the frontrunners in an opinion poll on Thursday, as candidates made last-ditch appeals to undecided voters. Voters will cast their ballots on Sunday in the first round of what has transformed into the most unpredictable French election in living memory, with four candidates within reach […]
By Adam Jourdan | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI German sports apparel brand adidas AG (ADSGn.DE) expects its huge operating margin in China to shrink slightly in the long term, while its small U.S. margin grows markedly in the near term, its new chief executive officer said on Thursday. Kasper Rorsted, on his first visit to China since taking the helm in September, said adidas’ margin in Greater China of […]
Activist investor Elliott Management has released a letter sent to its founder Paul Singer by the ousted chief executive of US engineering group Arconic that it claims was a veiled attempt to “intimidate or extort” the hedge fund veteran over his celebrations at the 2006 World Cup. New York-based Elliott is the largest shareholder in Arconic and has been locked in a battle with the US engineering […]
French telecom company Orange is launching a bank this Summer in France. Orange CEO Stéphane Richard listed some of the features behind Orange Bank this morning at a press conference. And let’s just say that it doesn’t sound as groundbreaking as the company thinks. Just like N26, Revolut and others, you’ll be able to control your payment card directly from your phone. Transactions will show up instantly […]
Poland’s NC Cyber director Juliusz Brzostek: “Our role is to secure national assets, which means that we protect key services.” Image: Bogdanski/NC Cyber With the NIS directive on protecting national network and systems in place since last year, EU countries are now having to streamline their cybersecurity efforts. The directive requires them to set up computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) and computer emergency response teams, or […]
By Syed Raza Hassan and Saad Sayeed | ISLAMABAD ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ruled there was insufficient evidence to order Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s removal from office over corruption allegations levelled by the opposition and ordered further investigations. A verdict to remove Sharif would have left his party in power but would, nevertheless, have sparked turmoil at a time when Pakistan is experiencing modest growth […]
ANKARA Turkey’s justice minister said on Thursday that any opposition challenge to a referendum that expanded President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers would be rejected by the constitutional court, and Europe’s human rights court had no jurisdiction on the matter. The main opposition CHP party said on Wednesday it was considering taking its appeal for the referendum to be annulled to Turkey’s Constitutional Court or the European Court of […]
MANILA Russian navy vessels arrived in the Philippines on Thursday for joint exercises as part of a drive for new security ties under President Rodrigo Duterte’s revamped foreign policy of courting the traditional foes of Manila’s top ally, Washington. The guided-missile cruiser Varyag, accompanied by the fuel tanker ship, Pechenge, are on a four-day goodwill visit to the Philippines, the second port call by Russian warships in […]
Thursday 08:00 BST What you need to know ● European bourses soft despite positive Asia session and as US futures steady● Energy shares under pressure as oil struggles to recover from sell-off ● Dollar soft as sterling and euro shrug off election concerns● Sovereign bond yields hold near recent lows ● Gold prices add 0.1 per cent to $1,281 an ounce——————- Hot topic Oil prices are steadier […]
Editor’s note: This article was previously published on Medium. The author is the executive director of LION Publishers, a national network of independent news sites. Margaret Sullivan is right to sound the alarm about what steep newspaper cuts are doing to local journalism across the country, but her April 16 Washington Post column misses the story of what is replacing, and has the potential to replace, the […]
A couple of weeks ago, the authority that oversees broadcast licensing in Germany concluded that internet streaming services should be subject to the same licensing imposed on broadcast radio and television. The focus is on Twitch.tv which exemplifies this new paradigm; according to a press release, the Germans see streaming platforms as little more than tiny TV stations operating without a license. This […]
Chemists have discovered a new method that greatly simplifies, and in many cases enables for the first time, the making of a vast range of organic molecules. (via WSJ)
SYDNEY Australia plans to raise the bar for handing out citizenships by lengthening the waiting period, adding a new “Australian values” test and raising the standard for English language as part of a shake up of its immigration programme. The move comes in a week when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced axing a temporary work visa popular with foreigners and replacing it with a tougher programme in […]
ABU DHABI Kuwait’s oil minister Essam al-Marzouq said on Thursday he expected a global pact to cut oil supplies to be extended beyond June, supported by higher compliance from non-OPEC producers. “We have a noticeable increase in compliance from non-OPEC which shows the importance of extending the agreement,” Marzouq told an industry event with other Gulf oil ministers including Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih in Abu […]
Waiting for a friend to message you back? Learn some vocabulary while you wait with WaitSuite. Credit: Jason Dorfman, MIT CSAIL Hyper-connectivity has changed the way we communicate, wait, and productively use our time. Even in a world of 5G wireless and “instant” messaging, there are countless moments throughout the day when we’re waiting for messages, texts and Snapchats to refresh. But our frustrations with waiting a […]
