In this Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, file photo, a customer sets up his new iPhone 7 Plus, right, as he switches from the iPhone 6 at the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue during the release of the Apple iPhone 7 and the latest Apple Watches, in Chicago. New documents from WikiLeaks, posted Thursday, March 23, 2017, point to an apparent CIA program to hack Apple’s iPhones and […]
By Jeff Mason and Ethan Lou | WASHINGTON/CALGARY WASHINGTON/CALGARY U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration approved TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, cheering the oil industry and angering environmentalists even as further hurdles for the controversial project loom. The approval reverses a decision by former President Barack Obama to reject the project, but the company still needs to win financing, acquire local permits, and fend off likely […]
HONG KONG — Middle-class mainlander Laura Zhang found the idea of owning a home overseas irresistible after being bombarded by commercials for an affordable project “near Singapore”. The Forest City project in the southern Malaysian state of Johor, the subject of the advertisement, is being developed by Country Garden, China’s third-largest home builder. Ms Zhang said she was told that a flat in Forest City, the developer’s […]
DUBAI // Becoming a doctor, an astronaut, a scientist, a teacher and an architect were among the aspirations of Syrian refugee children living in an orphanage in Turkey. Their common dream, however, was to be all these things in their home country. Seventy-five Syrian children between the ages of eight and 12 at Ufuk orphanage in Gaziantep, Turkey, took part in an initiative by a Dubai company, […]
When Thomas Jefferson drafted the American Declaration of Independence, “the pursuit of happiness” was an inalienable right in his first article. Whenever I hear politicians or business leaders talk about happiness, I always wonder how they define it so easily. If the billions of people around the world are all different, then different things should make us happy. There will be common denominators, including health, family, meaningful […]
March 24, 2017 by: Eric Platt in New York and Stephen Smith in London The US stock market closed lower on Friday as the Trump administration’s struggle in Congress to repeal Obamacare heightened concerns about its ability to drive through an economic agenda that had spurred equity valuations to fresh records. The S&P 500 ended down 0.1 per cent to 2,344 reversing a 0.4 per cent advance […]
Shares in one of China’s largest dairy groups plunged more than 90 per cent on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Friday, knocking $4.1bn from its market capitalisation. China Huishan Dairy Holdings was granted a trading suspension after its shares saw one of the biggest drops in the exchange’s history, cutting its market capitalisation from $4.85bn to $750m and likely causing paper losses for investors including BlackRock and Vanguard. Hong Kong’s bourse […]
UNITED NATIONS Israel has not taken steps to halt settlement building as demanded by the United Nations Security Council in a resolution adopted in December, U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the council on Friday. “The resolution calls on Israel to take steps ‘to cease all settlements activities in the occupied Palestinian territory including east Jerusalem.’ No such steps have been taken during the reporting period,” […]
24 March 2017 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates – The sixth International Government Communication Forum (IGCF 2017) concluded its first day of constructive dialogue, debate and engagement at the Expo Centre Sharjah, on a successful note. The event was officially inaugurated with a speech by the patron His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, UAE Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, who welcomed the participants. […]
The Fed’s most recurring lament over the past 8 years, ever since the Financial crisis, is that there has been no measurable inflation in the US economy when using such conventional indicators as CPI, even though according to recent measurements by PriceStats real inflation, not the BLS’ seasonally-adjusted, goalseeked and politically convenient mutant, is now running at a blistering 3.6%, the highest in five years. That […]
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis told Europe’s leaders on Friday the continent faced a “vacuum of values” as they marked the EU’s 60th birthday, condemning anti-immigrant populism and extremism that he said posed a mortal threat to the bloc. Prime ministers and presidents from 27 EU member states have descended on Italy to mark the 1957 founding Treaty of Rome, receiving a papal blessing on the eve of […]
STOCKHOLM An SAS flight carrying 119 passengers and 5 crew made a forced landing in Munich on Friday after one of its engines malfunctioned, the Scandinavian airline said. The plane, a Boeing 737 with CFM engines, on route from Munich to Oslo, ran into problems with its left engine about 10 minutes into the flight, a SAS spokesman said. The engine was then turned off, and the […]
The GCC’s industrial sector is continuing to grow, with the number of people it employs more than doubling since 2005, according to new research by the Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (GOIC). In a report on manufacturing industries in GCC countries, the GOIC said most recent figures reveal the labour force has risen sharply from about 774,000 workers in 2005 to more than 1.6 million workers in […]
DHAKA A suicide bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint near Bangladesh’s international airport on Friday, police said, the second such incident in a week. A young man set off a bomb in front of a police checkpoint and killed himself, police official Ruhul Amin said. No other casualties were reported. The attacker could not be identified immediately. Police have cordoned off the area. The latest […]
AMSTERDAM A team of executives from U.S. paint maker PPG (PPG.N) left the Netherlands on Friday without meeting their counterparts at Akzo Nobel during a two-day charm offensive to win support for their proposed takeover of their Dutch rival. PPG’s public relations blitz followed Akzo’s rejection of a March 20 takeover offer, a decision which has raised protests from shareholders who say the U.S. company’s bid deserves […]
Last year, Donald Trump won the election for president by bemoaning the disappearance of the American factory and pledging to bring back manufacturing from other countries. Now in power, he might have to start worrying about the decline of another traditional pillar of the US economy — the American shopping mall. Fears that the rise of online shopping will lead to substantial dislocation in the retail sector […]
Twitter is looking to build a more powerful Tweetdeck to help users manage their accounts Twitter has begun surveying members on a paid subscription service that would give frequent users more tools for using the social network for marketing, journalism and other fields. The survey this week showed Twitter is looking at building a more powerful version of Tweetdeck, the dashboard that many use to manage their […]
Chinese oil companies are turning their focus to overseas retail and services markets, as slowing growth in domestic fuel demand makes their traditional home market less attractive. Sinopec this week agreed to buy Chevron’s 75 per cent stake in a Cape Town refinery, affiliated service stations and convenience stores in South Africa and Botswana for $900m. It was the only remaining bidder after a year-long tender process. […]
WASHINGTON The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Friday cleared the way for a contentious debate on legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a more limited federal healthcare insurance program. By a vote of 230-194, the House approved rules for debating the Republican legislation that Democrats oppose. It was not yet clear whether House Speaker Paul Ryan has enough Republican support to pass the bill […]
Trailing by three, Clemson was driving against Alabama late in a pulsating, nerve-racking College Football Playoff championship game. Deadline for The Washington Post’s Chuck Culpepper meant filing almost immediately after the game ended. Culpepper looked at his computer, and only a couple of paragraphs stared back at him. Did he panic, knowing he had to generate an entire story on a close game in a matter of […]
24 March 2017 Sharjah, UAE – Themed ‘The Role of Social Media Platforms – From Participation to Real Partnership’, a panel discussion featuring communication specialists examined the role of social media in enabling governments to better communicate with their citizens on the second day of the sixth International Government Communications Forum (IGCF 2017). Eminent panellists included His Excellency Saeed Saleh Al Remeithi, Member of the UAE Federal […]
By Stoyan Nenov | KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria Bulgarian nationalists blocked border checkpoints with Turkey on Friday to stop buses bringing Bulgarian ethnic Turks to vote in Sunday’s election amid growing tension between the two neighbours. Sofia has accused Ankara of interference in its election on behalf of the DOST party that represents Bulgarian Turks, the country’s largest ethnic minority. Polls suggest DOST will fall […]
Dubai-based DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators, is exploring logistics opportunities and the development of industrial parks in Panama. Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World Group chairman and CEO, met with the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, to explore opportunities relating to the expanded Panama Canal. The meeting was also attended by Roberto R Roy, Minister for Canal Affairs and Augusto R Arosemena, […]
By Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice | AVDIYIVKA/KIEV AVDIYIVKA/KIEV Ukrainian government troops and separatist fighters have drawn closer to each other at several places along the tense front line in eastern Ukraine, monitors say, raising the risk of violent flare-ups that could wreck a shaky ceasefire. At some points, the sides have drawn within shouting distance of each other. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, […]
