Brent crude oil fell below $50 a barrel for the first time this year after US crude inventories climbed to a fresh record, raising fears that Opec’s attempts to tighten the market are falling short. US crude inventories rose by 5m barrels in the week ended March 17, the US Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday, triggering an immediate bout of selling that pushed Brent below $50 […]
LONDON A woman has been pulled from the River Thames alive after Wednesday’s attack on a bridge near Britain’s parliament in Westminster, the Port of London Authority (PLA) said, adding that she was being treated for serious injuries. “A female member of the public was pulled from the water near Westminster Bridge, alive, with serious injuries,” a PLA spokesman told Reuters. “She’s undergoing very urgent medical treatment […]
By Toby Melville | LONDON LONDON A policeman was stabbed inside the perimeter of Britain’s parliament building on Wednesday, an assailant was shot outside and several people lay bleeding on a nearby bridge, Reuters witnesses and officials said. A Reuters photographer saw at least a dozen people injured on Westminster Bridge and photographs showed people lying on the ground, bleeding heavily. The number of casualties was unclear. […]
LISBON Portugal’s Prime Minister demanded the resignation of eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem on Wednesday over remarks he called “racist, xenophobic and sexist” and said Europe would only be credible once he left. Dijsselbloem suggested in an interview at the weekend with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that southern European countries that received EU financial aid were spending their money “on booze and women”. “Europe will only be […]
By Maria Tsvetkova | GELENDZHIK, Russia GELENDZHIK, Russia Russia’s force in Syria has suffered losses since late January more than three times higher than the official toll, according to evidence gathered by Reuters, a tally that shows the fight in Syria is tougher and more costly than the Kremlin has disclosed. Eighteen Russian citizens fighting alongside Moscow’s allies, the Syrian government forces, have been killed since Jan. […]
While the government still seems to be consolidating control over major population centers along Syria’s western spine, it appears at a minimum likely to face a lingering rural insurgency and bombing campaigns in the cities by hard-line jihadist groups. Continue reading the main story At the least, the rebel assaults carried a political message: that the insurgents could still disrupt life in the capital and challenge the […]
Authored by Robert Parry via The Strategic Culture Foundation, The Kagan family, America’s neoconservative aristocracy, has reemerged having recovered from the letdown over not gaining its expected influence from the election of Hillary Clinton and from its loss of official power at the start of the Trump presidency. Former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, who pushed for the Ukraine coup and helped pick […]
Nearly a decade on from the financial crisis that took hold in 2007 and put an end to an era, the global economic environment remains unusually challenging. Nonetheless, the efforts that have been undertaken by Bahrain over the past 15 years to reform and diversify its economy, alongside the wider activities by regional governments to address the near-term fiscal challenges, means that the kingdom remains cautiously optimistic […]
By Yawen Chen and Ryan Woo | BEIJING BEIJING Business sentiment at Asia’s top companies rose to its highest in almost two years in the first quarter of 2017, buoyed by positive economic signs from the United States and China that underpinned improved global demand, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed. The Thomson Reuters/INSEAD Asian Business Sentiment Index .TRIABS RACSI, representing the six-month outlook of 96 firms, rebounded […]
BERLIN Germany has rejected an unusually high number of requests for arms exports to Turkey in recent months due to mounting concerns about deteriorating human rights in the NATO country, the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Tuesday. The report cited an economy ministry written response to a question by leftist lawmaker Jan van Aken, in which the ministry said it had rejected 11 requests for arms […]
By Robert Iafolla | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed support on Tuesday for Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) bid to fend off class action claims by Xbox 360 owners who say the videogame console gouges discs because of a design defect. Microsoft told the court in oral arguments that the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2015 ruling allowing console owners to appeal the dismissal […]
ABU DHABI // Businessmen, parents and frequent travellers from the UAE to the US spoke of their frustration about travelling on long-haul flights without their electronic devices. They said fear of theft or damage to their devices and being unable to access important data were major concerns. The new restriction means passengers travelling on direct flights to the US, which can last up to 18 hours, will […]
Etihad Airways has said there is no immediate change to its policy of carrying items on board its aircraft. Reports in US media this morning have said the US government is expected to announce a temporary ban on passengers on certain flights originating in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well other Muslim-majority countries, from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry-on luggage. […]
By David Shepardson and Kylie MacLellan | WASHINGTON/LONDON WASHINGTON/LONDON The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed restrictions on carry-on electronic devices on planes coming from certain airports in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa in response to unspecified security threats. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said passengers traveling from those airports could not bring devices such as tablets, portable DVD players, laptops […]
Smart Voice & One Remote Making TVs “smart” is one thing, but being able to use them smartly and to their full potential is another. Smart TVs have come a long way since Samsung first introduced theirs as a “connected-TV” back in 2009. In 2011, Samsung was the first to use the term “Smart TV” that converged the computer and its integrated internet, a conventional TV, and […]
Chinese networking giant Huawei will be constructing and opening a datacentre in New Zealand within two years as well as expanding its research centre in Wellington and opening another one in Christchurch, it has been reported. According to a report by Stuff NZ, Huawei will be spending around NZ$400 million over the next five years in an effort to source products and services in addition to opening […]
By David Shepardson and Mark Hosenball | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Passengers travelling on certain U.S.-bound foreign airline flights will have to check electronic devices larger than a cell phone once U.S. authorities formalise a new ban in response to an unspecified terrorism threat, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday. The new rule is expected to be announced Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security, the officials said, adding […]
An Australian teenager who was bitten by a crocodile when he jumped into a river in northern Queensland on a dare is now recovering in hospital and looking forward to a date with the British backpacker he was trying to impress. Lee De Paauw, 18, had met Sophie Paterson while drinking at with a group of friends into the early hours of Sunday morning at a backpackers’ […]
While VIX declined last week, the cost of protecting against major market swings has spiked above its previous Brexit-vote-day peak, reaching a fresh all-time high. As a reminder, CBOE explains, SKEW, is calculated from the prices of S&P 500 out-of-the-money options. SKEW typically ranges from 100 to 150. A SKEW value of 100 means that the perceived distribution of S&P 500 log-returns is normal, and the probability […]
JUBA A plane belonging to a small South Sudanese airline crash-landed at the airport in the northwestern town of Wau on Monday, injuring several passengers, witnesses said. “No one died but there are a number of injured people right now,” one of the local aid workers near the scene of the crash told Reuters. Forty-four passengers were on board the plane belonging to South Supreme Airlines, officials […]
Authored by ‘Vaniam’ via The Burning Platform blog, This is an Arizona patriot’s unique view on John Sydney McCain As of late, we the people of Arizona are very shocked to see what he has become. He is a caricature of a man who, around here, is about as popular as the ping-pong president. How could the people of Arizona, the state that brought you the O.K. […]
By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK Grocery business Albertsons Cos held preliminary talks to merge with Sprouts Farmers Market Inc (SFM.O), Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the situation. Bloomberg said the early stage discussions took place in recent weeks and involved a plan to take Sprouts private. Doing so would add the natural and organic foods-focused business to the Albertsons suite of […]
By Michelle Martin | SAARBRUECKEN, Germany SAARBRUECKEN, Germany When voters head to the polls in the German state of Saarland later this month, they are likely to deliver an upset to Chancellor Angela Merkel that could be a foretaste of September’s national election. One of Germany’s smallest states, Saarland is – like federal Germany – currently governed by a ‘grand coalition’ of Merkel’s conservatives and the Social […]
By Abdiqani Hassan | BOSASSO BOSASSO Somali officials whose forces freed a hijacked oil tanker and its eight Sri Lankan crew said on Sunday that NATO ships must do more to prevent the illegal fishing that locals say sparked the latest attack. Monday’s hijacking was the first time that Somali pirates had successfully hijacked a commercial ship since 2012. Unlike previous hijackings, the ship was freed swiftly […]
