News related to
John Lee

Half of opposition-held Aleppo falls to Syrian forces

ALEPPO, SYRIA: Syrian government forces have recaptured half the former opposition stronghold of east Aleppo, a monitor said, with the UN now facing a “race against time” to aid children forced out by the bloody offensive.President Bashar Assad’s forces have made swift gains since their offensive against Aleppo — once Syria’s commercial powerhouse — began on November 15.Tens of thousands of civilians have streamed out of the [...]

Official Washington's "Info-Wars"

Authored by William Blum, originally posted at Strategic-Culture.org, On November 16, at a State Department press briefing, department spokesperson John Kirby was having one of his frequent adversarial dialogues with Gayane Chichakyan, a reporter for RT (Russia Today); this time concerning U.S. charges of Russia bombing hospitals in Syria and blocking the U.N. from delivering aid to the trapped population. When Chichakyan asked for some detail about [...]

Houthis, in Surprise Move, Form a Government in Yemen

SANA, Yemen — The Houthi movement and its allies formed a new government in Yemen on Monday, a surprise that angered their Saudi-backed rivals and complicated United Nations efforts to end a conflict that has ravaged the Arab world’s poorest country for much of the past two years.The announcement of the new government, reported by the Houthi-run state television and Saba news agency, said it was formed [...]

Wells Fargo splits chairman and CEO roles

Wells Fargo has changed its boardroom rules to require the roles of chief executive and chairman be kept separate, adding to pressure on other US banks to end the contentious practice of combining the top jobs.The bank, which has been in the spotlight for months over sales malpractice in its branches, had prised apart the two positions when John Stumpf quit suddenly in October. He was replaced [...]

Vote tests Gambian leader who said only Allah can remove him

By Cheikh Sadibou Mane | BANJUL BANJUL Gambians voted on Thursday in the first serious electoral challenge to President Yahya Jammeh, who has said only Allah can remove him from office and once claimed he would rule the tiny riverside West African nation for "a billion years".Jammeh, who seized power in a 1994 coup, has made headlines by claiming to have a herbal cure for AIDS that [...]

Syrian rebels in secret talks with Moscow to end fighting

Syrian rebel leaders are in secret talks with Russia to end the fighting in Aleppo, according to opposition figures, a development that shows how the US could become sidelined in some of the Middle East’s most pivotal conflicts.Four opposition members from rebel-held northern Syria told the Financial Times that Turkey has been brokering talks in Ankara with Moscow, whose military intervention last year on the side of [...]

Syrian rebels vow to resist army advances in Aleppo

By Angus McDowall and Tom Perry | BEIRUT BEIRUT Syrian rebels on Wednesday vowed to fight on in east Aleppo in the face of sudden government advances that have cut the area held by the opposition by a third in recent days and brought insurgents in the city to the brink of a catastrophic defeat. Gains by the Syrian army and its allies since last week have [...]

Ultratravel Top 10: Private Islands

Privacy is the pull, but that’s hardly the only draw to a private island. There’s something about the prospect of having a world within the world to yourself – and the people you choose to have along with you there – that takes you back to the intense childhood fun of creating a secret hideaway. A den, a clubhouse, a place that feels like it belongs outside [...]

Speculation Soars As Mike Pence Says "There Will Be Very Important Announcements Tomorrow"

With the Trump cabinet filling up, but a number of key positions still to be announced, vice-president-elect Mike Pence told Fox News tonight that "there will be very important announcements tomorrow."   Vice President-elect @mike_pence: There will be very important announcements tomorrow. #NewsAlert pic.twitter.com/VOAXMsBhMa — Fox News (@FoxNews) November 29, 2016   So who will it be? POSTS ALREADY FILLED WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF * Republican [...]

Trump meets Romney as aides fight over appointment

Donald Trump was due to meet former critic Mitt Romney for a second time on Wednesday as aides to the president-elect stepped up a public rearguard action against the possible appointment of the one-time Republican nominee as secretary of state. Mr Trump has narrowed the list of candidates to several frontrunners, including Mr Romney and Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a faithful ally of the New [...]

Trump threatens to end US detente with Cuba

November 28, 2016 by: Jessica Dye in New York and John Paul Rathbone in Miami Donald Trump on Monday threatened to end the Obama administration accord that restored diplomatic ties between the US and Cuba if the former Cold War foe did not negotiate a better deal with his government.Following the death of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday, the US president-elect tweeted that he would [...]

Cuban leader Fidel Castro dead at 90

November 26, 2016 by: Madison Marriage in London and Andres Schipani in Bogotá Fidel Castro, the controversial Cuban leader who seized power in 1959 and ruled over the communist state for the following five decades, has died aged 90.Castro came to power as a charismatic guerrilla leader after his army of revolutionaries marched into Havana 49 years ago when he was just 32 years old. His younger [...]

Fidel Castro, 1926–2016

He seized power audaciously in 1959 and commanded to the last a powerful personal following inside and outside Cuba. But during more than half a century in office Fidel Castro, who has died at the age of 90, metamorphosed from a popular and charismatic guerrilla leader into a traditional caudillo, an autocratic holdover from another age. At his life’s end, although bolstered by the emergence of a [...]

Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary, Dies at 90

Updated Nov. 26, 2016 2:23 a.m. ET Fidel Castro burst on the world scene in 1959, spawning the very image of a revolutionary with his scruffy beard, rifle and cigar, ruling Cuba for a half-century while rankling 11 U.S. presidents and helping bring the world to the brink of nuclear war. Mr. Castro, who was suffering from undisclosed illnesses, died at 90 years old, his brother, President [...]

J&J confirms talks with Actelion over pharma deal

Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest healthcare group, confirmed on Friday it is in preliminary discussions with Actelion, Europe’s largest biotechnology company, over a potential deal.Its statement came after days of speculation among investors that J&J had been preparing a bid for Actelion, although the Switzerland-based biotech had earlier warned “there can be no certainty that a transaction will result” from the J&J approach. People close to [...]

US markets: Trump’s bull run

As Wall Street traders departed for Thanksgiving this week, they could celebrate a rare achievement. On Monday and Tuesday, the four most widely cited indices of US stocks — the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq Composite and the Russell 2000 — hit all-time highs simultaneously. The last time a “grand slam” happened was on New Year’s Eve 1999, at the height of the [...]

Where to go when: winter 2016-17

Ashley Lane rounds up the winter activities in destinations ranging from Monaco and Manila to Brazil and Antarctica.• Read this and more stories in Ultratravel magazine, out with The National on Thursday, November 24newslideMonacoThough temperatures are lower than normal, heading to Monaco in December means fewer crowds and lower prices. There are also plenty of festivals and activities to keep visitors busy. Those planning to stay for [...]

Review: Beats on The Beach in Abu Dhabi kicks off with Yeng Constantino and Shamma Hamdan delivering crowd-pleasing sets

The Abu Dhabi F1 party got started on Thursday on the Abu Dhabi Corniche.The free music festival, Beats on The Beach, kicked off with over 20,000 people in attendance to see a varied programme featuring the likes of Filipino pop sensation Yeng Constantino, Emirati singer Shamma Hamdan and UK rap duo Krept and Konan.With all the artists blessed with their own dedicated fan base, the opportunity to [...]

Couple charged in Singapore exchange stock crash case

A Malaysian businessman and his partner have been charged with orchestrating the single biggest fraud in the history of Singapore’s stock exchange, which wiped out S$8bn in value and triggered a lasting loss of investor confidence. Soh Chee Wen, also known as John Soh, faced charges in a Singapore court on Friday in relation to an alleged fraud in which three publicly listed stocks soared in valuation [...]

A Boba Fett: A Star Wars Story Announcement Was Cancelled "at the Last Minute" in 2015

Not only was the long-rumored Boba Fett Star Wars Anthology movie a going concern, but a teaser reel was prepped to be shown at Star Wars Celebration 2015 alongside an official announcement, before being axed "at the last minute" following a split between Disney and mooted director Josh Trank. This comes courtesy of Entertainment Weekly sources, who say that the project has now been backburnered. Trank seemingly left [...]

Jared Kushner, Cast as Potential Player on Israel, Is Little Known There

Palestinian leaders were more wary. “I don’t personally know Jared Kushner and have never met him, but welcome the idea of having him assist in breaking the deadlock in the negotiations of the conflict,” said Amin Maqboul, secretary general of the revolutionary council of Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority. Continue reading the main story The extent of Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Israel is unclear. [...]

Lunch with the FT: John Hanke

John Hanke arrives at Mijita on San Francisco Bay looking more like a middle-aged indie rocker than the chief executive of a company that this summer was estimated to be making tens of millions a week. His striped flannel shirt is unbuttoned over a T-shirt bearing a compass and the words, taken from a poem in The Lord of the Rings, “Not all who wander are lost”.The [...]

One by One, ISIS Social Media Experts Are Killed as Result of F.B.I. Program

Initially the threat posed by the Legion was primarily seen as a problem for law enforcement officials. But as the threat worsened last year, and the F.B.I. stepped up the monitoring of terrorism suspects around the country, the bureau pressed the military to focus on the group, according to current and former American officials. Continue reading the main story While American and British forces conducted a series [...]