Angela Merkel is to call on Germany to withstand the test of Islamist terrorism by countering the militants’ “hatred” with “humanity” and “unity,” days after the truck attack on a Christmas market. In her New Year’s address, the chancellor will condemn the Berlin attack in which 12 people were killed. It is believed to have been carried out by Anis Amri, a Tunisian who was killed in […]
And there is a red, or more conservative, Israel that thought the secretary of state was delusional and insulting, divorced from the harsh reality of the only real democracy in the Middle East struggling to preserve itself in a hostile neighborhood. Continue reading the main story Just as in the United States, many Israelis cling to their own facts, retreat to their own media outlets, advance their […]
BERLIN Islamist terrorism is the biggest test facing Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday in a New Year’s address to the nation, and she vowed to introduce laws that improve security after a deadly attack before Christmas in Berlin. Describing 2016 as a year that gave many the impression that the world had “turned upside down,” Merkel urged Germans to forsake populism and said Germany had […]
Much has been made in the last several years for the need of the CIO and CMO to align on technology plans, as marketing strategy increasingly must be realized largely or entirely within digital experiences. While the CIO has long owned the overall technology stack inside of the enterprise, the CMO has certainly had a say in it in most organizations since the rise of digital marketing […]
The search for extra-terrestrial life is one of the most mysterious subject areas one can study. The vastness of the universe is much too unfathomable for some, but even with the theory of its never-ending expansion, scientists are not perturbed and are continuing in their search for alien life. SETI Signals The name SETI stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence,” which is exactly what many scientists are doing. […]
Two beauty queens with links to the Gulf have won the latest season of The Amazing Race Asia. After they returned from filming The Amazing Race Asia last summer, Maggie Wilson-Consunji and Parul Shah could barely contain their excitement. “Don’t let our invisible crowns fool you. We are beauty-queen fighting machines,” they told their fans on social media. “We are scared but also super excited. We cannot […]
China’s government this week waded into a feud between the film industry and review websites that have panned some of the country’s biggest budget movies, censuring critiques and saying the sites are “malicious and irresponsible”. Topping off a year of lacklustre films and slow ticket sales, the intervention was meant to bolster confidence in China’s ability to generate blockbusters. China’s goal is to catch up to the […]
The events of the past few days have renewed a longstanding debate over whether American Jews must always stand with the Israeli government, and under what circumstances should they criticize a friend. Continue reading the main story “There’s a very clear values clash going on,” said Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the executive director of T’ruah, a rabbinical human rights organization. “On the one hand, we have a small […]
PRAGUE Czech police have detained a Polish man after a passenger jet flying from Spain to Warsaw made an emergency landing in Prague on Friday due to a bomb threat, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said. The plane was parked away from the main terminals of Prague airport while police investigated the incident. Flight tracking websites showed planes were again landing at the airport. Chovanec, speaking with Czech […]
For those out of the loop, Amazon has just been granted a patent for an “airborne fulfillment center utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles for item delivery,” a fancy phrase for what’s essentially a flying warehouse. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had already handed Amazon the go-ahead back in April, but only now have the plans surfaced online via the office’s website. What’s described in the patents, as others […]
KINSHASA Congolese President Joseph Kabila will step down after elections held before the end of 2017, under a deal struck by political parties on Friday, according to a lead mediator from the Catholic Church. Under the deal, Kabila will be unable to change the constitution to extend his mandate and run for a third term, Marcel Utembi, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference in the Democratic Republic […]
A year ago the coffers at Argentina’s central bank were empty as the country teetered on the brink of a currency crisis. Now banks are scrambling to fly dollars back to the US as their vaults fill to bursting with piles of cash. That would sound like good news for Alfonso Prat-Gay, who as finance minister this week boasted that his tax amnesty had already repatriated $90bn hidden […]
By Jakub Iglewski | WARSAW WARSAW Polish President Andrzej Duda and hundreds of mourners on Friday attended the funeral of Lukasz Urban, the Polish truck driver who was killed and his vehicle used to crash into a Berlin Christmas market last week. The 37-year-old father of a teenaged boy was among 12 people killed in the attack claimed by Islamic State. Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on […]
By Selam Gebrekidan | TOREKOV, Sweden TOREKOV, Sweden For more than a year, Girmay Mehari dreaded his 18th birthday next February. The teenager escaped from an Eritrean jail two years ago after he was sentenced to an indefinite term for evading national service or plotting to escape the country. The police never spelled out the charges. With money his brothers raised in New York and Israel, Girmay […]
By Polina Nikolskaya and Svetlana Reiter | MOSCOW MOSCOW President Vladimir Putin ruled out on Friday expelling anyone in retaliation for Washington’s decision to throw out 35 Russian diplomats and impose sanctions on two of the country’s intelligence agencies. RIA news agency quoted Putin as saying he would consider the actions of President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, when deciding on further steps in Russia-U.S. […]
Trade between the UAE and China is expected to increase to $60 billion by the end of this year, up from $54.8 billion in 2015, according to the Dubai Economic Council. It said the UAE is now China’s second largest trading partner in the Middle East and the region’s biggest market for Chinese goods, news agency WAM reported. China, whose trade with the UAE stood at only […]
As we live through it, every year seems packed with significant events and key players who, for better or worse, seize our attention on the world stage. But as 2016 draws to a close and the white noise of 24-hour news cycles and transient Twitter storms fades into the background, it is already clear that history will remember only a handful of those people, each of whom […]
Vladimir Putin said Russia will not expel any US diplomats in response to sanctions imposed by Washington, in an extraordinary move aimed at limiting the fallout from the Kremlin’s clash with the Obama administration over the hacking of this year’s US presidential election. The Russian president made his announcement on Friday despite foreign ministry proposals for the expulsion of 35 US diplomats. Sergei Lavrov, foreign minister, said […]
Financial markets in 2016 endured an escalation of negative interest rates, the collapse and subsequent rebound in commodity prices and fluctuating stock market valuations. The test for investors began in week one, as fears of a China slowdown roiled stock indices weeks after the Federal Reserve began to normalise policy. Over the ensuing months, the Brexit vote and US election would prove significant mile markers, shift thinking […]
BERLIN Martin Schulz, the European Parliament president who is returning to German politics, does not expect to run as the Social Democrats’ (SPD) candidate for chancellor next year, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday. Schulz’s decision not to run, if confirmed, would likely clear the way for SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel to be the party’s candidate to challenge conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s bid for a fourth term […]
FRANKFURT China’s Midea said it will complete its takeover of German robotics maker Kuka in the first half of January after the United States authorities gave the deal a green light. Midea, which launched a 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) offer for Kuka in May, said Germany’s markets regulator had approved the settlement of the transaction, allowing it to control a 94.55 percent voting stake in Kuka […]
The government of the United States has formally accused Russia of interfering with the 2016 presidential election through a series of hacking attacks. The outgoing Obama administration has issued sanctions for the alleged interference, moves that has prompted the Russian government to promise a retaliation. FBI, DHS Publish Joint Report On Russian Hacking The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security published a joint […]
WASHINGTON: Almost six months since their summer meeting to achieve closer ties, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan took another step toward that goal by brokering a new cease-fire deal in Syria, to be followed by political talks to try to resolve the six-year-long conflict.The deal — announced simultaneously by the governments of Turkey, Syria and Russia — is a seven-point package […]
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; December 30, 2017 As the 10th anniversary year of Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, draws to a close, industry watchers can reflect on 12 months that have marked a historic milestone for the company and a pivotal moment for the renewable energy sector as a whole. During the decade since Masdar was established, the UAE has cemented a global reputation for […]
