More than four decades after a sweeping British military withdrawal from bases “east of Suez”, the UK is scaling up its defence engagement in the Gulf and Asia in what analysts regard as a recognition of the region’s growing global importance. Britain is reopening a naval support facility in Bahrain, creating a permanent army presence in Oman and establishing new defence staff centres in Dubai and Singapore. […]
Photo An Airbus A321 featuring the Iranian flag at an Airbus plant in Hamburg, Germany, this week. The acquisition of modern planes is an important achievement for President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. Credit Fabian Bimmer/Reuters The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus completed a deal on Thursday to sell 100 jetliners to Iran, a move described by both sides as a major step toward revitalizing Iran’s aged commercial fleet […]
Dubai, UAE, Riyad, Saudi Arabia, 22 December 2016 Tasnee, the leading industrial company in Saudi Arabia, is the platinum sponsor of ArabPlast Show to be held from 8th to 10th of January 2017 at the Dubai Exhibition and convention Centre. Co-organised by Al Fajer Information and Services and German exhibition organiser Messe Dusseldorf, ArabPlast is expected to bring together key players in the plastics, petrochemicals and rubber […]
Less than a week after Uber said that it will keep testing its self-driving vehicles in San Francisco despite being told to stop by California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, the ride-sharing company is now being forced to take the cars off the city’s roads. Uber defied the orders of the California DMV to apply for a testing permit for its self-driving cars in San Francisco, claiming that the company […]
Mr. Trump, who last week nominated as ambassador to Israel a bankruptcy lawyer who heads a fund-raising effort for a West Bank settlement, made clear on Thursday that he would not wait for his inauguration to weigh in. In a statement, he said bluntly that the resolution should be vetoed. Continue reading the main story “As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and […]
By Mohamed Argouby, Joseph Nasr and Steve Scherer | OUESLATIA, Tunisia/BERLIN/ROME OUESLATIA, Tunisia/BERLIN/ROME In his impoverished Tunisian hometown, Anis Amri drank alcohol and never prayed, his brothers say. Then after joining the wave of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, he ended up in an Italian jail, only to emerge an utterly changed man. Now he is prime suspect in this week’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market and […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday it is canceling an inactive registry program for visitors from countries where extremist groups are operating, a plan similar to a Muslim registry considered by President-elect Donald Trump. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration Systems program, known as NSEERS, was suspended in 2011, DHS spokesman Neema Hakim said in a statement. He said the program was determined to […]
PANAMA CITY: From the Panama Papers to the impeachments of the presidents of Brazil and South Korea, 2016 was a year marked by corruption scandals and by rising public outrage over graft. The question is will that translate into a lasting demand for cleaner politics? “A new phenomenon” is being seen, said Jose Ugaz, a renowned Peruvian lawyer and the chairman of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption […]
A Harvard-led study has found that elderly patients treated by female doctors while hospitalized were less likely to succumb to death within 30 days of their admission, or be readmitted 30 days after being discharged compared with those who were cared for by male doctors. Publishing their findings in JAMA Internal Medicine, Yusuke Tsugawa and colleagues estimated that if male doctors achieved the same results as their […]
Google and Apple are the most valuable companies in the world, and undoubted winners from the smartphone boom. In their wake lies Nokia’s handset business, which was sold to Microsoft and later wound down. But, when it comes to defending themselves against the arsenal of patents Nokia built up in its years at the top, the US tech giants want the world to view them as victims […]
UNITED NATIONS: A UN board of inquiry says it received reports that an attack on an aid convoy on the outskirts of Aleppo in September was “highly likely” to have been carried out by the Syrian air force but it was unable to reach a definitive conclusion.A summary of the board’s report released late Wednesday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also said its members “did not have evidence […]
2016 was fact-checking’s finest year [1]. No it wasn’t, it was the year of “post-truth” [2] — some preferred “post-fact” [3] — and fact-checking is a fool’s errand. The discussion about facts in journalism worldwide has rarely been as fractured and animated as it has been in 2016, so we collected 366 links, one for each day of the year, to try and make sense of what […]
The man being sought in connection with Monday’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market had been under police surveillance for months on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, but later fell off the authorities’ radar screen. A manhunt was under way across Europe on Thursday after German authorities issued an appeal for information about the suspect, a 24-year-old Tunisian man, Anis Amri. Germany’s federal prosecutor put out a Europe-wide […]
ZURICH Swiss biotech group Actelion’s (ATLN.S) shares rose by more than 3 percent on Wednesday following a report that talks with Sanofi (SASY.PA) are making progress, increasing optimism that the two will strike a deal. Reuters reported late on Tuesday that discussions between the Swiss and French companies are progressing, despite investors’ fears that the Swiss biotech firm’s chief executive and founder might not want to sell. […]
Photo A Turkish honor guard with the coffin of Andrey Karlov, the assassinated Russian ambassador to Turkey, at a ceremony Tuesday at an Ankara airport. Credit Emrah Gurel/Associated Press For the moment, the most important thing to say about Monday’s dramatic assassination of Russia’s ambassador to Turkey by a lone gunman is that it has not ruptured relations between the two countries. It might have, given past […]
BERLIN German police on Wednesday intensified a manhunt for the driver of a truck, who killed 12 people when he mowed into a Berlin Christmas market, and said they were following a number of good leads. After releasing a Pakistani asylum-seeker arrested near the scene, authorities warned that the attacker is on the run and may be armed. They have also said it is unclear if the […]
Submitted by a Zero Hedge reader who wishes to remain anonymous: OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER-PRESIDENT SEEHOFER(Sent before the carnage in Berlin’s Christmas market) Dear Minister-President Seehofer, I would like to commend you on your opposition to mass uncontrolled immigration into Europe. One would think that it would be trivial to praise politicians – who are elected to uphold law and order, meaning our culture and values – […]
SYDNEY The U.S. dollar held near 14-year peaks on Wednesday as global yield spreads moved inexorably in its favor, while a falling yen lifted Japanese shares to a one-year top. The Nikkei .N225 added 0.3 percent in thin trade, while Australia’s main index climbed 0.6 percent to its highest in 17 months after Wall Street racked up more records. Japan’s government upgraded its overall assessment of the […]
Australia’s corporate regulator has ordered Slater & Gordon to produce documents in relation to an investigation into the accuracy of its financial records, sending shares in the beleaguered law firm down more than 6 per cent. S&G has faced a string of issues with authorities in the UK and Australia following its disastrous 2015 acquisition of the professional services arm of UK-based Quindell, now known as Watchstone […]
But by the time Mr. Trump is sworn in next month, such safe zones may be irrelevant, if the evacuation of Aleppo and political negotiations proceed. Continue reading the main story More than a year after launching the air campaign that remade the battlefield in Mr. Assad’s favor, Russia appears to be looking for a way out of the war. Analysts say that Moscow sees in the […]
By Henning Gloystein | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Oil prices nudged higher on Wednesday on expectations of a U.S. crude inventory draw, although trading activity was muted as markets start to wind down ahead of the Christmas weekend. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures CLc1 were trading at $53.58 per barrel at 0105 GMT, up 28 cents from their last settlement. International Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 […]
A merger of German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd and United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) is likely to take months to complete, partly due to financing issues blamed on a deep industry downturn, sources familiar with the deal say. Hapag-Lloyd signed a binding agreement with UASC in July to form the world’s fifth-largest line, valued at about 7 to 8 billion euros ($7.2-$8.3 billion), by the end of […]
It’s still hard to believe Orlando is home to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Even six months later, it’s surreal to think 49 people were killed at a club I pass every day on my way to work. The shooting changed Central Florida forever and with it, transformed our newsroom and reporters. The news was unbelievable. It made no sense. Even veteran journalists were in […]
Tuesday 19:45 GMT Overview A robust session for US equities saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average climb to within a whisker of the 20,000 milestone as participants shrugged off geopolitical concerns and focused on the prospect of stronger growth under the presidency of Donald Trump. The “risk-on” mood in the markets left US Treasury prices and gold lower while the yen — viewed by many as a […]
