TAIPEI A group of Chinese warships lead by the country’s sole aircraft carrier has passed through waters south of Taiwan and is heading southwest, Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Monday of what China has termed a routine exercise. The ministry said the aircraft carrier the Liaoning, accompanied by five other vessels, had passed 90 nautical miles south of Taiwan’s southernmost point on Monday morning via the Bashi […]
But with few spies in the city, American officials say assessing the enemy is difficult. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the situation on the ground in Raqqa,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the air war commander, said in an interview from his headquarters in Qatar. “It’s improving. It’s still not at the level we’d like it to be.” Continue reading the main story […]
ISTANBUL — When a Turkish police officer assassinated Andrey G. Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, on Monday, it felt for a moment as if the whole world shook. The killing took place at a time of global uncertainty and reminded some observers of the start of World War I. The truth, however, is that despite shaky relations between Russia and Turkey in recent years, the assassination is […]
COTABATO CITY—The grenade explosion that left a police officer and 11 others injured outside a Catholic church in Midsayap, North Cotabato, on Christmas Eve was meant for the police, a local official said. Midsayap Mayor Romeo Araña told reporters that the main target of the attack by two men riding a motorcycle were the police officers who were part of the security during the Christmas Eve Mass. […]
KINSHASA An ethnic Nande militia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo killed at least 13 Hutu civilians on Sunday with guns and machetes in an apparent revenge attack for the deaths of Nande civilians last week, a local activist said. Tit-for-tat massacres by Hutu and Nande militia in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province have killed dozens this year. Relations between the communities have worsened due to population […]
BEIJING China’s first aircraft carrier will carry out drills in the Western Pacific, in what the navy called part of routine exercises, but amid renewed tension over self-ruled Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own. The navy said in a statement late on Saturday the Liaoning, along with its accompanying fleet, would conduct “exercises far out at sea”, without giving details of the location or route, in […]
Saudi Arabia’s government plans to provide 200 billion riyals ($53 billion) of incentives to the private sector over the next four years in its drive to diversify the economy beyond oil, according to an official planning document. A reform programme launched this year, after a plunge in oil prices slashed state revenues in the world’s top oil exporting country, envisions the private sector investing tens of billions […]
Region’s Largest Financial Advisor Observes “Troublingly Low” Penetration Rates across the Country Key Benefits Include Medical Emergency Coverage, as well as Compensation for Flight Delays and Loss of Personal Belongings 22 December 2016 Dubai, United Arab Emirates UAE holidaymakers are putting themselves at increased risk of facing serious financial repercussions by not taking measures to adequately cover themselves in the event of a travel emergency, experts […]
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T)said on Saturday that a new chief executive officer will lead its Brazil operations beginning Jan. 2. The Japanese carmaker said Rafael Chang would take over the company’s largest South American operation. He will replace Koji Kondo, whom the company praised as leading Toyota through difficult years as demand for autos in Brazil has fallen by half in the last four years. Toyota, Brazil’s […]
Australia’s cybersecurity capabilities and researchers will be showcased to global players in the United States in February, in a delegation sent to the RSA Conference in San Francisco led by Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security Alastair MacGibbon and recently appointed CEO of the Australian Cyber Security Growth Network Craig Davies. According to Nicola Watkinson, Austrade’s senior trade and investment commissioner for North America, […]
A man wearing a Santa Claus costume walks atop Jerusalem’s Old City walls on December 23, 2016 An online Santa tracker run by a Canadian and American defense agency mapped the jolly old gift-giver’s path around the globe Saturday, in what has become a Yuletide tradition. Every Christmas Eve since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Saint Nicholas’s annual voyage to deliver […]
By Lawrence Delevingne | NEW YORK NEW YORK When six executives of Platinum Partners, including founder Mark Nordlicht, were arrested on Monday on federal charges of running a more than $1 billion hedge fund fraud, people who had long alleged they were harmed by the New York-based firm felt some vindication. But the possibility that each defendant might face prison terms has done little to soothe their […]
ABU DHABI // Five times a day, Sayed Hameed announces prayers from his mosque in International City. After every call, the muezzin says a silent prayer for his son. His eldest son, 11-year-old Yousef, needs corrective surgery on his right leg, which has been deformed since birth. However, his 35-year-old Afghan father cannot afford to pay Dh60,000 for operation. “Yousef didn’t have any accidents and doesn’t suffer […]
By Philip Pullella | ROME ROME Security for the long Christmas weekend was heightened throughout Italy and at the Vatican on Saturday following the killing by police of the man believed to be responsible for the Berlin market truck attack. As investigators sought to determine if Anis Amri had accomplices in Italy, and associates of the 24-year-old were arrested in his home country of Tunisia, national security […]
A round up of some of 2016’s most significant corporate events and news stories. Smartphone sales © EPA A bright start to the year for Samsung Electronicswent up in smoke, after it took the unprecedented decision to axe its Galaxy Note 7 line, following a spate of safety issues that saw the smartphone banned from aircraft, writes Nic Fildes. The 2016 Galaxy Note iteration won substantial praise […]
A recent want ad for a job at a professional services companies had this interesting description: Photo: Joe McKendrick “Robotic Process Automation Analyst: Key responsibilities include: work with business teams to simplify and improve operations by analyzing as-is processes and create end-to-end automation solution designs… Work with process owners/SMEs and technology teams to analyse and assess automation feasibility… Document business requirements, processes and work instructions…. Operate as […]
IDC predicts that 35 percent of leading organizations in logistics, health, utilities, and resources will explore the use of robots to automate operations by 2019. What does the future hold for robotics? It’s hard to say, given the rapid pace of change in the field as well as in associated areas such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. But one thing seems certain: Robots will play an […]
Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), a developer of large-scale solar power plants and part of Saudi-based Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, has been awarded a 30-year 300MW solar project in Mexico. With this build-operate-own agreement, FRV said it is extending its global footprint into the Mexican market at a rate of $26.99/MWh for the first 15 years of the project. The construction of the plant will begin in mid-2018 […]
Lately, cybersecurity has been the place where IT’s optimism goes to die. It’s been a tough road for companies and organizations the past few years as their network defenses have been bent and broken on a consistent, and often dramatic, basis. Hacks that topple over a billion user accounts are shocking and make a solution seem impossible. But IT is resilient despite on-going challenges in staffing, budgeting, […]
By David Stanway | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI China has publicly named more than 20 enterprises it says broke environmental rules during this week’s outbreak of hazardous smog in the country’s north, its latest attempt to bring lawbreaking firms to account by shaming them. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) accused steel and paper mills, cement plants, power generators and chemical producers of a range of offences, including ignoring […]
Europe’s Airbus signed a firm contract on Thursday to sell 100 jets to IranAir, completing a return by Western plane giants and paving the way for deliveries to start next month, a year after sanctions against Iran were lifted. The deal took weeks of shuttling between Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, and Tehran, complicated by a shortage of expert legal advice as Iran completes its biggest commercial […]
LAGOS Nigerian authorities are involved in negotiations aimed at securing the release of some of the more than 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014 in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok, the president’s spokesman said on Thursday. His comments, posted on Twitter, came in response to reports in Nigeria’s media that some of the girls had been released by the Islamist militant group, which he […]
As journalists grapple with the rise of fake news, it’s worth examining what happens when policymakers embrace misinformation instead of evidence when it comes to climate change. In September, YourNewsWire breathlessly told its readers that thousands of scientists had declared climate change “a hoax.” This was big news — at least on Facebook — where the YourNewsWire post was shared more than 550,000 times, making it the […]
WASHINGTON Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden “has had and continues to have contact” with Russian intelligence services, according to newly declassified portions of a House Intelligence Committee report released on Thursday. The new material also said that the Pentagon found 13 undisclosed “high risk” security issues caused by Snowden’s disclosure to media outlets of tens of thousands of the U.S. eavesdropping agency’s most sensitive documents. […]
