Screens from the Starbucks mobile app. At its annual meeting with investors on December 7, Starbucks executives outlined a bevy of initiatives involving new store formats, expanded food offerings, and new premium coffee beverages — but the other big story to come out of the coffee giant’s corporate hobnobbing was how the company’s use of technology has turned the brand into a digital innovation machine. Starbucks, which […]
Submitted by Nomi Prins via TomDispatch.com, Given his cabinet picks so far, it’s reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn’t a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? It’s […]
MANAMA The United States is sending 200 additional military personnel to Syria to help the campaign to drive the Islamic State militant group from Raqqa, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday. Speaking in Bahrain at the Manama Dialogue conference on Middle East security, Carter said the 200, including special forces trainers, advisers and explosive ordnance disposal teams, would join 300 U.S. special force troops already […]
Yet Mr. McLaren suggested that the full extent of the cheating might never be known. “It is impossible to know just how deep and how far back this conspiracy goes,” he said on Friday, calling the “immutable facts” of his report clear but far from comprehensive. “For years, international sports competitions have unknowingly been hijacked by the Russians.” Continue reading the main story Mr. McLaren concluded last […]
By Steve Holland | GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump’s leading candidate for U.S. secretary of state, a senior transition official said. Trump met Tillerson on Tuesday and may talk to him again over the weekend, the official said. Trump appears to be in the final days of deliberations over his top […]
From spray-on skin for burns victims, the electronic pacemaker, the Gardasil and Cervarix cancer vaccines, or finding the medical application of penicillin, Australia has a reputation of birthing a number of medical innovations that have changed the global healthcare industry. In 1967, Sydney-based Dr Graeme Clark began researching the possibilities of an electronic implantable hearing device, and by 1978, the first ever Cochlear implant was performed. Cochlear […]
(Image: file photo) The good news is developers are looking very closely at Linux’s core code for possible security holes. The bad news is they’re finding them. At least the best news is that they’re fixing them as soon as they’re uncovered. The latest three kernel vulnerabilities are designated CVE-2016-8655, CVE-2016-6480, and CVE-2016-6828. Of these, CVE-2016-8655 is the worst of the bunch. It enables local users, which […]
By Yeganeh Torbati and Warren Strobel | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S.-led coalition planes destroyed 168 Islamic State oil tanker trucks in Syria, the coalition said on Friday, in the largest strike of its kind and the latest instance of what U.S. officials say has been a successful effort to starve the militant group of revenues. The air strikes targeted the truck fleet near Palmyra, Syria on Thursday, a […]
BEIRUT: Syrian troops and allied forces shelled besieged districts of eastern Aleppo Friday, pressing ahead with a massive onslaught to seize remaining parts of the crumbling enclave that had been controlled by the opposition since 2012.Russia announced Thursday that the Syrian army was suspending combat operations to allow for the evacuation of civilians from besieged opposition-held districts, but residents and medics inside eastern Aleppo said there was […]
AMSTERDAM Police acting on a tip-off from the Dutch intelligence agency arrested a 30-year-old “terrorist” suspect and seized an arsenal of weapons in the port city of Rotterdam on Friday afternoon, prosecutors said. Detectives found a Kalashnikov AK-47 rifle, four boxes of illegal highly explosive fireworks, a large depiction of the Islamic State flag, several mobile phones and 1,600 euros in cash when they searched the suspect’s […]
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Malaysian police forces clashed with suspected Abu Sayyaf rebels killing three of them off Semporna City in Sabah after they attacked at least two sea trawlers. The Malaysian media said police captured two more gunmen and rescued a fishing boat captain, believed to be a Filipino holding a special identity card. Another skipper, however, was abducted by the two gunmen who escaped at the height […]
TUNIS Libyan forces are trying to secure the city of Sirte after ousting Islamic State from its former North African stronghold in a battle that lasted nearly seven months. Here are some facts about Islamic State in Libya: ORIGINS Islamic State drew on existing pockets of militancy in Libya, establishing its first major presence in Derna, an eastern city with a strong Islamist tradition. It also profited […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka—Sri Lanka’s heavily indebted government signed an agreement in principle on Thursday to sell an 80% stake in a deep-water port on the nation’s southern coast, close to one of the world’s busiest sea lanes, to a Chinese state-owned company, senior officials said. Under the deal, a copy of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, China Merchants Port Holdings Co. would pay about […]
In 2011, as skincare brand Nivea marked its centenary with a string of parties across the world, Indian billionaire BR Shetty hosted his own private celebration in his extraordinary apartment in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. No humble pied-à-terre, this pad occupies the entire 100th floor of the tallest building in the world — not bad for the former pharmaceutical salesman, who was one of the first people to […]
Breaking News, the popular alert app from NBC News, is shutting down at the end of the year. The entire staff at Breaking News — more than 20 editors, developers and administrative staffers — will stay on payroll at NBC News until Jan. 20, a spokesperson for NBC News told Poynter. Meanwhile, an effort is underway at the company to try to find jobs for as many […]
Madrid, Spain – 09 November 2016 Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), a leading global developer of large-scale solar power plants and part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, has been awarded a 30 year 300 MW solar project in the second electricity market auction, conducted by the National Energy Control Center (CENACE) of Mexico. With this Build-Operate-Own agreement, FRV extends its global footprint into the Mexican market at very […]
Photo Syrian civilians, in eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo retaken by government forces, returned to their homes on Thursday under military supervision. Credit George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images BEIRUT, Lebanon — Russian officials said Thursday that the Syrian Army had stopped combat operations in the divided city of Aleppo in order to evacuate civilians, but residents of the rebel-held enclave reported that after a day of intense […]
Investors have valued Athene at about $7.4bn in a stock market launch of the US pensions provider, according to people familiar with the matter. Selling shareholders led by private equity house Apollo Global Management are set to raise $1.08bn as bankers handling the float prepare to price shares in the company at $40 apiece, the people said. That is the middle of a range of between $38 […]
08 December 2016 “The power and energy landscape in Africa is undergoing significant change” says Evan Schiff, African Utility Week event director, adding that current trends include “the availability of private investment for power and energy projects, the fast development of energy storage, renewable energy is becoming cheaper, gas that is an increasingly attractive mode of power generation in Africa, and that in the next 10 years, […]
By Mark Hosenball | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump is receiving an average of one presidential intelligence briefing a week, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter, far fewer than most of his recent predecessors. Although they are not required to, presidents-elect have in the past generally welcomed the opportunity to receive the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), the most highly classified and closely held document in […]
WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Thursday about the situation in Aleppo and agreed to keep discussing a ceasefire to allow aid delivery and the departure of anyone who wants to leave the embattled city, the State Department said. The phone call was in addition to a brief meeting the two men had on Thursday on […]
By freelance contributor Ben Bohane in Ly Son Island Posted December 09, 2016 05:35:32 Photo: Ly Son island, looking out towards the Paracels and Spratlys. (ABC News: Ben Bohane ) Related Story: Vietnam moves rocket launchers into disputed South China Sea: report Related Story: Vietnam expanding South China Sea runway: reports Sparkling on the horizon as our boat navigates the swell is one of the world’s most […]
By Pak Yiu and Lisa Jucca | HONG KONG HONG KONG Cardinal Joseph Zen, the most senior Chinese Catholic cleric, says the participation of an excommunicated prelate at two bishop ordinations in China was a “slap in the face” for Pope Francis just as Rome seeks a historic deal with Beijing. Bishop Lei Shiyin, who was excommunicated by the Vatican in 2011 for accepting his appointment without […]
I spot the ship long before the car pulls up to the cruise terminal at Abu Dhabi’s Mina Zayed. Part of the Celebrity Cruises fleet, the stately Celebrity Constellation – dark blue and white, and marked with a distinctive “X” logo at the top – stands 13 decks tall. Orange lifeboats hang high on Deck 5, and the shaded gangplank looks like a tunnel boring into the […]
