DUBAI // The world desperately needs to adopt a new approach to achieve human happiness, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai has said. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said the approach must be based on cooperation and searching for ponits of agreement, speaking to mark the creation of what was described as the first World Happiness Council. The announcement came ahead of International Happiness Day, which falls […]
The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee said the FBI had found no evidence to support Donald Trump’s assertion that Trump Tower was monitored by his predecessor, adding to a chorus of Republican lawmakers who have rejected the president’s unsubstantiated claim. “Was there a physical wiretap of Trump Tower? No,” Devin Nunes told Fox News on Sunday. He added that no warrants had been issued under […]
By Michelle Martin | SAARBRUECKEN, Germany SAARBRUECKEN, Germany When voters head to the polls in the German state of Saarland later this month, they are likely to deliver an upset to Chancellor Angela Merkel that could be a foretaste of September’s national election. One of Germany’s smallest states, Saarland is – like federal Germany – currently governed by a ‘grand coalition’ of Merkel’s conservatives and the Social […]
By Emily Stephenson and Caren Bohan | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday they had seen no proof to support the claim by Republican President Donald Trump that his predecessor Barack Obama had wiretapped him last year, adding pressure on Trump to explain or back off his repeated assertion. Several Republicans last week urged Trump to apologize for the allegations he made in […]
WASHINGTON A detailed version of President Donald Trump’s budget to be released in May will lay out plans to eventually erase U.S. deficits, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday. “We’re getting into that now. By May, I think it’s mid-May we’re shooting for right now, we’ll have that larger budget…” Mulvaney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program. Mulvaney acknowledged that the budget would […]
By Mike Stone | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump says he wants to build dozens of new warships in one of the biggest peace-time expansions of the U.S. Navy. But interviews with ship-builders, unions and a review of public and internal documents show major obstacles to that plan. The initiative could cost nearly $700 billion in government funding, take 30 years to complete and require hiring […]
Tim Byrnes is an unlikely symbol of China’s bid to become the world’s high-tech superpower. For a start he is Australian. Yet the 39-year-old quantum physicist’s decision to swap a research post in New York for Shanghai goes some way to explaining the lengths to which Beijing is going in its efforts to upend the world order. “Quantum physics is very strong in China,” says Mr Byrnes. […]
It has been almost five years to the day since Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji took over as head of Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, restructuring several investment interests and making other changes to whip the fund into shape after years of losses. It followed a term at Gulf Air in which he managed the national carrier’s controversial restructure that saw 15 percent of its staff, around 600 […]
By Abdiqani Hassan | BOSASSO BOSASSO Somali officials whose forces freed a hijacked oil tanker and its eight Sri Lankan crew said on Sunday that NATO ships must do more to prevent the illegal fishing that locals say sparked the latest attack. Monday’s hijacking was the first time that Somali pirates had successfully hijacked a commercial ship since 2012. Unlike previous hijackings, the ship was freed swiftly […]
By Susan Cornwell and Valerie Volcovici | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and to add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. Ryan said Republican leaders still plan to bring the healthcare bill to a vote on the […]
By Michelle Martin | BERLIN BERLIN Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September. The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new […]
The Trump administration’s budget blueprint, released this morning, proposes to eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, as well as many public radio and television stations across the United States. In a section on page 11 labeled “major agency budget highlights,” the budget summary lists the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as among the independent agencies that will be defunded, along with […]
Tech Times reported on March 11 that Tesla co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk backed up Lyndon Rive’s bold claim at the Powerwall 2 launch at Newport, near Melbourne, that the company can solve South Australia’s energy storage problems in 100 days with its new battery. Rive, Tesla’s Vice President for Energy Products, cited the company’s experience in building a power plant in South California in 90 […]
Employer-funded healthcare in the US is an accidental system. It came into being during the second world war, when wage freezes and 1.9 per cent unemployment forced the government to allow companies to offer fringe benefits like healthcare in an attempt to attract workers. In 1943, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that employer-based healthcare should be tax free — and we were off to the races. The […]
MANILA — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday welcomed the prospect of the International Criminal Court (ICC) putting him on trial over his bloody war on drugs, saying he would not be intimidated and his campaign would be unrelenting and “brutal.” A self-confessed assassin who testified to being in a “death squad” under Duterte is expected to file a case at the ICC this month or in […]
PARIS Centrist Emmanuel Macron would be slightly ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the first round of France’s presidential election and then go on to beat her comfortably in the second-round run-off, an Odoxa poll showed on Sunday. The former economy minister would win 26.5 percent of the vote in the April 23 first round. This was down 0.5 percent from a previous Odoxa poll […]
Government of Dubai Media Office, 19 March 2017 Chairperson of the International Humanitarian City (IHC) HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, today opened the IHC’s Members Global Meeting organized by its newly appointed CEO and leading logistics expert, Giuseppe Saba, under the theme ‘ONE for Humanity’. Attending […]
Spam emails are often used to distribute malware. Image: Symantec Cybercrimes like phishing and malware distribution could almost be eradicated if organisations took one simple step to actively fight against it, a senior member of the UK’s organised crime fighting operation has claimed. That step, says Paul Edmunds, Head of Technology at the National Crime Agency (NCA) National CyberCrime Unit, is the adoption of an “active defence” […]
LONDON The deputy director-general of Britain’s internal security service is to become the new head of intelligence eavesdropping service GCHQ, the Sunday Times newspaper reported without citing the source of its information. The Sunday Times reported MI5’s Jeremy Fleming, who it said had worked at the intelligence agency for at least 20 years, would be named GCHQ head this week. The previous head of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, […]
By Michael Nienaber | BADEN-BADEN BADEN-BADEN The failure of the world’s financial leaders to agree on resisting protectionism and support free trade marks a setback in the G20 process and poses a risk for growth of export-driven economies such as host Germany, economists said on Sunday. Acquiescing to an increasingly protectionist United States after a two-day meeting in the German town of Baden-Baden, the finance ministers and […]
Here are the big questions for markets and investors as a new trading week beckons. Does a measured Fed risk being left behind by inflation?After a barrage of central bank meetings, Brexit angst and the first major European election for the year, market volatility across bonds and equities remains quiescent. Having been primed for a more aggressive Federal Reserve and wary of polls being wrong ahead of […]
In a startling move that went contrary to almost everyone’s expectations, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that there would be no changes in H-1B “skilled worker” visas this year. Applicants who still wished to apply for the skilled worker category visa would face the same Congressional limit of 65,000 in the general category and another 20,000 for foreign students who have a masters degree […]
Exciting programme of seminars includes focus on experiential travel theme, selling local experiences, and halal tourism 19 March 2017 The legacy of Expo 2020 is set to come under the spotlight on Arabian Travel Market’s Global Stage, returning for the 2017 show at Dubai World Trade Centre, from April 24 to 27. Expo 2020, between October 2020 and April 2021, will bring together more than 180 nations […]
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, attends the closing event of Dubai International Arabian Horse Championship on Saturday. The Heritage Village featured traditional Bedouin houses, falconry, local dishes, and more. Wam Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, attended the closing event of Dubai International Arabian Horse […]
