BEIRUT Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday the world would be different after what he called the “liberation of Aleppo”, describing it as a historic moment. “What is happening today is the writing of a history written by every Syrian citizen. The writing did not start today, it started six years ago when the crisis and war started against Syria,” Assad said in a video statement […]
WASHINGTON/BEIJING China’s plan to punish a U.S. automaker accused of price-fixing is a sign of how Beijing could retaliate if President-elect Donald Trump upends decades of relations between the two nations. Trump’s assertion that the United States need not be bound by the policy that Taiwan is part of “one China” would erode a bedrock of U.S.-China ties that has underpinned the vast increase in trade and […]
The US dollar marched higher on Thursday, reaching its strongest level against the euro for more than a decade, after the US Federal Reserve signalled a more aggressive outlook for interest rate policy. Europe’s single currency was among the hardest hit, falling through the $1.04 level to trade at its lowest level since early 2003. Driving the dollar’s strength is a growing divergence between benchmark interest rates […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s news: Business regulations: President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate regulations on U.S. businesses will likely take years to fulfill given the complex steps involved in reversing them and political and legal challenges from Democratic lawmakers and state attorneys general. [WSJ] Terrorism defense: As authorities crack down on ISIS sympathizers, the […] (via WSJ)
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday raised more questions about Russia’s reported role in cyber attacks on U.S. political parties and individuals as well as the timing of the White House’s response under President Barack Obama. “If Russia, or some other entity, was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?” Trump wrote in a […]
A few years ago, Alabama Media Group moved its photo archives into one place. Nearly 100 years of negatives from The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times and Mobile’s Press-Register were brought to the building that housed the presses in Mobile. It was a reminder, said Michelle Holmes, vice president of content, of what they had. The newspapers started using more from the archives. “And we kept going […]
Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. Indra Nooyi is the latest Indian American to be hand-picked by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to advise him and help him run the country. Ms. Nooyi’s appointment to his strategic and policy forum was announced Wednesday by Mr. Trump’s transition team as one of three new appointments to the 16-member group. SpaceX Corp’s Elon Musk and Uber Technologies Inc.’s Travis Kalanick were […]
By Elias Biryabarema | BIDI BIDI, Uganda BIDI BIDI, Uganda Besides bags, blankets and tales of horror, some of the thousands of refugees fleeing South Sudan’s civil war each day carry something else – the ethnic hatred the United Nations says is “fertile ground” for genocide. That hatred, fuelled by continuing reports of ethnic-based killings inside the country, is turning refugee camps on its borders into tinder-boxes […]
By: PTI | Lahore | Published:December 15, 2016 3:38 pm Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In a relief to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Lahore High Court has dismissed a petition seeking his disqualification on the charges of corruption amid a row over the Panama Papers leak that names his family as having misappropriated properties in the UK. LHC Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza yesterday dismissed the […]
MOSCOW Ahead of his visit to Japan later this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin brought his dog Yume into an interview with Japanese journalists, and the large Akita breed made sure she as well as her master were well heard. Putin gave an interview to Nippon Television and Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in Moscow on Tuesday, accompanied at first by Yume, who was given to him by Japan’s […]
By Ercan Gurses and Orhan Coskun | ANKARA ANKARA Turkey may hold a referendum as early as March on constitutional changes to expand the president’s powers, a senior ruling party lawmaker said, a move that would help Tayyip Erdogan acquire the executive presidency he has long sought. The ruling AK Party over the weekend submitted to parliament a 21-article package of constitutional reform proposals, aiming to hold […]
Theresa May on Thursday embarked on a Brexit charm offensive in Brussels, amid warnings from a senior diplomat that a final exit deal could take a decade to complete. Mrs May will tell an EU summit that Britain will play a full role in tackling migrant flows from north Africa to Europe, even after Brexit. She will also reassure fellow leaders from Latvia and Lithuania that Britain […]
Thousands of people had gathered outside a hospital in the Mashhad neighborhood, which is still controlled by rebels, hoping that an evacuation deal announced on Tuesday by Turkey, Russia and Syrian rebels would hold. But the constant threat from snipers, bombs and shelling was unsettling. Video Aleppo Activists Say Final Goodbyes as Assad Closes In Syrian government forces had reclaimed most of rebel-held eastern Aleppo by Tuesday, […]
Thursday 11:00 GMT Overview Stock markets are trading cautiously as Treasury yields hit fresh highs after the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates for only the second time since the financial crisis. The prospect of the US central bank perhaps having to tighten policy faster than expected to reflect any additional boost to growth from president-elect Trump’s fiscal plans is lifting the dollar to a 14-year […]
ANKARA The first goal in the evacuation of eastern Aleppo is to get the sick and wounded to hospital, whether in Syria or Turkey, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftugolu said on Thursday. He told a news conference that evacuees need to be put into camps quickly and that work was continuing on establishing camps in Syria. He added that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad […]
By Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT An attempt to evacuate people in need of medical attention from rebel-held eastern Aleppo stalled on Thursday when fighters loyal to the Syrian government fired on the convoy, wounding three, the head of the ambulance service said. The vehicles had intended to leave under a deal to evacuate people from rebel areas following rapid […]
SANTIAGO A prominent Chilean business leader presented the country’s economy minister with an inflatable doll on stage at an event late on Tuesday, sparking a social media storm and criticism by President Michelle Bachelet. Exporters’ association Asexma traditionally gives humorous gifts to VIPs attending its annual dinner, but the inflated sex toy – which was handed to economy minister Luis Cespedes with the comment that it could […]
MOSCOW The International Committee of the Red Cross will help with transporting injured rebels out of the eastern part of Syria’s war-torn city of Aleppo, Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday, Interfax news agency reported. Russian soldiers are now preparing to lead rebels out of Aleppo under orders from President Vladimir Putin, the defence ministry said earlier on Thursday. (Reporting by Alexander Winning; Writing by Andrey Ostroukh; […]
Politico has terminated its contract with magazine writer Julia Ioffe after she sent a tweet that referenced a possible incestuous relationship between President-elect Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka. In a note to Politico staff Wednesday, Editor-in-Chief John Harris and Editor Carrie Budoff Brown said Ioffe violated guidelines against displaying “gratuitous opinion” on social media. “Julia Ioffe’s tweet this afternoon about President-elect Trump – currently and understandably […]
By Howard Schneider and Lindsay Dunsmuir | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and signaled a faster pace of increases in 2017 as central bankers adapted to the incoming Trump administration’s promises of tax cuts, spending and deregulation. The increase in the federal funds rate to a range of between 0.50 percent and 0.75 percent was widely expected. But the prospect of […]
With over 150 Saudi suppliers now, GE aims to double the number by 2020, creating a dynamic Saudi supply chain ecosystem that serves global markets GE’s investments in localized manufacturing helps build Saudi entrepreneurship, create new jobs for Saudis and build the local SME sector Dubai, United Arab Emirates; December 15, 2016 GE Oil & Gas today won the ‘Best in Supplier Development’ honor at the In […]
Steve Garey, who retired from the Anacortes refinery in 2015 after almost 25 years and served as president of the United Steelworkers local, said that while some positive changes were made after the 2010 accident, upper management at Tesoro remains “contemptuous” of its work force and is “hiding behind incredibly permissive process safety regulations.” Those regulations grew out of a string of catastrophic events in the 1980s, […]
Long-term borrowing costs for lower-quality US investment-grade companies are nearing 5 per cent — the highest level in nine months — as investors anticipate rising inflation and higher growth, reversing from the six-decade low touched earlier this year. The average yield on the closely followed Moody’s Baa index has climbed to 4.9 per cent, the highest since March when the US credit market slowly recovered from a […]
Photo The coffins of victims from Sunday’s bombing of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral after funeral services in Cairo on Monday. Credit Khaled Desouki/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — Egypt faced the prospect of a surge in sectarian bloodshed on Tuesday after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Coptic cathedral in Cairo that killed 25 people on Sunday. The group warned of […]
