Samsung Electronics has rolled out the voice command feature on its Bixby virtual assistant for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in South Korea, which was missing when the phones were launched last month. Samsung began the voice command service at 1pm KST on Monday, after sending a notice in the morning to users of the smartphones. Bixby, the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant, rolled out on […]
DUBAI // Hundreds of displaced residents of Tamweel Tower, which was badly damaged by a blaze in 2012, may finally return this Ramadan after a key document confirming completion of cladding work was submitted to the authorities. The document signed by eight companies was submitted last week to Dubai Civil Defence stating that the installation of the new cladding complied with fire safety requirements. The 34-storey Jumeirah […]
MEXICO CITY Mexican soldiers killed seven suspected gang members in a weekend gun battle in the north of the country, the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office said on Sunday. According to a statement on the attorney general’s website, a convoy of 15 soldiers was passing near the town of La Grulla in Chihuahua state around 2 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Saturday when a group of […]
World sport power broker Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad al Sabah announced his resignation Sunday from the FIFA council, saying did not want to be a distraction while fighting corruption allegations. Aside from serving on FIFA’s top body, the Kuwaiti is also president of the Olympic Council of Asia and holds other senior roles in sport administration, including with the Asian Football Confederation (FIFA). Sheikh Ahmad has been […]
Malaysia-born Cassandra Hsiao was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools in the US. ― File picKUALA LUMPUR, May 1 ― Cassandra Hsiao, the Malaysia-born 17-year-old who was accepted to all eight Ivy League schools in the US, announced that she has chosen to go to Yale. Hsiao, who was born to a Taiwanese father and Malaysian mother in Johor Baru, also told The Star that she […]
President Donald Trump was a distracting entertainment from the moment he launched his campaign in June of 2015 — until he wasn’t. His opening speech, in which he called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and told the world he would be the best jobs president “God ever created,” was looked at as the ravings of a man whose outsized ego was too big to be anything but hilarious. News […]
Before comedian Hasan Minhaj got up to poke fun at the assembled White House press corps last night, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein got up to celebrate it. The legendary Watergate duo gave a speech evoking their investigative reporting of the Nixon administration and calling on the current generation of journalists to practice careful, thorough and relentless reporting on the current White House. Below are their remarks, […]
ABU DHABI // The Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative combating online propaganda by ISIL and other extremist groups and promoting positive alternatives, has announced the launch of a new anti-youth recruitment campaign on social media. Using the hashtag #DeludedFollowers, the four-day campaign will run until May 3 in Arabic and English on Sawab’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube sites. Even as its territory in Iraq and […]
April 30, 2017 by: Matthew Garrahan in New York Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox is in talks with Blackstone, the private equity firm, to launch a joint bid for Tribune Media, which owns a portfolio of US television networks, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. The two companies hope to trump a rival offer from Sinclair Broadcasting, another owner of US television networks. 21st Century […]
Late on Friday afternoon, the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police waltzed out in front of the microphones and admitted that his agency had misused the metadata that the nation’s telecommunication companies are forced to store. It was a stunning admission. The nation had barely made it a fortnight since the deadline for telcos to have their data retention systems in place had passed, yet here was […]
Many artists have drawn inspiration from Abu Dhabi’s sweeping sand dunes. But when Anna Kurkova contemplated the desert, she saw an opportunity to make a statement about recycling and humanity’s duty of care for the environment. The reward for her vision was the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Award, a coveted art prize named after the renowned husband-and-wife artist team who helped to redefine the boundaries of contemporary art […]
When newspaper industry executives gather in New Orleans this evening for their annual three-day MediaXchange convention, the crowd will be thinner than at last year’s edition in Washington, D.C. “(That) just reflects industry conditions coming off a difficult end to 2016,” said David Chavern, CEO and president of the News Media Alliance, which organizes the convention. For those who do make it, Chavern promises plenty of practical […]
Mexico is urging Donald Trump to reuse agreements reached under the aborted Trans-Pacific Partnership to create a manufacturing powerhouse between the US, Mexico and Canada to compete with low-cost producers in China. Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times that elements of TPP could be used to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the three countries. His comments came […]
Your newest prom bandImage: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock By Marcus Gilmer2017-04-30 19:32:20 UTC The kids at Huntley High School got a pretty rousing surprise when internet darlings The Chainsmokers crashed their prom, causing the kind of mass teen hysteria not seen since Marty McFly lit up the guitar at the Hill Valley High “Enchanted Under the Sea” dance in 1955. According to the Daily Herald, the surprise appearance was […]
LIBYA: Libya has seized two foreign-flagged oil tankers and detained their crews for allegedly smuggling fuel after an hours-long gunbattle off the west coast, authorities said.Oil is Libya’s main natural resource, with reserves estimated at 48 billion barrels, the largest in Africa.Libya had an output capacity of about 1.6 million barrels per day before the 2011 armed uprising, but production has since slumped as rival forces battle […]
WASHINGTON At least 352 civilians have been killed in U.S.-led strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since the operation began in 2014, the U.S. military said in a statement on Sunday. The Combined Joint Task Force, in its monthly assessment of civilian casualties from the U.S. coalition’s operations against the militant group, said it was still assessing 42 reports of civilian deaths. It added […]
The UAE has been named the top GCC country for advertising spending in the first quarter of 2017 with AED1.5 billion ($410 million. This figure accounts for 46 percent of the total advertising expenditure across the Gulf region, according to TBWA Worldwide, a global advertising network. State news agency WAM cited its rankings, saying the UAE was followed in the second place by Saudi Arabia with $220 […]
By Matthias Blamont | PARIS PARIS A week before a decisive second round in France’s presidential election, many voters are sceptical that either of the two candidates can solve chronic unemployment or tackle security concerns, a poll published on Sunday found. The Ifop survey for the Journal du Dimanche highlights two key battlegrounds as centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen enter a […]
Hedge funds have slashed their bets against the British pound to the lowest level since the Brexit vote in June last year, after the currency enjoyed its best month against the dollar in two years. The pared-back “short” bets, which would profit on a drop in the pound, followed Theresa May’s decision to call snap elections in June, a move that investors said would allow the ruling […]
At first I ignored the offer to check out the Huawei Tripod Selfie Stick since I rarely capture front-facing photos, unless I am traveling and want to share some of my experiences with my family. However, after seeing that this $20 accessory functions as a tripod with an aluminum arm I decided to try it out. Once you open up the package, you will find a black […]
By Ahmed Rasheed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD A top Iraqi commander expects to dislodge Islamic State from Mosul in May despite resistance from militants in the densely populated Old City district. The battle should be completed “in a maximum of three weeks”, the Iraqi army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, was quoted as saying by state-run newspaper al-Sabah on Sunday. A U.S.-led international coalition is providing […]
Chinese insurance group Anbang has threatened legal action against a leading investigative magazine over what it called “slanderous” allegations about financial irregularities and the marital status of its chairman, in the latest sign of the intensifying power struggle in the financial sector. Anbang, which has curbed its long acquisition spree amid heightened capital controls, said in a statement on Sunday that Caixin had “forged rumours” that chairman Wu […]
It also ends opposition hopes that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may ease the crackdown and build greater national consensus after his narrow victory in a recent referendum to expand the power of his office. Continue reading the main story Instead, Mr. Erdogan has accelerated the process. Since the referendum, and before Saturday’s move, the police had detained more than 1,000 workers and suspended a further 9,000 accused […]
BEIRUT U.S.-backed militias said on Sunday they had made a big advance in Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling Syria’s largest dam, in their campaign to drive Islamic State from its stronghold of Raqqa, 40km (25 miles) downstream. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias, will wait to assault Raqqa until it seizes Tabqa, its military officials have previously said, but it […]
