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 […]
Last weekend, after looking at the latest H.8 statement by the Fed, we noted something concerning: total loans and leases by U.S. commercial banks were rising at an annual pace of about 4.6%, based on weekly Fed data. That is down from a 6.4% pace for all of last year and peak rates of around 8% in mid-2016. This is the slowest pace of debt creation since […]
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 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 […]
By Patrick Markey and John Davison | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi army helicopters strafed and fired rockets at Islamic State positions in Mosul’s Old City on Sunday as troops on the ground closed in on the strategic and symbolic prize of the al-Nuri Mosque. Federal Police troops had advanced past the train station in western Mosul closer to the mosque. A police commander said they were […]
One day after Rex Tillerson warned that the US is contemplating a pre-emptive military attack on North Korea, the isolated nation announced it has conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un is calling a “revolutionary breakthrough” for the country’s space program, the North’s state media said Sunday. Kim attended Saturday’s test at the Sohae launch site, according […]
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, […]
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 […]
BEIRUT Syrian government forces battled rebel groups at the fringes of Damascus on Sunday, after the insurgents launched an attack from the east of the heavily fortified capital, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army and allied forces had engaged in heavy clashes with rebels in the Jobar district, at the eastern edge of Damascus. Insurgent groups attacked government positions in […]
In the months since the election, America’s major newsrooms have been recruiting investigative journalists with the knowledge and skills to dig into government institutions at the federal, state and local levels. The New York Times, BuzzFeed, ProPublica, The Washington Post and CNN have all posted or filled investigative reporting jobs in the days since the election, and announcements of new hires come on a near-weekly basis. “It’s […]
Some jailbreaking enthusiasts have been getting impatient for an iOS 10.2.1 jailbreak from formidable hackers such as Luca Todesco, Marco Grassi, the Pangu Team, and PP Jailbreak, among others. But there hasn’t been any update from any of them since Todesco and Grassi released the Yalu102 on Jan. 26. While Todesco has already declared, however, that he’s going on hiatus after the final Yalu102 version is released — without […]
There are more than 100 places to get steak in the UAE and more steakhouses are opening all the time, which is testament to the fact that beef is one of the world’s most popular dishes. If there’s one thing the UAE likes to eat it’s beef, and the country’s connoisseurs have long enjoyed a love affair with one particular type – Wagyu. This intensely marbled beef […]
Stuart and Carole Hockley voted for Britain to leave the EU, along with 68 per cent of the population of Rotherham. But in February they returned to the polls to help the Liberal Democrats to an unexpected victory for the anti-Brexit party in a council by-election. Mrs Hockley, 73, and a retired nurse, says she still believes in Brexit — but that her area has been neglected […]
VR headsets are storage hogs. Who knew? The key to an immersive and non-sickening VR experience are graphics that are detailed and smooth. Today’s 1080p systems are OK, but far from ideal. For ideal we have to go to 4k since the displays are so close to our eyes, with none of the frame dropouts or tearing that make people sick. While 4k content requires 4x the […]
SEOUL North Korea has conducted a test of a new high-thrust engine at its Tongchang-ri rocket launch station and leader Kim Jong Un said the successful test was “a new birth” of its rocket industry, the reclusive North’s official media said on Sunday. The engine would help North Korea achieve world-class satellite launch capability, KCNA said, indicating the test was of a new type of rocket engine […]
TEHRAN: The outspoken daughter of Iran’s late President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been sentenced to six months in prison for “spreading lies against the judiciary,” a semi-official news agency reported Saturday, as the country prepares for a May presidential election.The report by the Fars news agency comes after rumors of a prison sentence handed down against Faezeh Hashemi had been circulating online. While it did not elaborate, […]
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shakes hands with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, in Davao City,the Philippines, on March 17, 2017. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) MANILA, March 18 (Xinhua) — A senior Chinese official said on Saturday that China and the Philippines enjoy broad prospects of pragmatic cooperation, urging the two countries to grasp the opportunity to deepen and enlarge bilateral cooperation. “China and the Philippines are close in […]
18 March 2017 Dubai, UAE – The UAE’s wise leadership has worked tirelessly to anticipate the future, as a fundamental element of its strategies and plans. The vision of the UAE’s leadership, led by HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE; HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; and HH Sheikh […]
SHANGHAI The head of one of China’s top graft-busting agencies has said Beijing’s anti-corruption drive will clean up the relationship between government officials and enterprises, the official Xinhua news agency reported. President Xi Jinping has waged war on corruption since assuming office more than four years ago, leading to a one-third jump in graft court cases in 2016. The head of the Ministry of Supervision, Yang Xiaodu, […]
The number of machines arriving in the U.S. which make counterfeit pills is a major concern. The amount of pill presses which are getting seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has increased 19 times in the last six years. At the time when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the Justice Department is handling the nationwide issue of drug overdose by synthetic fentanyl, counterfeit machines are […]
