By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. regulators are expected on Thursday to close a six-month-old investigation into the death of a man whose Tesla collided with a truck while he was using its semi-autonomous driving system and not seek a vehicle recall, according to a source briefed on the matter. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not find evidence of a defect that would […]
Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s nominee to be Treasury secretary, clashed with Democrats over the business practices of the lender he once chaired, saying he had been wrongly accused of taking advantage of unfortunate borrowers and that he would work “tirelessly” to boost the economy and US hiring. The former banker told the Senate finance committee that he had been maligned and that OneWest, the bank, had extended 100,000 […]
By Elisabeth O’Leary | NORTH BERWICK/KIRKINTILLOCH, Scotland NORTH BERWICK/KIRKINTILLOCH, Scotland The Brexit vote has made a new referendum on Scottish independence more likely, says First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, but despite Scots’ misgivings about leaving the European Union there is no sign of increased enthusiasm for secession. Scotland rejected independence in 2014 by 55 to 45 percent, but circumstances have changed since then because Scots voted emphatically last […]
By Isabel Coles | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Most Islamic State (IS) commanders in Mosul have been killed in battles with Iraqi government forces that raged over the past three months in the eastern side of the city, an Iraqi general said on Thursday. The fight to take the western side of Mosul, which remains under the jihadists’ control, should not be more difficult than the one […]
With Donald Trump’s inauguration just a day away, “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd is preparing to cover a president who occasionally treats journalists like political punching bags. “I think he sees the media as an incredible political tool for him,” Todd told Poynter. “I don’t like being a political prop. And I think we have been set up as a political prop in some ways.” Todd, […]
Thai Airways International said on Thursday it will launch an internal corruption investigation after being named in a bribery case relating to British company Rolls-Royce Plc. Rolls-Royce agreed to pay more than $800 million in fines to resolve charges of bribing officials in six countries, including Thailand, in schemes that lasted more than a decade, justice officials in the U.S. and Britain said earlier this week. British […]
By Anjuli Davies and Andrew MacAskill | LONDON LONDON Global banks have begun signaling how they will put plans into action to cope with a “hard” exit by Britain from the European Union. Until now, banks have considered varying degrees of upheaval to their British-based businesses, depending on whether the outcome of Brexit was “hard” or “soft.” But after Prime Minister Theresa May said that Britain would […]
Over the past three posts, I have looked at a number of different Linux distributions for various models of the Raspberry Pi – including SUSE/openSUSE, Fedora, Manjaro and Ubuntu MATE, and PiCore Linux. What I haven’t done yet is look at the latest version of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s own Linux distribution, Raspbian with their PIXEL desktop. So I will look at that first, and then I […]
51 year-old Florida resident, Dominic Puopolo, who was arrested by Miami Beach police Tuesday for allegedly threatening President-elect Donald Trump online is, according to The Daily Mail, is a member of a prominent northeast family close to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Puopolo reportedly admitted to posting a video to Twitter, under his handle @JesusChrist1701, saying: “Yes, I will be at the review stand at the inauguration and […]
The star player in America’s biggest sporting event risks being benched: guacamole. Every year before the Super Bowl, demand soars for the avocado-based dip that has become a staple for viewing parties for the National Football League championship game, which has emerged as the second-largest day for food consumption in the US after Thanksgiving. This year’s supply was threatened by a spike in avocado prices late last […]
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK This past November, Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) hired a helicopter to film Manhattan’s skyline using Snapchat’s new video-camera sunglasses and sent the aerial footage to its social media followers. The New York Stock Exchange – its arch-rival – on the same day tweeted a video shot from the floor of its exchange, showing that it too was using the social media giant’s gadget. The scramble […]
This love is precisely what is required of an American president in dealings affecting Israel. In such circumstances, and contrary to the adage that applies in most ordinary circumstances of life, that law says that demonstrations of love count for less, paradoxically, than love itself. It says, to be precise, that gestures of friendship, when they do not come from the bottom of the heart and are […]
By Lisa Barrington | BEIRUT BEIRUT After years of political deadlock, Lebanon finally has a new government. Now it needs a new economy. Battered by war in neighbouring Syria, neglected by wrangling politicians and caught in rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the pillars of the economy – remittances from overseas workers, tourism and real estate – are not what they were. Long-term, Lebanon is searching for […]
While ECB President Mario Draghi may sound slightly hawkish at tomorrow’s press conference after an unexpectedly strong acceleration in CPI in December and European economic growth modestly picking up, the ECB is set to argue on Thursday that its extra-easy policy stance is still needed to keep the recovery on course. As a result, it is all but certain to leave current monetary policy in place and […]
Longtime Nintendo tactical RPG franchise Fire Emblem is finally coming to mobile via Fire Emblem: Heroes, directly following the release of Super Mario Run in December. It marks the third time for Nintendo to release a title for the smartphone gaming platform after the aforementioned endless runner and Miitomo. Fire Emblem: Heroes As per Nintendo, Fire Emblem: Heroes will feature a new story about two kingdoms in discord, and it’s […]
ABU DHABI // More than 30 Christian leaders held prayers at the site of a 7th century monastery on Abu Dhabi’s Sir Bani Yas Island during a landmark visit sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court and the National Programme for Tolerance. The recitation of the Lord’s Prayer by Christian leaders, including the regional archbishops of the Syrian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox churches, is thought to […]
The Freedom of Information process begins with a letter, right? Why does it become necessary to sue? We bring a lawsuit either when it takes too long for a government agency to respond to our request, or when they do respond but withhold records that we believe should be disclosed. Why has the Center pursued FOIA suits so vigorously? How does the Center differ from other organizations […]
WASHINGTON: In the first visit of its kind since 2012, US Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has traveled to Syria on a trip that has taken her so far to Aleppo and Damascus.The move, according to Syrian-conflict watchers, indicates that President Bashar Assad “is no longer beyond the pale in US politics and policymaking.”Gabbard, who made news in November with her meeting with President-elect Donald Trump, and was […]
Blockchain has moved on from its Bitcoin past and is being touted as an effective and inexpensive way to safeguard data, with one Singapore-based vendor launching its first blockchain-based authentication tool. Because it provides a shared replicated “immutable” ledger, blockchain can facilitate a “single source of truth” and a secure, tamper-proof system of record, according to Alan Lim, Asean practice lead for IBM Blockchain and Bluemix Garage. […]
WASHINGTON A Virginia inmate was executed on Wednesday for murdering two young sisters during a 2006 killing spree, after the Supreme Court denied a stay request where he argued the use of compounded lethal drugs violated his constitutional rights. Ricky Gray, 39, died by lethal injection at 9:42 p.m. at the Greensville Correctional Center, Virginia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Kinney said in an emailed statement. […]
SYDNEY (AP) — Three nations shelled out around $160 million and years’ worth of work on the underwater search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The result: No plane. The only tangible — and arguably most important — clues into what happened to the aircraft have come courtesy of ordinary citizens, who bore the costs themselves. The deep-sea sonar search for the vanished Boeing 777 was suspended […]
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , Crown Prince of Dubai and chairman of the Executive Council, on Wednesday approved the new maternity leave policy for Dubai Government employees. The policy extends maternity leave to three months paid leave, effective from March 1 and covers all governmental entities, a statement said. The amendment to the maternity leave aims to extend the compulsory fully paid maternity […]
China cut its holdings of US Treasuries by $66bn in November, reducing its position in the safe-haven debt to the lowest level since 2010 as the country battles to stabilise its currency. The acceleration in sales — the largest monthly decline since December 2011 — threatens a rise in US interest rates if it continues and follows an unwinding in October that saw China cede its position […]
By Lisa Richwine and Anya George Tharakan Streaming video pioneer Netflix Inc added over a third more subscribers than expected in the last quarter of 2016, a sign of success for its ambitious global expansion that sent its shares up 8 percent in extended trading. Netflix signed up 7.1 million new subscribers globally, far more than the 5.2 million analysts had expected, according to research firm FactSet, […]
