By Richard Balmforth | PARIS PARIS France’s far-right leader fired broadsides at the European Union and the euro currency on Friday, marking out Europe as a major plank in her programme as the battle lines took shape in the campaign for the presidential election in spring. Marine Le Pen, head of the anti-EU, anti-immigrant National Front (FN) and seen by pollsters as highly likely to make a […]
By Isabel Coles and Saif Hameed | NORTH OF MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD NORTH OF MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD Elite Iraqi troops bridged a river under the cover of darkness to seize a district of Mosul in an unprecedented night raid early on Friday, part of a new phase in the battle to capture the city from Islamic State after weeks of slowed momentum. Since last week, Iraqi forces have launched […]
BAGHDAD Elite Iraqi troops advanced against Islamic State militants in eastern Mosul in their first night-time raid in the city, a spokesman said on Friday, in a U.S.-backed operation which officials say is gaining momentum. Counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces pushed across a tributary of the Tigris river shortly after midnight and drove back Islamic State fighters in the Muthanna district, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan said. “We used […]
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) saw its capitalisation rise by more than 12 percent during 2016 to AED337.6 billion ($91.9 billion), it has been announced. DFM’s General Index increased 12.1 percent to 3,531 points at the end of 2016 compared to 3,151 points at the end of 2015. Indices of eight out of the nine sectors featured on the DFM ended the year in the green, with the […]
What with the Golden Globes, the Oscars, the Baftas and the host of other award ceremonies jamming up their calendars, it’s a wonder that the stars of stage, screen and television ever have time to act. Plus, as British comedian Ricky Gervais liked to point out on each of the four occasions he presented the annual Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles, watching the impossibly wealthy and […]
Samsung Electronics has forecast its best quarterly profit in more than three years, projecting that operating profit for the last three months of 2016 surged 50 per cent as strong sales of chips and display panels offset the Galaxy Note 7 debacle. The world’s largest maker of memory chips as well as smartphones estimated its fourth-quarter operating profit at Won9.2tn ($7.8bn), the highest since the third quarter […]
Three women in black niqabs covering their hair and faces skateboard down a street, their scarves and colorful dresses flowing behind them. A catchy tune with provocative lyrics — “May all men sink into oblivion” and “If only God would rid us of men” — plays as the women alternately glide on in-line skates, cruise on scooters and parade down the street in vibrant outfits, all things […]
China strengthened the renminbi’s trading range on Friday by the most since it depegged it in 2005, as investors awaited data expected to show Beijing is continuing to burn through its reserves to support the currency. The renminbi’s sudden strength has caught global markets off-guard and wrongfooted investors betting the Chinese currency would start the year by continuing its gradual slide as outflow pressures persisted in spite […]
Former world number one Tiger Woods said he would compete in the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic next month as he charts his comeback from injury. “I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown phenomenally from when I first started playing there,” Woods said on the event website on Thursday. Woods, sidelined by back pain for the past 15 […]
Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa will be presenting the police’s accomplishments on its intensive anti-drug campaign under “Oplan Double Barrel Alpha” to President Rodrigo Duterte in a meeting in Malacañang on Friday afternoon. Scheduled at 3 p.m. Friday, Dela Rosa, along with top police commanders, heads of PNP national support units […]
BEIJING An influential Chinese state-run tabloid has chided the New York Times over its reporting practices after Apple Inc removed the newspaper’s app from its China app store at the request of the Chinese government. The Global Times editorial, released on Friday, said the New York Times had in the past four years been “trying to wield influence in China’s internal affairs” by doing investigative stories on […]
Global reality-television singing competition The Voice is launching a special edition for kids between the ages of 13 and 17 in the Philippines. The Voice Teens Philippines will be the second teenage edition of the show internationally – after Colombia – and the first in Asia. It is due to debut in the summer. The first round of auditions will be held in Manila on January 14 […]
Friday 02:30 GMT Overview Asia’s markets were bracing for key US jobs data on Friday, leaving stock indices flat and most currencies higher against a wobbling dollar. Within the region, attention was on the Chinese renminbi, which paused for breath after enjoying its biggest two-day rally against the dollar since the offshore market was created in 2010. Hot topic While currency markets are looking at the renminbi, […]
With all eyes likely on wage growth indications in the subtext of tomorrow’s payrolls report (following The Fed Minutes’ comments on full employment), Goldman Sachs is forecasting a better-than-expected 0.3% rebound in average hourly earnings (helped by more favorable calendar effects) and a better-than-expected 180k payrolls print (albeit with a small rise in the unemployment rate). However, they are careful to note that any downside can be […]
Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, 05 January 2017 The Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, Gulf Air, today began its official 14-day countdown to the highly anticipated launch of the airline’s first flight to Bandaranaike International Airport, in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, which will commence on 19th January 2017 with 5 flights per week. In advance of the route launch Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Maher Salman […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | AMMAN AMMAN The Syrian army and its allies pressed ahead on Friday with a two-week-long offensive to seize a strategic valley where a key spring provides supplies to four million people in the capital, Damascus, residents and rebels said. Aerial bombing and shelling from the army as well as Hezbollah fighters stationed in the mountains that overlook the valley on the northwestern edge […]
Did you know that 89% of top-level domains are now signed with DNSSEC? Or that over 88% of .GOV domains and over 50% of .CZ domains are signed? Were you aware that over 103,000 domains use DANE and DNSSEC to provide a higher level of security for email? Or that 80% of clients request DNSSEC signature records in DNS queries? All these facts and much more are […]
It’s been about nine months since we first heard about the Panama Papers — more than 11 million leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm that detailed how wealthy people worldwide used off-shore tax havens. So, what have we learned since then? To find out, we called Will Fitzgibbon. He’s a reporter with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, D.C., which has been writing about […]
The United States on Thursday officially listed a son of Osama bin Laden as a “global terrorist,” and warned that the younger man, who has called for attacks around the world, poses a risk to American national security. The son, Hamza bin Laden, who has pledged to take up Osama bin Laden’s violent mantle and avenge his death, is “actively engaged in terrorism,” the State Department said, […]
By James Pearson | SEOUL SEOUL South Korea’s newest celebrity took an unusual route to the nation’s TV screens – years spent working his way up through the ranks of North Korea’s diplomatic corps, followed by months secluded in the custody of the rival South’s spy agency. Since his release Thae Yong Ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to London, has spent the first week of […]
Mexico’s central bank intervened in the foreign exchange markets to halt the peso’s record slide against the dollar but failed to provide anything more than temporary respite for its battered currency. The peso responded to the move, the first of its kind since the election of Donald Trump, with a 1.5 per cent rise against the dollar. Having tumbled to another all-time low of 21.61 pesos on […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump targeted Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Thursday, threatening to impose a hefty fee on the world’s largest automaker if it builds its Corolla cars for the U.S. market at a plant in Mexico. “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or […]
One of the most prestigious jobs in legal education is about to become open. Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow said Monday that she’ll step down in May at the end of the academic year. The university is launching a search for her replacement. Prof. Minow, a human-rights scholar, has served as dean since 2009, […] (via WSJ)
Qatar Airways is to swap its order for up to 80 Airbus A320neos for the larger, longer-range A321 version, the airline’s chief executive said on Thursday. The Doha-based carrier has refused to take delivery of A320neos since December 2015 over performance issues with the aircraft’s engines. “We are going to take all A321s, there will be no more A320s,” Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker told reporters in Doha. […]
