By Frank McGurty | NEW YORK NEW YORK New York City is preparing for a veritable sea of humanity to converge on Times Square on Saturday for the annual descent of the New Year’s Eve ball, a century-old tradition that will unfold this year under an unprecedented blanket of security. As many as 2 million people, surrounded by a ring of 40-ton sand trucks and some 7,000 […]
By Steve Scherer | ROME ROME Italy will seek to deport more migrants who have no right to be in the country and will open new detention centres to hold them before their expulsion, according to a written directive and a ministry source. Police chief Franco Gabrielli sent a two-page directive to stations across the country on Friday ordering them to increase efforts to identify and deport […]
Submitted by Michael Shedlock via MishTalk.com, Yesterday, President Obama expelled 35 Russian “Operatives” from the Russian Embassy. Is there any evidence those expelled are “intelligence operatives”? Any hard evidence Russia was behind the Hillary hacks? Any credible evidence that Putin himself is to blame? The answers are No, No, and No. Yet, once again the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment. Rush […]
Globalization, the path that the world economy has largely followed for decades, took some hefty blows in 2016. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union have raised questions over the future of tariff-free trade and companies’ freedom to move production to lower-cost countries. Borders are back in vogue. Economic nationalism is paying political dividends. “We […]
When Ghada Kunash discovered the work of artist Majd Kurdieh, it was a “light-bulb moment” for her. She looked at his simplistic, childlike drawings and immediately recognised the depth and poetic stories within. Kurdieh is a Syrian refugee who lives on the edge of a forest in Lebanon. He is in his late 20s and lives alone, with only the characters he creates as company. He makes […]
©AFP BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq, Dec 31 — Two bombs claimed by Islamic State killed 25 people in central Baghdad on Saturday, as fighting intensified in the northern city of Mosul where government forces are trying to rout the jihadis from their last major stronghold in the country. The blasts, including one suicide attack, tore through a busy market in the Sinak neighbourhood, police said. A pro-Islamic State news […]
BEIRUT Lebanese daily newspaper As-Safir printed its final edition on Saturday, forced to close after 42 years because of financial problems as other news outlets in the country face similar difficulties. The front page led with an editorial entitled “The nation without As-Safir”. “The economy is not well, and nor is politics. This cannot but reflect on and impact the press,” the article said. Chief editor Talal […]
Alison Shan Price, the CEO and founder of the One World Actors Centre (OWAC) in Kuwait has been awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours list. Having been involved in theatre since she was five, Price has been in Kuwait for years, running OWAC with her daughter Eleni Rebecca, the managing director and chief choreographer, alongside a large team of artists. The British Government said Price […]
The U.S. Department of Defense is urging soldiers to ease up on drinking too much energy beverages as it could lead to serious damaging of the body. The military noticed that a growing number of servicemen choose to drink energy beverages over water, especially during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Researchers examined data collected from soldiers serving during 2010’s Operation Enduring Freedom and discovered that as […]
TOKYO Japan has approached China and South Korea about holding a trilateral summit in Tokyo in February aimed at deepening cooperation on such issues as a free trade deal, the environment and counter-terrorism, Kyodo news agency reported on Saturday. Disagreements over North Korea and historical issues have long dogged relations between the three Asian powers, though they have held several such trilateral meetings since 2008, most recently […]
BEIRUT Syrian rebel groups said on Saturday they would consider a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and Turkey “null and void” if the Damascus government’s forces and their allies continued to violate it. Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has urged the United Nations to give its blessing to the fragile ceasefire, the third truce this year seeking to end nearly six years of war in […]
BEIJING China’s economy is on a steady growth path as 2016 ends, supported by a housing boom and billions in government investment, but the mood of policymakers is more cautious than celebratory as they face “complexity” in the new year. Controlling risks has been a constant refrain in recent months as the focus of policymakers switches to taming asset bubbles and checking unbalanced growth stemming from efforts […]
By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim | BEIJING BEIJING China’s military has become alarmed by what it sees as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s support of Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the island from moving toward independence, sources with ties to senior military officers said. Three sources said one possibility being considered was conducting war games near the self-ruled island that China considers as […]
FIFA will continue to “put pressure” on Qatar about the treatment of migrant labourers building World Cup stadiums in the Gulf country for the 2022 tournament, its president has said. The world football governing body in the past admitted it was slow to act over concerns about the abuse of labourers in Qatar. It has since said human rights would be factored in to future World Cup […]
TAIPEI Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Saturday that Taiwan will be “calm” when facing issues to do with China, but uncertainties next year will test the self-ruled island and its national security team, even as she recommitted to maintaining peace. China is deeply suspicious of Tsai, who it thinks wants to push for the formal independence of Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing regards as a […]
Much has been made in the last several years for the need of the CIO and CMO to align on technology plans, as marketing strategy increasingly must be realized largely or entirely within digital experiences. While the CIO has long owned the overall technology stack inside of the enterprise, the CMO has certainly had a say in it in most organizations since the rise of digital marketing […]
SHANGHAI China has recovered 2.3 billion yuan ($331.27 million) in losses from graft in the first 11 months of this year from across more than 70 different regions and countries, the country’s corruption watchdog said on its official website on Saturday. The news comes after Beijing shifted the focus of its corruption campaign to recover illicit funds taken overseas as part of the country’s multi-agency “Sky Net” […]
Social media firm Snap Inc may be the highest profile tech IPO planned for 2017, with the potential to raise billions. But more than a dozen expected stock offerings of relatively obscure software firms targeting business customers – little-known names such as Apttus, Tintri and Okta – could be just as important in thawing a long-frozen IPO market, according to investment bankers and advisers who work on […]
Two beauty queens with links to the Gulf have won the latest season of The Amazing Race Asia. After they returned from filming The Amazing Race Asia last summer, Maggie Wilson-Consunji and Parul Shah could barely contain their excitement. “Don’t let our invisible crowns fool you. We are beauty-queen fighting machines,” they told their fans on social media. “We are scared but also super excited. We cannot […]
China’s government this week waded into a feud between the film industry and review websites that have panned some of the country’s biggest budget movies, censuring critiques and saying the sites are “malicious and irresponsible”. Topping off a year of lacklustre films and slow ticket sales, the intervention was meant to bolster confidence in China’s ability to generate blockbusters. China’s goal is to catch up to the […]
By Elida Moreno | PANAMA CITY PANAMA CITY Panama does not expect any change in its relations with Taiwan or China, a senior official from the isthmus nation said on Friday, despite increased pressure from Beijing on Taiwan’s allies to sever ties. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Latin America next month, against a tense backdrop after news of her phone call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump […]
By Sam Forgione | NEW YORK NEW YORK The U.S. dollar slipped on Friday but notched its fourth straight year of gains against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, gained about 3.7 percent for the year. The index rose about 7.1 percent during the fourth quarter, more than half that gain coming since […]
Getty Images/iStockphoto With 2016 drawing to a close, here is a look at some of the things — tech, as well as a number of industry metrics — that you should be keeping an eye on over the coming year. CES thoughts Before I begin, I want to mention the first big tech shindig of 2017, which will be CES. I pay very little attention to CES […]
Video Step Into a Refugee Camp The Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan is one of the largest Syrian camps in the world. In the fall, we visited the camp live with our audience. Here’s what we heard from the refugees and from you. By DEBORAH ACOSTA on Publish Date December 30, 2016. Photo by Deborah Acosta/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video » In September, we […]
