TOKYO U.S. stock futures dropped and Asian shares were on the defensive on Monday as investors weighed the near-certain prospect of an interest rate hike in the United States this month against news of slower growth in China this year. Risk appetite also took a hit on rising geopolitical tensions in East Asia, as North Korea fired four ballistic missiles early in the day, while a spat […]
March 6, 2017 by: Bryan Harris in Seoul, Kana Inagaki in Tokyo and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington North Korea fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday, according to officials in Seoul and Tokyo, in a move likely to escalate tensions that are already running high in the region. One of the currently unidentified projectiles could be an intercontinental ballistic missile, said a South Korean […]
A Friday session as part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature presented an undeniably emotional moment – the author and subject on a public stage together for the first time. The latter was Nujeen Mustafa, the Syrian teenager who travelled more than 5,000 kilometres in a wheelchair to escape the civil war ripping apart her homeland. The writer was veteran journalist Christina Lamb, who documented Mustafa’s […]
François Fillon put his future as French presidential candidate for the centre right in the hands of party leaders after mobilising tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Paris. Mr Fillon said he was the victim of a “manhunt” but notably omitted to tell the crowd — mobilised as show of strength among grassroots Republicans — that he would fight on as Republican candidate despite […]
I have a confession to make: It’s been four months since Microsoft publicly unveiled the name of the next big Windows 10 feature update, and I still have no idea why it’s called the Creators Update. From Microsoft’s perspective, of course, the aspirational tagline makes perfect marketing sense and is much easier to sell than a version number or a release date. It also gives marketers the […]
Maritime security will head the agenda as Australia and other Indian Ocean nations meet in Jakarta, with Indonesia pushing governance in a bid to prevent another South China Sea. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will meet with President Joko Widodo for the second time in less than two weeks when he attends the 20th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) summit in Jakarta this week. With […]
As part of the previously previewed “Two Sessions” which started on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Sunday delivered the annual report on the work of the government in Beijing, summarizing the country’s achievements in the past year, and setting goals for this year. In his policy speech, lasting 97 minutes and 18,600 Chinese characters, Li signaled a course adjustment for the world’s second-largest economy and some […]
A fiber optic undersea link connecting Angola’s capital Luanda to the Brazilian city of Fortaleza is reported to be about 50 percent complete, with operations set to begin later this year. With more than 6,200 kilometers in length, SACS (South Atlantic Cable System) system will be the first fiber optic cable to connect Africa to the Americas via the South Atlantic sea. According to Angola Cables, the […]
MANILA Philippine soldiers have found the remains of a German man who was beheaded by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants last week, a military official said late on Saturday, Both the head and body of Jurgen Kantner were recovered while the troops were conducting combat, search and retrieval operations in Indanan town in the remote southern province of Sulu, Colonel Cirilito Sobejana told reporters. Kantner’s remains would […]
Via Nicholas Eberstadt of CommentaryMagazine.com, On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine. What sort of country would go and elect someone like Trump as president? Certainly not […]
Standard Life is in late-stage discussions to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management in an all-stock deal that would create the UK’s largest money manager with £660bn of assets and be worth around £11bn. The companies confirmed the talks on Saturday evening in a joint statement that said a deal would “leverage Standard Life and Aberdeen’s combined strengths to create a world class investment company”. They added that Standard Life […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. So what have you heard more often: “Fox & Friends” shilling for President Trump or sophisticated people confiding their real reason for reading The New Yorker is the cartoons? Ah, if only Bob Mankoff had long ago negotiated some piece […]
Plot twists, accusations and 25,000 pages of evidence — a snapshot of the case that will determine Nawaz Sharif’s fate. Panama Papers leaked; Sharif family under spotlight — Feica/Dawn. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) makes 11.5 million secret documents available to the public for the very first time. The documents, coming from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, contain confidential attorney-client information for more than 214,488 […]
By David Shepardson | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him in October during the late stages of the presidential election campaign, but offered no evidence to support the allegation. “How low has President Obama gone to tapp my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!,” Trump said in a […]
Saudi Arabia has the most hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and North Africa, according to STR’s January 2017 Pipeline Report. The hospitality analysts said the Gulf kingdom has a total of 36,742 in 85 projects in the pipeline, ahead of the UAE which has 28,898 rooms in 99 projects. The report also said Qatar 8,462 rooms in 34 projects out of a regional total […]
The incredible complexity of how biological systems interact to create tissue from the information contained in genes boggles the mind — and drives the work of biomedical scientists around the world. Now, a pair of mathematicians has introduced a new way of thinking about these concepts that may help set the stage for better understanding of our bodies and other living things. (via WSJ)
The Rare Disease Day on Feb. 28 brought the international spotlight on many rare disorders, with President Donald Trump mentioning the need for speedy drug clearances to combat such conditions. Among these, one mysterious yet serious genetic disorder is nail-patella syndrome, also known as Fong disease or HOOD syndrome. NPS comes with many issues such as the absence of nails, small kneecaps, or the total absence of kneecaps. The […]
ABU DHABI // Rock singer Rod Stewart made a public apology this weekend after being filmed carrying out a prank execution in the Abu Dhabi desert during his latest world tour. A video posted on his wife Penny Lancaster’s Instagram account, which has since been removed, showed the 72-year-old carrying out a mock beheading, mimicking real murders by ISIL terrorists. Stewart said he and his friends were […]
France, which gave the world one of the most enduring symbols of World Expos, the Eiffel Tower, has become the latest country to confirm its participation in Expo 2020 Dubai. The European country officially confirmed its commitment in a letter from Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The letter was […]
The stage set up at Rod Stewart’s Du Arena gig on Thursday night was daunting. There were two sparkling drum sets, a couple of fiddles, guitars, two pianos, a saxophone and a giant gilded harp for good measure. One wondered if the British star was fooling us all along. Yes, he would be performing his greatest hits as advertised, but, instead, we would be subjected to Celtic-jazz […]
In the first stage of the Trump Rally (from the election to year-end), investors appeared to hedge as the market rallied. However, since the start of the new year, Goldman Sachs’ proprietary macro hedging indicator has traded along with equities, suggesting that investors are buying stocks and discarding protection. As Goldman’s John Marshall and Katherine Fogertey explain, the Trump rally has changed the market – Investors Stopped […]
Most experts advise against taking prescription drugs during pregnancy, if at all possible, especially in the first three months when the baby’s important organs are still developing. Ironically, pregnancy is also a challenging time in which a woman experiences almost all sort of aches and pains in her body. There’s soreness of the breasts, nausea, cramping, and vomiting. The terrible triad of pregnancy pains, however, would arguably […]
DUBAI // What was once a wide, empty terrace at Ranches Primary School has been transformed into a peaceful outdoor garden where children as young as five can meditate and grow fruits and vegetables. Early years pupils visit the Rooftop Mindful Garden at least twice a day to calm their minds and nurture plants as part of a health awareness education programme the school is piloting with […]
In just six short months, the Dubai Opera has made a seismic contribution to the emirate’s cultural scene, living up to its early promise by staging dozens of diverse musical and stage spectacles. But inside certain cultured camps, there may be the somewhat legitimate claim that, despite the name, we have not seen a whole load of opera. The opening weekend’s fleeting Rossini and Bizet productions forgotten […]
