A man wearing a Santa Claus costume walks atop Jerusalem’s Old City walls on December 23, 2016 An online Santa tracker run by a Canadian and American defense agency mapped the jolly old gift-giver’s path around the globe Saturday, in what has become a Yuletide tradition. Every Christmas Eve since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Saint Nicholas’s annual voyage to deliver […]
Researchers have developed a method that irradiates biological enzymes with light to expand their highly efficient and selective capacity for catalysis to new chemistry. (via WSJ)
Mijbel AlQattan appointed President of the society by the newly elected board, replacing outgoing President Rafik Hafez. Kuwait, 22 December 2016 CFA Society Kuwait, CFA Institute’s local association of investment professionals consisting of portfolio managers, financial analysts and investment advisors, has announced the appointment of its new board of directors. Mijbel AlQattan, previously the society’s Vice President, was appointed by the newly elected board of directors to […]
On April 7, 14 large blue letters quietly disappeared from the outer walls of an office building in an exclusive neighborhood in northern San Salvador. One by one, the letters came down from the blue and beige stucco walls, leaving behind faint traces of the name of the law firm that had been working there just days before: M-O-S-S-A-C-K-F-O-N-S-E-C-A. Employees of the El Salvador branch of Mossack […]
A hundred years ago, an arms race between the dominant global superpower the (British Empire) and a rising power (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany) culminated in the mass slaughter of World War One. The deep mistrust between the United States and the People’s Republic of China has all the potential to spawn a traumatic chapter in international relations. Despite its “pivot” to Asia, the Obama White House was cautious […]
Researchers have developed novel membranes, whose selectivity can be switched dynamically with the help of light. For this purpose, azobenzene molecules were integrated into membranes made of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Depending on the irradiation wavelength, these azobenzene units in the MOFs adopt a stretched or angular form. In this way, it is possible to dynamically adjust the permeability of the membrane and the separation factor of gases […]
WASHINGTON The U.S. State Department on Friday warned Americans travelling to Jordan of threats from terrorist groups after several recent attacks in the country. More than a dozen people were killed, including a Canadian tourist, in two attacks by Islamist militants this week in the southern city of Karak. “The Department of State reminds U.S. citizens that terrorist and extremist organizations have expressed a desire to conduct […]
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. Most of us can feel unavoidably like Mongo in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles,” meaning a self-perception that “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” (YouTube) Yes, we all try to be philosophical but can lapse into merely being dim-witted, like […]
Good morning. A media A-list’s favorite books of 2016 Jake Tapper, the CNN reporter-show host, needed far less time than even a hyperactive wire service rewrite guy to answer a question about his favorite book this year: “‘Moonglow’ by Michael Chabon.” Bam, that didn’t take long. But it’s why amid a Trump- and-terrorism-centric moment, I asked busy and smart journalists to go high when so many others […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: VW buy-back: Volkswagen agreed to pay around $1 billion to repurchase or fix an additional batch of diesel-powered vehicles tainted with emissions-cheating software, resolving what had become a sticking point more than a year into Volkswagen’s diesel-emissions crisis. [WSJ] Unrevealing: A newly unsealed search-warrant application in the Clinton probe confirms the FBI found thousands of emails potentially linked to […]
By Ben Hirschler Dutch scientists have developed an artificial leaf that can act as a mini-factory for producing drugs, an advance that could allow medicines to be produced anywhere there is sunlight. The work taps into the ability of plants to use sunlight to feed themselves through photosynthesis, something industrial chemists have struggled to replicate because sunshine usually generates too little energy to fuel chemical reactions. The […]
ABU DHABI // Choosing to travel to the United States for his post-secondary education was a no-brainer for Saad Hamoodi. Not only would he be following in his father’s footsteps, but having studied in an American private school all his life, Mr Hamoodi was familiar and comfortable with the curriculum. “I graduated with the American system, so I’ve always been closer to that,” said the 26-year-old Emirati. […]
AP Images A new European Court of Justice ruling has made it more difficult for Britain to seal a major trade deal with the European Union post-Brexit. The European Court of Justice’s Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston published a legal opinion saying that all 38 national and regional parliaments, around five regional and linguistic parliaments in Belgium, and at least five upper chambers in Europe have to approve […]
ABU DHABI // A Canadian teacher working at a private school in the capital was one of the 34 people injured in Sunday’s attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that left 10 people dead. Christopher Vatcher, a teacher at Abu Dhabi Grammar School (Canada), sustained a bullet wound to the shoulder and is expected to make a full recovery, a family friend told CBC News. […]
Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for December 20, 2016, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. newslide Abu Dhabi Fitness event Women can enjoy exercising outdoors in the cooler weather every Wednesday at GoYas. Daman Activelife presents the ladies-only event that lets you walk, jog or bike around the shortened 3km […]
Photo The funeral on Monday of a high-ranking security officer killed in an assault in Karak, Jordan. Credit Muhammad Hamed/Reuters AMMAN, Jordan — The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a terrorist attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed 10 people, including the head of the military’s special forces, according to an organization that monitors militant groups. As the authorities continued their investigation […]
BlackBerry’s big bet on software and services is making progress — albeit slowly. The Canadian former phone maker turned software developer posted Tuesday a fiscal third-quarter profit of just one cent for the quarter, beating Wall Street expectations, which predicted a two cent loss (statement). No longer a smartphone company, BlackBerry is investing in software and services. Read more. However, the company did miss on revenue, bringing […]
By Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell | TORONTO TORONTO BlackBerry Ltd (BB.TO)(BBRY.O) on Tuesday posted an adjusted profit that beat expectations even as revenue dropped sharply, as the software growth it is relying on failed to fully make up for its retreat from handsets and lost service fees. The Canadian smartphone pioneer has gone through a wrenching transition in recent years featuring huge writedowns and job cuts […]
DHAKA Bangladesh security forces on Tuesday arrested two members of an Islamist militant group blamed for a deadly attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July in which 22 people were killed, most of them foreigners. The July 1 attack in Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter was claimed by the Islamic State and was the worst militant attack in Bangladesh, which has been hit by a spate of killings […]
First preliminary investigation into the killing of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa and fellow inmate Raul Yap filed by the National Bureau of Investigation. TETCH TORRES-TUPAS Two of the police officers accused in the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa and fellow inmate Raul Yap were at a loss as to why they were included as respondents while another police officer was already AWOL prior to the […]
By Michelle Martin | BERLIN BERLIN Berlin police said on Tuesday that investigators assume the driver of a truck that ploughed into a crowd at a Berlin Christmas market, killing 12 people and injuring 48 others, did so intentionally in a suspected terrorist attack. The truck crashed into people gathered around wooden huts serving mulled wine and sausages at the foot of the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial church, […]
Photo Jordanian security forces in the town of Karak on Monday. Credit Ben Curtis/Associated Press KARAK, Jordan — Gunmen involved in a rare terrorist attack in Jordan on Sunday had a large cache of weapons, explosives and suicide vests in the apartment where they had been living, the country’s interior minister said on Monday. The discovery of the cache suggested that the men were preparing for multiple […]
Although there are no seasons in space, this cosmic vista invokes thoughts of a frosty winter landscape. It is, in fact, a region called NGC 6357 where radiation from hot, young stars is energizing the cooler gas in the cloud that surrounds them. Source link
NEW YORK A self-proclaimed white supremacist convicted on charges he planned to use a “death ray” to kill Muslims and President Barack Obama was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in prison, federal prosecutors in New York said. Glendon Scott Crawford, 52, a Navy veteran and a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was found guilty in August 2015 of conspiring with another man to build a […]
