By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin | DUBAI DUBAI Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82, state media reported, a big blow to moderates and reformists deprived now of their most influential supporter in the Islamic establishment. “Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was taken to hospital after heart attack and more than an hour long efforts by doctors to revive him were not successful,” the […]
A year ago Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince and the power behind the throne, electrified the global energy industry by revealing plans to float the world’s largest oil producer. The ambitious proposal for an initial public offering in state-owned Saudi Aramco is the centrepiece of the hard-charging 31-year-old’s vision to overhaul an economy seen as too heavily dependent on natural resources. One year on […]
President-elect Donald Trump accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia engaged in cyberattacks aimed at disrupting the U.S. elections, his incoming chief of staff Reince Priebus said on Sunday, adding that “actions may be taken” in response. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Priebus said Trump “accepts the fact that in this particular case it was entities in Russia” that were behind the intrusions into the Democratic […]
The unveiled Fiat Chrysler Portal Concept car during the Fiat Chrysler press conference at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES2017) in Las Vegas The car of the future doesn’t just want to drive you. It wants to know you. The automotive technology showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show over the past week was in part about self-driving vehicles, but also about personalizing the driving experience. Artificial […]
Philippine police raided an Islamic centre in Manila and briefly detained scores of people as part of heightened security before a major Catholic festival, a spokeswoman said Sunday. Two men were arrested for illegal drugs during the raid on the Islamic Centre in the heart of Manila on Saturday, as authorities warned of possible attacks by Islamic militants when the Feast of the Black Nazarene reaches its […]
DUBAI// Three men attempted to steal Dh10 million from an armoured lorry after stabbing one of the security guards in the stomach. At 9pm on August 24 last year, the vehicle stopped near a bank in the Baniyas neighbourhood. Two of the Nigerian defendants waited until one of the guards was leaving the bank with the money then attacked him. “I headed to the bank while my […]
In October 1938, the one-hour adaptation of H G Wells’s The War of the Worlds, directed by Orson Welles, was broadcast on CBS Radio in the United States. A story of aliens invading rural New Jersey rendered as news broadcasts and authentic-sounding updates, it was a little too convincing. There are legends of panic in the streets, mass hysteria and heart attacks. That may have been the […]
JERUSALEM A truck driven by a Palestinian rammed into pedestrians on a popular promenade in Jerusalem on Sunday killing four people, according to Israeli police who called it a deliberate attack. “It is a terrorist attack, a ramming attack,” a police spokeswoman said on Israel Radio. Police said the dead, three women and one man, were all in their twenties. An Israeli bus driver who witnessed the […]
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. Even when it comes to brutality, little is left to the media imagination these days. The latest example of the decline in consensus about the acceptable involves the Facebook video of a mentally disabled Chicago man who was attacked and […]
How’s your weekend going? Redditor, Law School Graduate, and nimble navigator William Craddick (/u/PleadingtheYiff / brand new Twitter handle @williamcraddick) has made quite the name for himself on Reddit’s “The_Donald” forum. In just three short months, Craddick has managed to rack up over 153,000 “post karma” and 48k “comment karma,” which (if you’re not familiar) is impressive. The guy is an incredibly effective dot-connector, perhaps owing it to his legal training – often posting lengthy reads that […]
VATICAN CITY Pope Francis says he realises he may be the target of an attack but that he will continue to travel without bulletproof vehicles or heavy security because he wants to get close to people. Unlike his predecessors, who used bulletproof popemobiles or limousines, Francis uses ordinary cars on international trips, often in contrast to the leaders who greet him. “I am aware of the risks […]
BAGHDAD A car bomb blast killed at least 12 people and wounded 50 others at a vegetable market in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, police and medical sources said. The explosion hit the mainly Shi’ite district of Jamila, the sources said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. A series of attacks in the Iraqi capital and other cities in just over a week has […]
Russia has demanded Apple and Google to take down the app of LinkedIn, the professional social networking website that was blocked in the country last year, from local app stores. The move mirrors China’s request for Apple to remove apps by The New York Times from the country’s App Store. LinkedIn Taken Down From App Stores In Russia Smartphones users in Russia, whether they are using iOS or Android […]
On the heels of Czech President Milos Zeman’s warnings of a possible “super-Holocaust” carried out by Muslim terrorists, urging citizens to arm themselves, WaPo reports the country’s interior ministry is pushing a constitutional change that would let citizens use guns against terrorists if police are delayed or unable to make their way to the scene of an attack. Czech president Milos Zeman had previously proposed that economic […]
LAGOS A Nigerian militant group, which has claimed a wave of attacks on oil pipelines in the Niger Delta, said on Friday that it had asked its fighters to prepare to fight the “enemy” as authorities were not ready for dialogue. The Niger Delta Avengers had declared a ceasefire last year after staging major attacks on oil facilities crippling the OPEC member’s oil output in a fight […]
Russian President Vladimir Putin personally approved cyber attacks aimed at interfering with last year’s presidential election motivated by “a clear preference” for Donald Trump, according to a newly declassified report by the US intelligence community. “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election,” the report concluded. “Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate […]
Photo The Russian Olympic Committee headquarters and the Russian Athletics Federation office in Moscow. Credit Maxim Shipenkov/European Pressphoto Agency United States intelligence officials have determined that last year’s cyberattacks on the World Anti-Doping Agency originated with the Russian government, perpetrated in apparent retaliation for what President Vladimir V. Putin deemed to be an American-led effort to defame Russia for widespread doping. That conclusion was published Friday in […]
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will take aggressive action against cyber hacking in the early days of his government, Vice President-elect Mike Pence told reporters in New York on Friday. In a brief statement he delivered outside Trump Tower, Pence commented on a report by U.S. intelligence agencies that concluded Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian government to use hacking to try to help Trump win the […]
Five people have been killed after a gunman opened fire in the crowded baggage claim area of Fort Lauderdale airport in Florida on Friday. The county sheriff’s office said that five people were dead and eight had been injured in the incident at the baggage carousel, which began shortly before 1pm. “We still have people fighting for their lives in the hospital,” said Rick Scott, Florida’s governor. […]
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: 5 January 2017 Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of news and information for professional markets and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), will co-host the 11th MENA Regulatory Summit on February 5th & 6th in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Held under the patronage of the UAE Minister of Economy, H.E Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, the summit will debate key challenges that […]
WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump said he had a “constructive” meeting with members of U.S. intelligence agencies on Friday and plans to appoint a team to give him a plan to combat cyber attacks within 90 days of taking office on Jan. 20. “While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations […]
In recent months, in delivering lectures on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and holding audience discussions, I have asked hundreds of people across Israel a hypothetical question: Assuming that Sergeant Azaria had stuck to his original story and admitted that he knew that the man lying on the ground presented no danger to anyone, but he had nevertheless decided to put a bullet in his head, should he be […]
AMMAN/BEIRUT A senior Syrian rebel official denied a report on Friday that a ceasefire had been reached between rebels and government forces in the Wadi Barada area near Damascus, where bombardments have knocked out the capital’s main water source. The government and allied fighters from the Lebanese group Hezbollah launched an attack two weeks ago to take back Wadi Barada where a spring provides supplies to four […]
ABU DHABI // Exercise should be the first line of defence in the fight against depression after research published in the Middle East Journal of Positive Psychology hailed its benefits in releasing ‘feel good’ brain chemicals. Doctors advocate physical activity as the best remedy in many cases, but the simple solution is often overlooked in favour of medication that can be expensive and carry side effects. Restrictions […]
