By Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States issued about 40 percent fewer temporary visas in March to citizens of seven countries covered by President Donald Trump’s temporary travel bans than it did in an average month last year, according to a Reuters analysis of preliminary government data released on Thursday. At the same time, the data showed that the total of U.S. non-immigrant visas issued […]
Macedonia’s opposition leader was left bloodied and trapped in parliament on Thursday evening after masked men stormed the building and attacked MPs in a bid to halt steps towards forming a new government. Zoran Zaev, leader of the leftwing opposition SDSM party, was pictured bleeding from the head and standing behind supporters in the corner of a parliament conference room shortly after 8pm local time. An adviser […]
Egypt is still suffering from coordinated Palm Sunday bombings of two Christian churches that killed more than 40 people, nearly killed the head of the Coptic Church and prompted President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to declare a three-month state of emergency. Continue reading the main story Francis will lend his support to the roughly 250,000 Roman Catholics in Egypt and insist on the protection of minority rights, including […]
Worldwide smartphone shipments grew by 4.3 percent, according to research firm IDC. The figure is a few ticks above above the firm’s previous first-quarter forecast of 3.6-percent growth. Samsung regained the title of “world’s largest smartphone vendor” from Apple during the first quarter thanks to shipments of 79.2 million smartphones, IDC said. Samsung’s position was bolstered by deep discounts on the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, which […]
Columbia University researchers have developed a personalized algorithm that predicts the impact of particular foods on an individual’s blood sugar levels. The algorithm has been integrated into an app, Glucoracle, that will allow individuals with type 2 diabetes to keep a tighter rein on their glucose levels — the key to preventing or controlling the major complications of a disease that affects 8 percent of Americans. The […]
The frailty of the DNS system became all too evident last year, when DNS host Dyn was hit by a major Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that brought down large swaths of the internet. With the threat of DDoS attacks only expected to grow, experts urge organizations to build redundancy into their DNS services. GitHub, the online code sharing and development platform, is introducing a new […]
There’s rich material to be mined from the premise of The Circle, a new thriller set in the offices of a tech giant that’s like Google, Facebook, and Apple all rolled into one. Unfortunately, the film has neither the patience nor the insight to dig very deeply at all. Instead, it blows the whole concept to rubble and pats itself on the back for having the insight […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON New orders for U.S.-made capital goods rose less than expected in March, but a second straight monthly increase in shipments suggested business investment accelerated in the first quarter amid a recovering energy sector. While other data on Thursday showed a bigger-than-expected increase in first-time applications for unemployment benefits last week, the trend in claims remained consistent with tightening labor market conditions. […]
Would you like an always-ready smart speaker with a camera and a microphone in your bedroom? That’s what Amazon’s new Echo Look is all about. The original Amazon Echo was already always-listening so it wouldn’t miss any voice command, but adding a camera too is a whole different matter, especially since the new Echo Look is designed for the bedroom. Amazon Echo Look Purpose First things first: for […]
Growth in cable and internet customers and the box office strength of films, including the latest instalment in the Fifty Shades of Grey series, powered better than expected quarterly revenue and profit at Comcast. Net income at the largest US cable group, which owns the NBC TV networks and the Universal Pictures film studio, jumped 20 per cent to $2.6bn, or 53 cents a share, in the […]
Investigators discovered that the suspect, using a false identity, registered in December 2015 with German officials in Giessen, about 40 miles north of Frankfurt, as a Syrian refugee. It was not clear what steps officials took to verify his claim, given that he appeared to speak no Arabic, Ms. Niesen said. Continue reading the main story “Why that did not catch their attention, I am not able […]
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and later led to the creation of both PBS and NPR, also recognized the importance of archiving public broadcasting material in the United States. It stipulated that CPB should: …Establish and maintain, or contribute to, a library and archives of noncommercial educational and cultural radio and television programs and related materials and develop […]
The malware code contains references to Felis and Mus — Latin for ‘cat’ and ‘mouse’. Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto A sophisticated form of Trojan malware allows its highly-skilled creators to secretly take over an infected system — and it comes with self-updating capabilities that enable it to strengthen itself, fix bugs, or change what it looks like in order evade detection. Once it has infected a system, the […]
The UAE’s telecoms regulator has said that roaming charges incurred by UAE customers who travel to other Gulf countries have fallen by 18 percent this month. The Telecommunication Regularity Authority (TRA) has announced the implementation of price caps for intra-GCC roaming services by UAE-based mobile operators. As a result, average international roaming prices for UAE customers fell by 18 percent since April 1, state news agency WAM […]
Yoav Galant, the Israeli construction minister, also declined to confirm the strikes but told Channel 10, “Our enemies must know: We will know to use our power to protect our interests by ourselves.” Continue reading the main story Large explosions were heard miles from the airport that serves Damascus, the Syrian capital, and the glow of flames could be seen in the distance, according to residents in […]
This is the system stack that Project Halium is proposing. Image: Project Halium A group of developers hope to unite several Linux-based mobile distributions with a common Android base that will make it easier for them to run on Android hardware. The developers are aiming to create a better way for non-Android GNU/Linux distributions like Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Plasma Mobile and others to make progress in […]
Betting big on Amazon and selling the shares of traditional retailers has been a blockbuster trade for some time. Now, a small but growing number of hedge funds are wagering that the next leg of the woes afflicting bricks and mortar retailers in the US will unfold dramatically for those shopping mall owners who have largely so far been considered immune. The level of bets against some […]
Screenshot via YouTube Waymo is moving forward with plans to bring self-driving cars to US roads by opening up rides to the public. Earlier this week, Waymo, formerly known as Google’s self-driving car project, said that a handful of Phoenix, Arizona residents have already tested out the technology as part of the early rider program. Now, other residents can apply to join the project as part of […]
Twenty percent of the population will experience sexual violence during their lifetimes, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Covering those crimes requires nuanced reporting, respect for sexual assault survivors and concern for one’s own mental wellness. Here are three tips from Poynter’s News University on the proper way to approach stories about sexual violence: Allow for time Some sexual assault survivors may not be prepared to […]
Deutsche Bank must set its sights higher, its chief executive said on Thursday, after its core investment banking businesses were outpaced by US rivals in the first quarter of the year. In the three months to March, Germany’s biggest bank managed a net profit of €575m, more than double the €236m it posted in the same period a year earlier, and ahead of analysts’ expectations of €522m. […]
Saudi Arabia has imposed limits on the ownership of prepaid SIM cards for citizens and foreigners, restrictions that the regulator said aim to prevent the use of cards in carrying out militant attacks in the kingdom. Foreign residents, who make up more than a third of the population, are now limited to two prepaid SIM cards across all operators, according to two people familiar with the matter. […]
Ransomware incidents have surged 50 percent from a year ago, educational institutions are becoming a playground for cyber espionage and 68 percent of healthcare security threats are internal, according to Verizon’s 2017 Data Breach Incident Report (DBIR). The DBIR is based on data from 65 organizations, 42,068 incidents and 1,935 breaches in 84 countries. At a high level, Verizon’s DBIR isn’t that surprising. One of the recent […]
European companies have been slow to capitalise on this week’s market rally — a pause in issuing new bonds that bankers do not expect to last with borrowers set to return as the spring earnings season progresses. There was no investment grade euro bond issuance from non-financial corporates last week as debt issuers sat on the sidelines ahead of the first round of the French presidential election […]
A Malta magistrate is investigating explosive claims of money laundering and corruption that have put New Zealand in the middle of a global cash trail from the family of Azerbaijan president Ilham Aliyev. President Aliyev’s daughter, Leyla Aliyeva, is alleged to have channelled more than $1.5 million to senior figures of the Malta government, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s wife. These include alleged payments to Panama companies […]
