MILAN/LONDON On the morning of July 29, former Italian Industry Minister Corrado Passera was traveling in a high-speed train toward the medieval city of Siena, racing to meet the directors of the world’s oldest bank to present them with a rescue plan. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy’s third-largest lender, was destined to be wound down within months unless it could raise billions of euros and pull […]
Over the past year, technology and ‘sharing economy’ start-ups have continued their disruption of traditional industries — from Uber and other ride hailers’ shake-up of the taxi market to Airbnb’s myriad alternatives to conventional hotel stays. But which will be the next businesses to be challenged by further digitisation and automation? FT correspondents have looked ahead five to 10 years to identify those industry sectors and companies […]
Fletcher will become the second long snapper in Alabama history to be awarded a full scholarship out of high school. The first, Cole Mazza, who will graduate this year, was also the No. 1-rated snapper when Coach Nick Saban offered him an Alabama scholarship in 2012. Continue reading the main story Put another way: Alabama’s focus on the littlest details of the game even stretches to the […]
26 December 2016 Dubai – The internet of things (IoT) is rapidly gaining momentum within the healthcare industry of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. According to IDC Health Insights, there has been a steady rise in IoT initiatives over recent years, and in some usage scenarios, IoT services are maturing rapidly toward mainstream deployment. The firm projects IoT spending by healthcare providers across the Middle East […]
By David Stanway | SHANGHAI SHANGHAI The heavily polluted northern Chinese province of Hebei said it will learn lessons from the smog that engulfed the region last week and step up its clean-up efforts, while the country’s Supreme Court vowed to crack down harder on polluters. Hebei, which surrounds Beijing and was home to seven of China’s 10 smoggiest cities last year, has been on the front […]
Dubai’s Shuaa Capital bought 14 percent of Bahrain’s Khaleeji Commercial Bank on Sunday for 9.6 million dinars ($25 million) and said it would use the stake to support the bank’s expansion. The Dubai-listed investment bank purchased the stake from Alimtiaz Investment Group for 0.065 dinar per share, acquiring 147.1 million shares in a special auction, the Bahraini bourse said. KHCB is an Islamic retail bank with assets […]
SEOUL Headed for a fourth straight annual profit decline, Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) is trimming its cost fat; scaling back on business class flights and annual family home trips for overseas employees, executives told Reuters. The South Korean automaker has been hit by its exposure to weak emerging markets, and a product line-up that features more sedans than sport utility vehicles, just as SUVs have become more popular […]
After all, Detroit had not won a playoff game since 1991 (and still has not) or a championship since 1957, when Bobby Layne, who lived on the same street as Stafford in Dallas and played for the same high school, was Detroit’s darling quarterback. So just between friends, was he really O.K. with becoming a Lion? “He said, ‘Absolutely,’” Aikman said in a telephone interview last week. […]
This year saw the release of the biggest leak of documents in history, when the Panama Papers were made public. Eleven million documents were leaked from one of the world’s most secretive companies, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. They revealed in detail how parts of the offshore industry work. We asked you what stories over the last 12 months you wanted to hear more about and in […]
Archaeologists are at the helm of new research using sophisticated computer technology to learn how past societies responded to climate change. Their work, which links ancient climate and archaeological data, could help modern communities identify new crops and other adaptive strategies when threatened by drought, extreme weather and other environmental challenges. (via WSJ)
In February, Anis Amri, a Tunisian refugee with a criminal past, was officially classified by the German authorities as a potential terrorist. For six months this year he was under near constant police surveillance. None of that helped. Amri went to ground and only resurfaced three days ago as the man investigators believe rammed a truck into a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 12 people. The […]
But with few spies in the city, American officials say assessing the enemy is difficult. “We’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the situation on the ground in Raqqa,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the air war commander, said in an interview from his headquarters in Qatar. “It’s improving. It’s still not at the level we’d like it to be.” Continue reading the main story […]
Jim Gomez, The Associated Press Published Sunday, December 25, 2016 9:12AM EST Last Updated Sunday, December 25, 2016 3:43PM EST MANILA, Philippines — A powerful typhoon slammed into the eastern Philippines on Christmas Day, spoiling the biggest holiday in Asia’s largest Catholic nation, where a governor offered roast pig to entice villagers to abandon family celebrations for emergency shelters. Typhoon Nock-Ten was packing maximum sustained winds of […]
Qatar’s Nebras Power said on Sunday its subsidiary Nebras Power Netherland BV had completed the acquisition of a 35.5 percent stake in Indonesia’s largest independent power producer, PT Paiton Energy. PT Paiton Energy owns a 2,045 MW thermal power plant. Nebras announced the acquisition in a bourse statement. In October, Nebras’ chief executive Khalid Jolo told Reuters the company planned to acquire the stake from France’s Engie […]
When US authorities started pursuing banks for their role in slicing, dicing and packaging the arcane products that sparked the financial crisis, they initially focused on domestic lenders. Now it is Europe’s banks that are in the crosshairs. Two days before Christmas, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have agreed to settle with the US Department of Justice over the alleged mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities in the run-up […]
ISTANBUL — When a Turkish police officer assassinated Andrey G. Karlov, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey, on Monday, it felt for a moment as if the whole world shook. The killing took place at a time of global uncertainty and reminded some observers of the start of World War I. The truth, however, is that despite shaky relations between Russia and Turkey in recent years, the assassination is […]
Photo Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on Sunday. Credit Pool photo by Dan Balilty JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel further escalated his criticism of the departing Obama administration on Sunday, publicly accusing it of having orchestrated the United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s settlement construction. It was the second consecutive day of rising […]
The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) and Dubai Municipality have signed an agreement to design and manufacture the first environmental nanometric satellite in the region. The satellite, DM SAT1, is a project of the Dubai Future Accelerators program and is designed to collect and analyze environmental data using space technology. DM SAT1 will provide data for monitoring sandstorms and other environment related activities, including aerosols and […]
“Once you start doing good things week in and week out,” said Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler, who had two interceptions and a fumble recovery, “you start to conquer teams.” Graphic Week 16 Playoff Trees: Explore Every N.F.L. Contender’s Path to the Postseason Exploring the playoff chances and potential seedings of every N.F.L. team that hasn’t been eliminated. OPEN Graphic Presumably, the Patriots will face better quarterbacks in […]
By Lucia Mutikani | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON New U.S. single-family home sales rose more than expected in November and consumer sentiment hovered near a 13-year high this month, strengthening the view that the economy will gain further momentum next year. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to cut taxes and increase infrastructure spending is expected to boost economic growth, though it already has sparked a surge in mortgage rates that […]
Three Société Générale executives have been arrested in Equatorial Guinea for allegedly breaking its banking secrecy laws, accused of leaking financial documents to be used against the country’s vice president during his upcoming corruption trial in Paris. The move is the latest in a tit-for-tat battle between the two countries after French prosecutors this year formally charged the vice president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang, of acquiring real estate, luxury […]
MOSCOW — A Russian military aircraft carrying 92 people, including members of a famed military choir bound for Syria to entertain Russian forces there, crashed into the Black Sea on Sunday after takeoff from the resort town of Sochi, the Russian authorities said. Most of the wreckage was found in the sea about one mile from shore, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that the plane carried […]
Photo Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, at a ceremony on Saturday marking the beginning of Hanukkah, described a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli construction in the West Bank as “delusional” and “absurd.” Credit Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images JERUSALEM — In a furious riposte a day after the United Nations Security Council’s adoption of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on […]
